The George Floyd Gravy Train is about to the leave the station. If you’re black and you haven’t figured out how to monetize Big Floyd’s passing, hurry.
Inconvenient truths are piling up.
A week ago, prosecutors in Minneapolis released more toxicology reports confirming that Floyd had enough Fentanyl in him to cause pulmonary edema – to drown his lungs. No wonder he couldn’t breathe. Perhaps it’s time to stop saying Floyd was murdered.
Then it turned out that Breonna Taylor, the poster girl for innocents killed by police, had a long and twisted relationship with a violent drug dealer. Even The New York Times, which can be counted on to provide sympathetic coverage of anything related to Black Lives Matter, recently offered surprising details into the relationship between Taylor and Jamarcus Glover.
Forget the early media accounts that had police busting into the wrong apartment. They got the right apartment; they didn’t know she had a different boyfriend with her. He opened fire because he thought Glover was breaking in looking for money he had given Taylor to keep for him. (What the story does not ask is whether Taylor used her job as an E.M.T. in a hospital to help Glover obtain prescription pills. It’s a valid question, given her willingness to help him.)
Next year at this time, will the media have quietly forgotten Jacob Blake, whose criminal history includes sexual assault? He could still win a fat settlement for being paralyzed when he fought with police. Should he come into some money, though, the story could shift to his victims suing him for restitution.
There’s still Ahmaud Arbery, a black man shot by two white men who thought he was a burglar as he jogged through the neighborhood. He is almost tainted, though, when he is unfairly lumped in with Floyd, Taylor and Blake.
Like Trayvon Martin, Arbery may have been collateral damage in our failure to take property crime seriously. Asking people to suck it up when their homes and businesses are broken into is an invitation for vigilante justice. It’s stunning how many BLM rioters and looters think insurance pays for everything. Besides, white people always have money — right?.
Thus, the George Floyd Gravy Train.
Here in Oregon, a group of black professionals, business owners and “nonprofit” organizations pushed for and received $62 million from the state in what is called the Oregon CARES Fund for Black Relief and Resiliency. Supposedly it is to help black Oregonians deal with the effects of COVID-19.
It’s part of the Reimagine Oregon Project. Check out the group’s list of demands at www.reimagineoregon.org.
Among their demands: Better housing (for blacks); better schools (for blacks); no more school expulsions; free public transportation; less punishment for black criminals; forgive rent for renters affected by COVID (since blacks tend to be renters); increase salaries for frontline workers in social service agencies that have a track record of consistently serving black families; stop all homeless sweeps and, of course defund, disarm and demilitarize police. Make officer disciplinary records public – but increase expungement of felons’ criminal histories and ban landlords from asking potential renters about criminal history.
News coverage of the Reimagine Oregon Project so far has been sterile and safe, but watch the YouTube press conference announcing it. Note the warm reception by Gov. Kate Brown. The governor, along with various county elected leaders – most of them ingratiating white women – concede to impossible promises.
While the white ladies in leadership smiled and acquiesced, commenters on YouTube gave Reimagine Oregon some critical thought.
“The police are the guns unarmed citizens depend on,” wrote one man.
In this reimagined Oregon, will white people have to accept more crime so blacks can have fewer encounters with police?
Nkenge Harmon Johnson, executive director of Portland’s Urban League, acted as overseer of Reimagine Oregon in the press conference. She became irritated when a reporter asked about crimes being committed by rioters.
“Pardon me if I refuse to discuss graffiti on the side of buildings. You’ll forgive me if I refuse to engage in discussions about plate glass windows…,” she said indignantly.
She wanted journalists to focus on “the fact that this is about lives and the right of people to be free. After I get free, I will discuss graffiti.”
Harmon Johnson is freer than many white people I know. She doesn’t see her own privilege. She frequently refers to her law degree from Howard University (the black Ivy League). She and the other educated blacks in the Reimagine Oregon group cater to their own status quo. Do they even notice white poverty? Probably not.
Some folks invest in the stock market. Harmon Johnson and her crowd are investing in white supremacy. By insisting that it exists, they can demand reparations.
Black activists in this state like to seize on an historical fact – that blacks were constitutionally excluded from Oregon – to build the myth that Oregon was founded as a “white utopia.” It ignores the reality of the mid-1800s. The country was fighting over slavery. By excluding blacks, Oregon avoided slavery.
That’s not to say the territory now called Oregon never had slaves. A bit of history that isn’t explored too deeply is that some Indian tribes on what is now Sauvie Island, were known to be slave holders. Presumably the slaves were from warring tribes and not black Africans, or we would never hear the end of it.
