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Originally Posted by cab
Let me get this right, the lack of minorities can be connected with Oregon's past racist history? Seems ironic considering those parts of the country with more diversity can directly tie that to the slave trade or slave labor.
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Oregon's state constitution as ratified in 1859 made it a "whites only" state to avoid the conflicts being found in other parts of the country at that time. So, yes, the lack of minorities can directly be linked to Oregon's past racist history. Many southern cities actually incredibly high (compared to the national rate) of minority citizens. Many people didn't want to or could not afford to travel hundreds or thousands of miles, tear up all their ties, etc, just to relocate to areas that didn't want them after the civil war.
That said, having grown up in Buffalo and lived in San Diego I can safely say that Portland is about as racially tolerant as I can imagine. I was asked to leave a club in Buffalo because they don't welcome the Irish. That's the kind of racism I thought died 70 years ago, but it's alive and well out there.
In San Diego it's more of a distrust of blacks and hatred of Hispanics, but it's still fairly palpable. Portland's a paradise of tolerance compared to the northeast or southwest.