I have to respectfully disagree with the thrust of your argument, Karol. NCAAP address aside [and put aside it was], you give a breif, albeit engaging episode of supposed discrimination at a salon. In most instances I'd be appreciative for a rather cursory explanation of what occurs inside a salon (you mention a brazilian, for example); but here I believe your vague anecdote and the broad conclusions you take from it cheapens the discusion on "what it means to be black".

While your reading audience is obviously not privy to your expierence, the post asks us to accept the sequence of logic as it follows: A) Kenny has black clients, B) Kenny's clients are asked to "be more reserved", therefore C) the owners discriminate against Kenny's black clients. Luckily this syllogism coincides with the fact that Kenny has, for implied reasons, been forced to change from salon to salon due to his black clientele. I very much disliked connecting the dots so to speak in your post. Far from making me reflect on the racism and discrimination that still exists today and was il-addressed by GWB, your post simply lead me to choke on your last line, "I'm still considered less than most of you who read this blog". Who's stereotyping now?

Karol you're on the right track. Racism does still exist in America and even in Portland. Occupational licensing laws have their roots firmly planted in the post Civil War Black Codes, but no one wishes to deal with that issue, because occupational licensing laws protect the well to do.
Then there is the transportation business which does a poor job of connecting low income neighborhoods to job and services. A classic example is the lack of service between North Portland and the nearby Rivergate Industrial Park which might just provide many people in north Portland with some decent jobs.

I'm puzzled too....

You seem to imply that you (and your fellow black customers) are indeed more boisterous than other customers, and that this may indeed be a cultural difference.

If that is an accurate reading of what you are saying, is it really discrimination for a salon owner to worry about such behavior's affect on other customers?

I apologize if I am misreading you here. That is, you might not be acknowledging that black salon customers tend to be more disruptive.

But my larger point is this: there are certainly different behavioral norms for different ethnic, racial and cultural groups. Is it really racism if a person shuns a behavior that is common to an ethnic group?

Is he snumming the behavior, or the group?

I agree with Drew. You say that your stylist has moved salons and therefore people are racist. My stylist has moved three times. That doesn't make her racist. I promise.

You say that you were trying to address Bush's appearance at the NAACP...but I don't quite think you got there.

Nice try though.

Hi all, I probabaly didn't get there. I should stop writing at 1130 at night.
1. Kenny's great and is now at a Salon on N. Killingsworth.

1. I do think that at the previous places he worked, the staff was uncomfortable with his clients. Did they turn the waiting room into a dance party? Doubt it. But, I think many times discrimination is based on perception, not actual action, ie. grabbing your handbag when a group of men of color walk by...something I'm guilty of. Under the watchful eye of some receptionists, I know the look of uncertainty on the face of someone who doesn't know if I'm going to steal something, speak ebonics, or cause a ruckus.

2. The tie into GW at the NAACP - while not smooth by any means - was him confirming my feelings about the subtle racism that still exists, though not as outward as it once was.

3. This is was pretty random post when I was feeling particulary bugged by the situation and admiring my great haircut...

Thanks for the patience and the comments.

I find it amazing that some people will deny what is right in front of the faces - but it happens every day.

For those that don't believe in racism, and live in Portland - I offer to you the following test -

Go to the Lloyd Center. Go stand in the food court area and wait. Look for the most affluent looking person of African descent you can see - pick someone over the age of 25. Then, stalk them for the next 20 minutes into various stores. About 50% of the time, you will then see a security person who just happens to be right behind your person of African descent.

I grew up in North Portland and went to Jefferson HS. I have seen in person severe racism here in Oregon. It hasn't gone away with the passage of time. I'm not saying that things haven't gotten better since December of 1969 when Jefferson HS was in the State football quarter finals in Medford - and had people lining the streets shouting racist crap at our school buses - Things have gotten better. But better doesn't mean that White Privilege doesn't exist, and fear of color doesn't exist. Both still exist.

And you can see it if you just look.

In fact, Michael Wilson provided an excellent example of how White Privilege works right here - right under our noses --

"But my larger point is this: there are certainly different behavioral norms for different ethnic, racial and cultural groups. Is it really racism if a person shuns a behavior that is common to an ethnic group?"

No, but it is White Privilege to think that the one norm should overrule the other.

All I’m taking away from yet another tired conversation about racism is what an effective tool the “race card” is for putting someone on the defensive in an argument. Unfortunately it only works on progressives who feel guilt-ridden about their ethnic heritage and buy nonsensical charges of “white privilege”.

Conservatives on the other hand have accepted racism as a fact of life and moved past having to defend themselves from the accusation. An important factor in the success of their agenda.

I think we need to be careful not to project racism into every scenario we encounter. I can see bunny rabbits in cloud formations, swans in star patterns, and the face of the man in the moon -- but that doesn't mean they are really there. It's easy to see the things we expect to see, even if they aren't there. Which isn't to suggest that racism doesn't exist. But it is possible that things which have the potential to appear racist on the surface and not always racist in fact.

