Tuesday’s festivities at Portland Community College’s “whiteness history month” incorporated a series called “Black Love“, which featured several breakout workshops with titles such as “Colorism”, “Black Founding Fathers”, and “Self Defense/Discussion”. Signs outside the rooms at the college read “Please respect that this workshop is for Black and African identified folks exploring their Blackness in a healthy and community based manor.”
At one point during the “self defense” workshop, they claimed that Donald Trump is racist, and a white woman raised her hand to point out that Trump has had several black people speak at his events. For this, they took her off to the side and told her she was being disrupting and had to leave. (Note the militant Black Panthers lined up on the right in the above pic, in uniform, complete with berets)
We decided to go back, with cameras rolling, as events cannot discriminate based on color, and events at public educational institutions are legally open to the public for participation.
What followed were several of the nearby participants being alarmed by the return of the evil Trump woman, and they placed a call to campus police. As campus police were en route, they noticed the camera and began to take issue with the recording of the events. Campus police arrived, and explained to the hosts, several of which were wearing “Black Love Is Black Power” shirts, that they could not eject anyone from the area who was not being disruptive, as it is a public area.
Several of the hosts made the case that just the presence of white people with a video camera was disruptive, and that the videos of the “whiteness month” events were “hurting people”.
One can only imagine how the reaction would be if it were white students holding a “white love is white power” event on campus, and saying the events were for whites only, and calling campus police on black folks who tried to attend. It would be international news.
PCC President Sylvia Kelley can be reached at 971 722 4667.
