Oh, give it a rest, will you? Sanctimony is so last century.
Portland? The whitest city on the West Coast. By historic intent. I guess Oklahoma was too diverse for him. (And it is significantly more diverse than Portland is.) Portland is great place … for the privileged.
Really? All this because a former* friend of mine wasn’t a fan of her home state? So you assume that she (and I, by implication) are privileged racists for having lived and worked in Portland. You have no idea what you are talking about, and I have lost a lot of respect for you for making that post. Also, if you have something you want to say to or about me, I would be grateful if you would say it directly, instead of relying on slimy innuendo.
*Former because we both lost touch after we both left town at different times.
“All this”? That is too harsh for you in The Pit?
FWIW my post is directed at, in order:
Portland.
The, as relayed how it sounds, smugness of your former friend of how inferior poor rural Oklahoma was.
And leastly but also, your hit on Beck’s pointing out the breadth of Native culture in Oklahoma as “sanctimonious” …
No I didn’t imply you or your friend were racist, per se. I don’t do innuendo. Though if you didn’t even notice how overwhelmingly white Portland was/is then definitely privileged enough to be blind to it. When we visited there it was so much so that we were uncomfortable … and we are very privileged white folk! Looking into it at the time, yeah it was by intent to make it so. Their state’s exclusion laws and the city’s historic redlining makes Chicago’s history of redlining (horrific) look woke. If you were living there, and didn’t notice how very homogeneous it was, then, no innuendo here, you were so privileged as to be blind to it.
Oh! ETA. It fits that your friend is also someone who finds reason to work the word “otiose” into conversation! 
I live in Portland and it is definitely white and privileged. Yet I find the outsiders most interested in pointing it out usually have the underlying point “…and if you lived in a place with more minorities, you’d realize all the problems they bring.”
I am so happy someone else noticed his holier-than-thou attitude. Thank you.
ETA..I don’t know if he’s white or privileged. Heck I don’t know where he’s from.
Don’t know much at all really except the continued snickering remarks at everything I post. For someone who often says they have put me on ignore, that takes effort.
Get a new hobby.
What my friend professed to dislike about Oklahoma were rednecks and poor educational opportunities. Ruralness per se was not mentioned, as far as I can remember. I’m not sure how that represents smugness, but you go ahead and read into it as much as you want.
The sanctimony was in the tone, not the content, but Og forbid anyone should say anything mean to that poster, in the pit or otherwise.
I lived there for the first 30 years of my life, and where I grew up there were plenty of non-white people. Also in places where I lived as an adult. But you know everything about Portland because you visited there once, and then looked up some stuff online. Of course, I left there over 45 years ago, so maybe all the minorities have left since then.
What? Not going to tell us about the Black friend you had?
45 years ago, less than 25 years ago, racist language was still in the state constitution. The state was founded to be whites only. Had explicit Exclusion Laws.
Minorities have left the inner city core … gentrification.
The irony amuses me: you, thin skinned whining that I was so “all this” and engaging in “slimy innuendo”, as you defend your ill placed “what were you thinking” snark at a simple benign comment that Oklahoma ain’t so bad, because she had a “tone” you don’t like.
Unsolicited and unwelcome advice that I will still give: if you are going to bawl at the mildest of criticism in the Pit of all places then you probably should not be one to try to beat down others policing their “tone.”
Well we now know they grew up in Portland and never noticed how homogeneous it is, thinks there were plenty of minorities there! Definitely very white cluelessly privileged.
It’s wonderful of you to white knight for Beck. I wonder if you see the irony of castigating someone for stereotyping a region by stereotyping a different place.
Yeah, watching that happen in real time is pretty mind-bending. Also, kind of appropriate for this thread, I guess.
Stating facts is not stereotyping.
And to be clear pretty sure I wouldn’t want to live in Oklahoma any more than I would Portland! FWIW I live in Chicago and I am very aware of our problems historical and current. I wouldn’t think anyone is calling me a racist by pointing out how segregated this metropolitan area is and how it got that way. I certainly wouldn’t be so idiotic as to say “what problems? There are no problems here. You don’t know what you are talking about. You calling me racist!”