Some critics have questioned whether handing $62 million to black Oregonians because they’re black is constitutional. Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, asked why Latino and Native American groups, who also have been hit by COVID-19, were left out. The unspoken answer is those groups don’t have George Floyd to coat-tail on.
Harmon Johnson and her group have used the nightly protests in Portland over Floyd’s alleged murder as leverage in forcing legislators to act on black demands.
Look at some of her tweets after one man attending a pro-Trump caravan was killed this past weekend by a protester who self-identifies as antifa:
“Officials should focus on removing the injustice. Then protesters will go home, where they would rather be. And, more importantly, Black people will finally enjoy our full rights and responsibilities as American citizens, and Oregonians.”
“Better still, by focusing on the elimination of white supremacy supported by state and local tax dollars, we make Oregon better for ALL of us. It’s not magic. It’s better policy at work. Please don’t let politicians shame you into thinking otherwise.”
“Oregon politicians + appointed officials are rushing to condemn violence in vague terms. Some are hinting that protestors – who call upon government to respect and protect Black life – are the problem. They are wrong. Police and police violence is still the issue.”
“The violence that local police and sheriffs perpetrate against black people in #Portland and #Oregon is tolerated by the same elected and appointed officials who so ‘bravely’ step forward to wring their hands and blame a criminal POTUS for local ills.”
At this point almost 7,000 applicants have applied for a cut of the $62 million. Grants can reach up to $100,000. Two black nonprofit groups – The Contingent and The Black United Front – will handle the monetary distribution. An 11-member “Council of Trust,” which includes Harmon Johnson, will presumably serve as watchdog. Funding decisions will start this month.
My prediction: The Reimagine Oregon Project will enhance the bank accounts of some black Oregonians but will lead to no substantive change. The project was doomed from the first sentence of its manifesto:
“Dismantling systemic racism must happen in our lifetimes. Systemic racism is a virus that has plagued America from its very first days.”
A virus is something tangible; it actually exists and can be seen through a microscope. Systemic racism is a belief. As long as someone wants to believe in it, it will exist – especially as an excuse for every disappointment or failure in their life.
Don’t like your housing? Systemic racism. Flunked school? Systemic racism. Robbed someone who had something you didn’t have? Systemic racism. Overweight and out of shape? Systemic racism.
What makes Oregon’s tiny minority of black residents think they should reimagine the entire state? Perhaps a better name, albeit offensive, for this endeavor would be The Pickaninny Project.
Pickaninny is a pejorative that doesn’t rile nearly as much as the sacred n-word. But it speaks to a condition that has encouraged America’s black underclass to act like helpless pickaninnies in a country that has a black middle class, black millionaires, even black billionaires.
Both political parties – one in particular – like to play the role of a compassionate, white Massa, handing out promises and goodies to prove he’s always done right by his slaves.
One demand in the Reimagine Oregon Project particularly reflects this: A requirement that employers provide trauma leave. This would be utilized “when facing incidences of prejudice, racism or violence including secondary trauma from incidents like the murder of George Floyd, (and) establish a strong anti-retaliation policy that will presume retaliation if any disciplinary action is taken within 90 days of trauma leave being taken.”
It’s guaranteed there will be another George Floyd simply because there are drug addicts and violent criminals, of all skin colors, who hurt others. When the public calls police to handle them, violent offenders don’t have to cooperate – especially now that the cops are on the ropes.
Nowhere in Reimagine Oregon’s lengthy manifesto is there any suggestion that black Oregonians should be responsible or held accountable if this new Oregon they are reimagining turns out worse than the old one.
Enjoy the George Floyd Gravy Train while it lasts. It won’t.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
Related:
Nikole Hannah Jones’ White Lies
Thousands of Oregonians lost their jobs because of COVID-19. Many were unable to access unemployment benefits because of incompetence and a failure to upgrade the state’s computer system. I’m sure they will be comforted to know the state can quickly hand $62 million to black residents because of systemic racism.
I believe Harmon Johnson made noises about running for public office. She deserves to be watched closely anytime she is near the public trough.
Harmon Johnson lives in Salem and was going to run for the late Sen. Jackie Winters’ seat. Winters was black, a moderate Republican and popular with her constituency. For years she owned a barbecue restaurant where she seated and served many Salem residents before running for office.
I asked a friend of mine, who knows Harmon Johnson, why she decided not to run. My friend made clucking noises like a chicken.
Harmon Johnson probably would enjoy formulating policies to shove down other people’s throats. But public service? Kind of like serving people in a restaurant? I don’t know. Winters welcomed people of all skin colors to Jackie’s Ribs.
