A blogger to be reckoned with (Jack Bog's Blog)

Former Columbian and Spokesman-Review editor Pamela Fitzsimmons has started a blog, and right out of the box, it's a humdinger. For example:

For Portlanders who want more racial and ethnic diversity, there is a solution: Move. That’s what I did. For two years, I lived in Oakland (and not the hills, either) where I discovered that the most racist and sexist people were young, black American males. For two years I lived in Los Angeles, and another 14 years in San Bernardino, a melting pot always on simmer.
If moving out of state is not an option for Portlanders upset about the Census 2010 statistics, how about trading places with one of those black families who were pushed out to the suburbs? They could live in your house, and you could live in theirs surrounded by "people of color."

Still not an option? Do something that is very Portland: Head to Powell’s, buy a book and read. Try Shelby Steele’s "White Guilt."

Have your bookmarking finger poised, and hope she keeps going.

Comments (14)

"For Portlanders who want more racial and ethnic diversity, there is a solution: "

There's another way, tell the white people on city council to leave town. Every little bit helps achieve racial equality.

Posted by Steve | May 19, 2011 6:00 PM

FRED REED did a very good piece on the subject of diversity.

Posted by al m | May 19, 2011 6:35 PM

Fred also writes: The drug industry is an instance of racial cooperation: Brown people grow drugs, black people sell them, and white people buy them.

Posted by dman | May 19, 2011 7:00 PM

Sounds like Pamela's snide little take on the non-diversity of Portland is an argument to keep the city white. How 1950's of her.

Posted by Pete S | May 19, 2011 7:28 PM

Sounds like your snide little take on Pamela means you never read Shelby Steele, did you? He'd likely disagree with you entirely. The book's at the library--check it out.

Oh, and: Shelby Steele's black.

Posted by the other white meat | May 19, 2011 7:44 PM

She's entitled to her opinions about Portland - it's a smug little town, to be sure - but she lost me with her praise of Shelby Steele, a truly vile Black racist. (Yes, Blacks can be just as racist as whites, as Ward Connelly, Dinesh D'Souza and Clarence Thomas also demonstrate.) Try reading Tim Wise or Manning Marable if you want a thoughtful reality-based treatment of contemporary racial issues.

Posted by Semi-Cynic | May 20, 2011 12:53 AM

Went to her blog, read a couple of her postings. Left a comment, fairly sure that I didn't insult her aside from questioning some of her assertions. Went back today and the comment is gone, no note to me (on my email, etc), no nothing. Feels like she wants to hear herself talk ... go for it, I won't be back.

Posted by Native Oregonian | May 20, 2011 4:25 AM

And yet you tolerate me?

8c)

Posted by Jack Bog | May 20, 2011 5:41 AM

So, opposing affirmative action = racism?

And Dinesh D'Souza isn't black.

Posted by Just curious | May 20, 2011 6:26 AM

I should have said people of color. No, it is not inherently racist to oppose affirmative action (even its most ardent defenders concede it has problems), but Steele, Connelly et al go much farther in absolving whites of all responsibility for the persistent economic and political disfranchisement of African Americans. In other words, they believe Blacks are unequal in present-day America simply because they are an inferior race. That ideology, no matter how politely expressed, is the very definition of racism.

Posted by Semi-Cynic | May 20, 2011 9:15 AM

Steele, Connelly et al go much farther in absolving whites of all responsibility for the persistent economic and political disfranchisement of African Americans.

You're entirely wrong about Steele, and this shows you didn't read the book, much less glance at the cover, where the title is: White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era.

In fact, Steele's main premise is exactly the opposite of what you say: that "white guilt" is a way that whites attempted to maintain moral authority and power after the civil rights era. The blog author's point is spot on--in Portland, there's a smug provincialism borne of this "white guilt" that, perversely, is a way of maintaining something that superficially looks like "equality", but is really anything but.

You're wrong about Connelly too, but it'd take a longer post to explain why.

What else you got?

Posted by the other white meat | May 20, 2011 9:47 AM

White Studies:

http://ridwanlaher.blogspot.com/

Posted by sheila | May 20, 2011 10:38 AM

Posted by Jack Bog

Well, yeah!!!! At least when you banish someone you tell them AND most of the time the posting that they posted remain (as a warning to the rest of us). The lady writes well, but she doesn't appear to want to have a conversation. You (Jack) have conversations.

Posted by Native Oregonian | May 20, 2011 11:08 AM

Hello, Native Oregonian.

I approved all of my comments, and I'm sorry if yours didn't go through. Whether it was negative or positive, I don't mind. I am an old-school newspaper journalist. I like to listen to people, even when I don't agree with them.

Posted by Pamela Fitzsimmons | May 20, 2011 5:03 PM

Search this site

About

Clippings

Archives

Links

E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Thursday, May 19, 2011

A blogger to be reckoned with

Comments (14)

Sponsors

In Vino Veritas

The Occasional Book

Road Work