Pretty sure that Beck has no need for any knights.
But see, you aren’t just pointing out that Portland is historically racist. You are using the fact to belittle Roderick_Femm, even though you have no idea how applicable it is to his particular case.
You’re a doctor; Black Americans are woefully underrepresented in this field. It would be unfair to say you have no right to speak on racial matters because your position as a doctor in a white field means your privilege invalidates anything you say.
We can have conversations about the impact of privilege to Portland or the medical field as a whole. But using it to attack an individual with no knowledge about their personal experience is dumb. Do better.
And also, please lose this as an argument. “I’m just stating facts” is the argument of racists everywhere. When you apply certain facts about a population to an individual, that’s the very definition of stereotyping.
Portland is quite nice to visit, and friends who lived there liked it. If i had a reason to leave my friends and family out here, it would be on my list. Chicago is also a place i would live. Every place has issues of one sort or another.
You done fucked up. It happens. Stop digging.
Both you and R_F can say things that are a bit annoying, as can I and almost everyone here. But you’re both valued members of this community.
See, he did it again.
Plenty of bad things have been said about me on this board
I can deal with that. Might even learn a better way.
But to keep on and on and on because he obviously does NOT like me is juvenile.
I appreciate @Mighty_Mouse’s efforts, and endorse their statement again, so a quote:
And maybe take a moment, get up, stretch, and all stop digging?
@puzzlegal’s take is best IMHO:
Our board isn’t going to fix historical prejudice and modern culture wars overnight. Or at least, not until that contractor delivers the Orbital Mind Control Lasers…
Nah. I don’t belittle them because they are from Portland. I didn’t and don’t pass judgement on them because they are Portland.
I belittle them because they are from Portland and react to my jibe on their friend looking down their nose at Oklahoma with such clueless denialism and over the top histrionic offense taken.
I belittle them because they were being an asshole.
I belittle them because that denialism is only possible out of extreme white privilege. Their behavior in this thread, not their city of origin, is what I belittle.
I have family in Portland. It is why we have visited there. Nice people. Definitely not racist. Living in a highly structurally and institutionally racist town does not make you individually of explicit racist beliefs.
Anyway. Since I’m clearly in the mood to rant and fight …
The “white knight” bit. That phrase is an otious (in the lazy sense) and odious thing. Very akin to how some use “woke” … trying to make people ashamed for standing up to others being bullying assholes rather than passive bystanders. I spent lots of energy as a parent trying to teach my kids to stand up to assholes and that passively standing by was akin to being an accessory to the act. It seems to me that it is those who want the freedom to be those assholes without anyone calling them out are prone to use the phrases “woke” and “white knight” to try to shut down others pointing out that call the asshole behaviors out.So fuck off with the white knight shit.
And here, what are you thinking?What does this have to do with anything RF is free to comment to speak on racial matters And when they demonstrate blindness to the homogeneity of their town that behavior reveals something about them Just like I was stupid enough to claim that there are no structural and institutional racist factors at play in medicine today which I wouldn’t say Because there are And their existence does not make me a racist. But if I did say that I don’t see any racism in medicine and someone pointed out to me that maybe that’s because I view it from a position of privilege, that would be fair.
Ok, you’re right. White knight accusations are a shitty attack anywhere, and I should be better than that. I apologize.
As for the rest of your response…you’re doing some revisionist history here. You jumped in with the Portland attack because RF said something about an old acquaintance who didn’t like Oklahoma, and you determined it must be because of Portland. It was a shitty attack by you.
And yes, Portland is a lot whiter than most cities, but there is still a significant minority population (35%). If you didn’t see minorities on your visits, that says more about you and the privilege of your family than it does about Portland. Don’t pull out the “tell us about your black friend” if someone mentions minorities.
This is exactly my take on it, too. @DSeid misinterpreted what was written and really overreacted. I don’t recall ever seeing him that angry.