$62 mil is chump change. Bank of America is giving the BLM bunch $1 billion over some period of time. When they got criticized, they said it wasn’t going to be all at once.
The reparations scam. Whatever amount won’t ever be enough.
Have a safe Labor Day. Stay out of the streets.
https://youtu.be/F4E3BDkF80s
Nothing new, but good round up of coverage in the last 6 minutes.
It is about the narrative after all:
The local woman who has written the article linked below is as vital to our local truth as is Pamela, although each has her different approach:
https://reason.com/2020/09/04/youre-not-allowed-to-film-the-fight-for-control-over-who-reports-from-portland/#comments.
I’ve read the fellow linked to below for years. Indeed, it was this essay that brought me to Rommelman’s Reason piece:
He starts from farther out but ends up in Portland:
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2020/09/06/revolutionary-martyrs-n892989
Four years ago, Rommelmann joined with Portland fascists who shut down Saffron Colonial, a cafe that was denounced because of its (obviously) racist name. See Young Fascists Colonize Portland.
At the time, Rommelmann and her husband owned Ristretto Roasters. The business publicly cut ties with Saffron, saying it would not supply them with coffee. Saffron changed its name, but it never bounced back from the publicity. The cafe closed.
Three years later, Rommelmann got a taste of cancel culture herself when an employee of Ristretto Roasters turned on the company. The employee became disgruntled when she was not allowed to start a “Reparations Happy Hour,” where white customers would buy drinks for black patrons. Then Rommelmann and a colleague began a podcast called #MeNeither that was critical of some #MeToo tactics.
The employee took her outrage to Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury.
Ristretto Roasters quickly lost their largest wholesale account.
“People on social media hurried to declare that they would never again spend a penny at Ristretto and were rewarded with approval from like-minded peers,” Rommelmann wrote on Quillette.
She and her husband ended up closing their business here and moved to New York. Perhaps that experience now informs her reporting from Portland.
Well, thank you. I came to know of her through Micahel Totten, another local. I had no idea that she contributed to the pigsty that was the takedown of Saffron Colonial.
That bit of insanity was 4 years ago? I’d have to read her own chronicle of growth before forgiving her for that hate crime. That was one of the stupidist and cruelist works of destruction the facists have ever meted out locally.
Thanks, again.
At Willamette Week I just praised Andy Ngo for his exposure (or doxxing) of these BLM/Antifa terrorists.
No foul language or specifics, just a couple of sentences expressing regard for Ngo.
I banned. Seconds after I attempted to post the Ngo comment.
I’ve been banned at Willamette Week for more than a couple of years. I used to post under my real name until I ran afoul of Martin Cizmar, a former editor, who had the gall to tell me I needed to change my opinion.
Occasionally, I post under an assumed name. Mostly, though, I don’t waste my time contributing to Willamette Week’s comments.
As I think I have mentioned before, in 2017 Rose City Anifa attempted to dox me when a woman called my boss and alleged I had behaved badly at some weekend protests at Chapman and Lowensdale squares. There were four protests going on — one led by Joey Gibson, and the other three dominated by antifas opposed to Gibson’s very existence.
I went to all the protests to see if anyone was saying anything worthwhile (mostly nobody did). Four antifas — three women and a man — recognized me as having been at the Gibson gathering. I engaged them in conversation, which was a bad idea. They attempted to physically force me to leave.
A few days later, a woman called my boss and made the allegation of my bad behavior. My boss did not return her call. This woman, it turned out, worked as a volunteer attorney for the ACLU.
I love what Andy Ngo is doing. Giving the antifas a taste of their own fascist tactics.
A friend of mine was also banned at Willamette Week. I’m not sure what she had to agree to, but they lifted her ban. I wear their ban with honor. Gives me a good reason not to give them any money. I have given money to Ngo and Quillette.
https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/09/18/28857197/were-postponing-our-eyes-on-the-ground-panel-heres-why
This is mildly amusing. I wonder if the Portland movement of Black Lives Matter would have turned out differently if they had actually followed actual Black Lives instead of leading. Just a thought.
That is amusing. Thanks for sending it along. I don’t read The Portland Mercury as often as I used to. Tuck Woodstock will probably be disappointed that she’s not considered black. She (he? they?) does claim to being biracial, and she spent this past weekend contemplating the mysteries of her (his? their?) gender on Twitter. Do you have any idea how hard it is to hit on a transgender woman who thinks you’re straight when you’re actually transgender yourself?