I've had a hair stylist in Eugene who has worked at more than 4 different salons since I've known her. Now she owns her own. I've even recommended her to my friend Mary (yes, the same dear friend Mary of yours).

When Mary and I both lived in Los Angeles, I had a hair stylist who was gay and mostly had gay clients. During the time I knew him, he worked in at least 3 different salons, and for a time out of his own apartment. But I don't think it had anything to do with him or most of his clients being gay. All the salons were in West Hollywood.

I'm pretty certain that if you came down to Eugene, you and Mary could both get a bikini wax at the same place.

As far as I'm concerned, you're more than equal to anyone who reads or posts on this blog, and it really serves no purpose to suggest otherwise.

I am an African-American female, native Oregonian who has worked tirelessly over three decades to make this state as progressive as the illusion.

I applaud Karol for choosing 'hair tales' to share her perspective on racism. I found her story telling, one that didn't appear to be offered for affirmation or critique, but to enlarge our understanding of the facts of racism, based on her authentic experiences.

As a long-time advocate and activist for racial justice, which includes dismantling racism and promoting equity, I am interested in, but not surprised, at the almost knee-jerk necessity exhibited by too many of my white peers to interject, deny, attempt to justify, even debunk, aspects of racism that continue to permeate our society.

They are alive and well in Portland and Eugene, supposed bastions of progressiveness.

To my way of thinking, it isn't necessary for there to be believability evident to convince whites that racism exists. Those who jump to protest such claims have usually not walked the hundreds of years or miles in our shoes.

To my way of thinking, it isn't necessary to respond to, refute, or otherwise engage in attempts to explain ourselves and our thinking, that is informed by a critical and personal awareness of racism, for it to be a fact of life in America. It just is.

Those who would question our perceptions, honed by years and years of insults, slights, disrespectful slaps at our dignity from teachers and principals with low expectations, store owners, checkout clerks, gas station attendants who are 'confused' at which customer is next - when we were the only customer waiting for service; or waitresses, even fast food workers - who forget 'who's next,' the list is endless - apparently haven't experienced being perceived as someone you're not, when the only explanation is based entirely on your race or color.

So to the questioner, the jokester, the deniability commenter, the trickster, I challenge you to get a reality check and then get busy dismantling the sytem that continues to tilt toward and favor whiteness over everything else; that continues to unfairly target people of color, especially those who are African-American, and come join us for the hard work of creating a world that is more inclusive, safe and accessible to all, including me!

Yeah, I'm daring you to try on Karol's story for size, as a truth that doesn't require you to accept or deny it, but to serve as a lesson in subtle and overt racism. Then, tell your white friends, and any salon owners you know in downtown Portland, about Kenny and his customer base.

Why do we white folks always work harder to pick apart and deny examples like this of everyday racism and how it plays out in large and small ways in people's lives than we work at understanding what this says about how our community doesn't work for black Portlanders? It's more comfortable to define racsim as solely the province of the Klan, Neo-Nazis and skinheads, but that's only racism's most malign manifestation. Racism is also accepting white social mores as the only appropriate guide to public behavior and exiling people whose cultural upbringing varies from that.

WE seem to have a kneejerk insistence on denying the validity of black experience -- although how much more racist can you be than to be a white person telling a black person what is and is not racist?

Karol is not projecting or imagining why Kenny has moved from salon to salon. He told her that the salon owners explicitly objected to the customers he brought in - that they were unsettling to the other customers. Firing a hair stylist because his customers 'unsettle" the other customers is incredibly blatant, and yet folks are oblivious to the clear message that white salon customers didn't like being in a salon with black customers and used their privilege to get rid of those customers by getting rid of the stylist. They knew they had the privilege to do so and they asserted it deliberately. They weren't wearing hoods but they still got rid of the black people. While the black customers may have talked louder or somesuch, it's also highly likely that they were overly scrutinized. I know that more than once when I have been to lunch with black colleagues or friends that our table gets extraordinary attention from other customers -- and not because we are louder.

As to the idea that "Conservatives on the other hand have accepted racism as a fact of life and moved past having to defend themselves from the accusation. An important factor in the success of their agenda," I would submit that, indeed, racism is a fact of life, but that obliges us to struggle against it instead of shaking hands with it.

An anecdote about the “loud and black” concept….

Last night I took my 10-year-old daughter to swim at Grant Pool here in NE Portland, 6 blocks from my home of 14 years. Hey, 104 degrees F yesterday, swimming was the obvious thing to do, and my daughter and I swim about 4-5 days a week in summer. Last night a group of about two dozen 15-16 year olds was carrying on in a way one rarely sees at Grant Pool: (1) zinging balls around at high speed seemingly without regard for bystanders (one narrowly missed my head as I read on a lounge chair)—and ignoring requests from lifeguards to avoid this behavior. (2) Throwing or pushing each other into the pool—and ignoring requests from lifeguards to avoid this behavior. (3) Shouting obscenities—and ignoring….