But back to your observation about the Mercury’s misguided BLM event. At first I thought it could be hard for them to find local black independent journalists, since that brand of journalism pays a pittance. Most legitimate black journalists aren’t going to work for nothing. Then I remembered how many people I’ve seen at the protests who have cameras. That seems to be the new standard for determining who is a journalist.
This past summer, OPB’s “Think Out Loud” had their own story about independent journalists covering the protests, and they featured Woodstock and Sergio Olmos. I don’t remember anyone questioning the lack of black journalists. OPB, with its far larger staff and budget, is about as white as the Mercury. (Neither the Mercury nor OPB would probably consider including Andy Ngo in such a story.)
Your question as to what Portland’s BLM movement would look like had it been led by blacks is worth pondering. There has been more criticism along those lines in the national media. I’ve seen several videos online of black motorists and shopkeepers getting into arguments with white rioters, demanding to know how stalling traffic or shutting down businesses helps black lives.
With the distance of time, the question you raise will likely be explored by serious black journalists who won’t hesitate to take aim at white antifas.
I wrote my state Senator (Dembrow) and asked him how it was legal to hand out $62 million in CARES money based on the color of ones skin – especially, since blacks weren’t the only ones disproportionately impacted by covid-19. Also, what about the overwhelming portion of Oregonians who weren’t of color, but lived and poverty and were similarly impacted by covid-19.
He replied, “great question” and then strung a few words together with the ubiquitous “disproportionate” and “systemic racism” – and thank you for your time.
Annoyed, I wrote back and asked how much was the admin fee (rake) for the non profits administering this money? What was the criteria was for apportioning the money? Who decides on the criteria? Who many non-black citizens who would otherwise qualify for this support not receive any because of the color of their skin?
He didn’t respond.
Thank you for trying. Unfortunately, not too many Oregonians seem aware of this transfer of funds. What publicity Reimagine Oregon received in the media was largely positive. However, it could still face a legal challenge in the courts.
Plus, depending on who is elected Secretary of State, that office could audit how these public funds are actually being spent. The presumed front runner — Sen. Shemia Fagan — would seem to be unlikely to pursue an audit or special investigation. She received a $50,000 campaign donation from Gov. Kate Brown, who enthusiastically endorsed the Reimagine Oregon Project.
Given how this summer ended, Reimagine Oregon looks even more questionable. After months of news stories featuring black people suffering presumed injustices at the hands of police, the summer ended in a firestorm of white people — thousands of them — running for their lives, as Oregon wildfires descended on them.
In the latest edition of The Skanner, black activist and nonprofiteer Cameron Whitten talked about how the fires made it a challenge to keep up the momentum of helping blacks.
“(M)any of the areas that were affected by evacuation are not the highest concentration of Black people,” he said.
His Black Resilience Fund has received $1.7 million in various contributions, including a donation of $50,000 from Comcast.
Whitten does not believe blacks should be means-tested to receive assistance. I don’t know how many black organizations participating in Reimagine Oregon share that approach.
I hope it faces a legal challenge – I grew up poor, picked berries along with the migrant workers to help my family make ends meet.
Worked CETA program jobs scraping gum off the bottom of desks and mopping floors. Grades and athletics got me some grants to go to college; took out loans and did work study to make it through. Taught school, but then jumped ship to the business world – which was just bizarre, because I grew up in blue collar almost trailer trash type of scenario – it was really hard socio-culturally speaking – and, women and colored folks got the edge in hiring. So I reject, especially in this day and age, that the black population with racial preference money and advantages (affirmative action, money funneled to predominantly “of color schools,” scholarships, before/after school programs, etc – have an harder go of it than a poverty stricken white kid with his single mom working as a waitress living in an apartment in felony flats.
Senator Dembrow’s specific language:
“The rationale behind this is that people of color are disproportionately impacted by the COVID disease (infected at nearly four times the rate of White Oregonians). There are a number of reasons for that, according to the experts, most of them related to what’s called the “social determinants of health.” This program is an effort to provide short-term and long-term help in overcoming those disparities.
The way the program is set up, dollars will still go to those within that population who are most in need—or to non-profits on supporting low-income people of color. It’s not a situation where you get money just because you’re Black, irrespective of your financial situation.
Obviously, another factor here is the renewed focus on racial inequities as a result of the disparities in policing and use of force, and a renewed commitment to recognizing the legacies of racism and overcoming them where we can. Seeing the way that COVID is affecting different groups differently is part of that, as is focusing some of the dollars specifically to address this problem.”
Reparations money paid by folks who never owned slaves to people who never were slaves – great gig if you can get it – and Oregon easy pickings.