This morning I described what had transpired to my spouse, whose first question was, were the kids African-American? I remarked that, yes, they were, that I had the sense that the lifeguards were intimidated by the sheer size of the unruly crowd, and that there was probably a racial aspect to the whole business. (I know of one African-American lifeguard at Grant Pool this summer, but she wasn’t on duty.) Were the lifeguards intimidated by the size of the group? Afraid of a racial confrontation? I don’t know.

My wife’s next question was whether any adults there with kids—such as myself—had asked the unruly kids to change their behavior. Well, no, I said, I hadn’t, and neither had any other adults as far as I know. My wife’s next comment was this: if the kids had been white and their behavior had been as I’d described, they would have had adults all over them to shape up; for adults to observe a bunch of black kids misbehaving and stand by was a sort of racist act of omission. I’ve been mulling these comments over all day and still don’t know what I think. What if there had been any black adults at the pool (there weren’t)? Would that have changed the dynamics?

Karol, I'm reminded of an African-American female friend who was raised much of her childhood in Europe among whites. When she returned to this country her Black schoolmates criticized her for "acting White". Would she be more accepted in the hifalutin salon because of her manner? If so, then I wonder if this is about class as well as race, although it's hard to separate the two. I do trust your instincts about race relations since you've had a lot of practice being Black and I've had none. I REALLY know nothing about bikini waxing. I'm also reminded of a friend who died last year, an elderly Black woman. She was one of a handful of people I have known, both Black and White, who seem to have truly transcended race (and class too, for that matter) and could relate to anyone and everyone just as persons and talk about race openly, frankly, and comfortably. What a wonderful quality. As far as Bush and NAACP, I'm just grateful that so many Black Americans have stuck with the Democrats, have been our moral compass at times, and are helping get us through these surreal Bush years. (Saw a bumpersticker today: "Is it 2009 yet?") I voted for John Conyers way back when he was starting out, and I feel real good about that and safer just knowing he's in the Congress fighting the BS. I don't care if he acts white or acts black, I'm just glad he's there, and I trust his instincts too.

"... African-American female friend who was raised much of her childhood in Europe among whites. (snip) Would she be more accepted in the hifalutin salon because of her manner? If so, then I wonder if this is about class as well as race, although it's hard to separate the two."

You did not say that the whites were of a different class (higher?) by I think that you implied it. (If not, then my bad).

Is that a fair assumption? Does "raised by Euro whites" mean raised in a different class? What do you mean by class? Do you mean wealth and money? If so, then what about Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy? Are they of the same class as your "Euro whites"? I do bet that they would have different manners. Do manners equal class?

Why do people who want to make excuses for white racist behavior always point to black racist behavior, ie., "I'm reminded of an African American female friend......"?

Two wrongs don't make a right. It is still two wrongs.

Portland is the whitest major city in the US.

Why do they call this blog BlueOregon, when they should call it WhiteOregon?

Karol: It's too hot for me to read through all these comments... but I must admit that you can't go to the same place I get waxed at because I'm too chicken for waxing. You wanna talk LOUD WOMEN? I'd scream so loud you could hear me all the way from Eugene. (Does that qualify as TMI - too much information - for Blue Oregon?)

That said, I had a talk with a girlfriend this weekend about racism, since LTEs down here frequently talk about how hard it is to be black in Eugene. Being from DC, I can't deny racism. I've had enough black friends that I know - as closely as a white middle-class woman can - that it's different to wake up black every day in America and walk down the street. Now, in DC, there was racism on both ends. White women dating black men frequently got comments from black women to the effect of "don't you take our men away." My friend this weekend argued it's not about race, it's about class. I agree to the extent that different classes of society have different degrees of experience with people of other races and therefore different comfort levels and amounts of empathy.

I'm not sure what the answer is except to keep trying to look beyond skin color and accept or reject people on "the content of their character," to quote a black American I'll never be as good as. White people have a lot to learn from people of all sorts of races. That's why I hate this b.s. immigration debate the R's having incited this year. We should all have the experience of being discriminated against at least once in our lifetimes so we can begin to understand.

Your hair, by the way, I'm sure is fabulous.

You know, when I go to the barber shop, I actually prefer to have everybody else carry on a nice loud conversation so I can just relax and enjoy it. So far nobody's started dancing to the radio when I'm in for a trim, but I'd love that. But I also know people who prefer to relax and enjoy hushed voices, soft music and the whisper of the scissors. They pay big bucks for hairdressing and use it as a chance to sit in peace.

How does a business cater to customers like that without being racist? Perhaps by, like Kenny's salon owners did, encouraging the presence of quiet people. Note that they didn't ask for white customers, just quiet people.

I don't see it as any more racist than a restaurant that tries to attract customers dressed for dinner (or a bar that tries to attract women willing to participate in wet t-shirt contests). They're selling an experience, and the rest of the clientele is part of the ambience.

"What do you mean by class? Do you mean wealth and money? If so, then what about Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy? Are they of the same class as your "Euro whites"?"

Rock himself said something I laughed at, but took seriously as well: "None of y'all white people here would trade places with me...and I'm RICH."