I want to start by taking us back to the
Year 1988 in 1988 I looked like this in
1988 I was in second grade
growing up in Littleton Colorado in 1988
in the suburbs of Denver I could count
on one hand the number of black and
brown kids in my school and I’d still
have fingers left to pick my
second-grade nose with I don’t begrudge
my childhood at all and it was isolating
but in 1988 I was also growing up in
strange new worlds I was seeking out new
life and new civilizations and I was
boldly going where no one has gone
before
because in 1988 there was this and thank
God or think Gene Roddenberry for Star
Trek I needed this place I needed this
place to escape all the burdens and
limitations of Littleton Colorado race
class this was a place where I didn’t
have to pretend to be a Boy Scout to
cover up the fact that I was really a
chubby closeted gay black boy trying
desperately to fit in outer space was a
place where black folks were engineers
where they spoke Klingon where they were
sought out for their advice they were
valued they were seen and they had power
Whoopi Goldberg like myself was also a
Trekkie as she tells it she was nine
years old in 1966 when she first saw
Nichelle Nichols play lieutenant Uhura
aboard the USS Enterprise come quick she
shouted there’s a black lady on TV and
this time she ain’t no maid as she tells
it it was right then and there that she
knew she could be anything she wanted to
be and when she got famous she begged to
be on Star Trek The Next Generation
Star Trek helped me see that
representation matters and I have come
to believe deeply that reflective
representation seeing yourself your
experience your people’s experience in
the places and positions that matter
most in this world it is critical to
meaningful civic engagement reflective
representation inspires the next
generation it gives kids a sense of the
possible a path to follow a more
inclusive future to envision it’s
turning on the TV during the Olympics
and seeing Simone Manuel take the gold
when black folks aren’t supposed to swim
or opening up the local paper and seeing
a local profile of our highest-ranking
latina judge Darlene Ortega reflective
representation also helps erase the
unconscious biases that we all have and
that fuel our everyday interactions as
neighbors and as co-workers we see black
men as deadbeat dads not because the
data suggested in fact black dads are
actually more involved with their kids
on a daily basis than white dads but we
see them as deadbeats because that’s how
we’re represented this effect is so
powerful that dispelling it is central
to the MTV campaign in their racial and
gender bias cleanses but the greatest
opportunity for reflective
representation comes when we apply it to
our very civic fabric our democracy we
are strongest when our elected
leadership reflects the full range of
talent and lived experience that I know
the Northwest has to offer but for too
long in Portland we have told ourselves
a lie a belief that we just trot out any
time it’s convenient
Portland is just so white it’s not true
but we tell ourselves this over and over
perhaps because we’re not living in the
same neighborhoods or attending the same
schools or stepping out of our social
circles long enough to see who Portland
really is
some of us are watching Portlandia while
the rest of us know who Portland really
is I say that because this is what the
average second grade classroom looks
like today in Portland and this data is
a little bit old so actually we can say
for certain that half the kids in our
schools today are not white and even
when you add in all of us adults
one out of three Portlanders is a person
of color one out of three and so when I
hear people say Portland so white what I
also hear is I don’t see a third of
y’all or a third of y’all don’t matter
or maybe a third of y’all have no power
and I guess when you put it like that
sort of true I say that because most of
Oregon’s elected officials are white and
by most I mean ninety-three percent and
we don’t have data on the school boards
and City Council’s but I’m pretty sure
if we did that number is even more out
of whack we do know that in Portland
there have been just two people of color
on our City Council ever this is not
reflective representation and I want to
pause to make a brief point when I talk
about a more reflective government I’m
talking about a more reflective
experience among our lawmakers that
being a person of color frankly often
means in this country but simply it’s
not about race it’s about the experience
of race if we are to improve our
unacceptable high school graduation
rates or fix our very broken criminal
justice system or make a more open and
accountable government we have to value
the lived experience of those that seek
to represent us as much as we value
their political experience I look most
recently to Baltimore where despite the
outcome Marilyn Mosby acted swiftly
against police violence swiftly where so
few district attorneys have this is in a
country where 95% of elected district
attorneys are white 85% of the
run unopposed and just 1% are women of
color 1% see Marilyn Mosby knows what
it’s like to both need the police and
fear the police and we need more elected
officials that understand that we need
more elected officials that know what
poverty feels like what the soft bigotry
of low expectations in the classroom
feels like what making your kids live
among mold and asbestos and lead for
fear of eviction feels like listen I
know we can do this I know we can meet
this vision of a more reflective
democracy this vision is what inspired a
group of us to start an organization we
call color pack which is recruiting and
training and supporting candidates of
color to win in elected office
throughout Oregon but it’s going to take
more than color pack to meet this vision
of a reflective democracy it’s going to
take all of us and what can we do well
we can give our time and our money to
candidates of color who are running not
just to represent their own communities
but to represent all of us we can gather
our friends our neighbors our co-workers
whatever have a conversation through the
Oregon humanities conversation project
white folks can join amazing
organizations like standing up for
racial justice but whatever it is we can
and we must speak up when we don’t see
the rainbow of people that is Portland
reflected in our work places on our City
Council on our school boards and we can
and we must speak out whenever any
racist act happens in this city and we
can and must do all of this beyond the
virtual walls of Facebook and the
impermanent sea of snapchat we can and
we must do this because at our core we
do believe that life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness belong not just to
some of us but to all of us that it is
everyone’s dream
and one we can achieve together to live
long and prosper
thank you
[Applause]
Year 1988 in 1988 I looked like this in
1988 I was in second grade
growing up in Littleton Colorado in 1988
in the suburbs of Denver I could count
on one hand the number of black and
brown kids in my school and I’d still
have fingers left to pick my
second-grade nose with I don’t begrudge
my childhood at all and it was isolating
but in 1988 I was also growing up in
strange new worlds I was seeking out new
life and new civilizations and I was
boldly going where no one has gone
before
because in 1988 there was this and thank
God or think Gene Roddenberry for Star
Trek I needed this place I needed this
place to escape all the burdens and
limitations of Littleton Colorado race
class this was a place where I didn’t
have to pretend to be a Boy Scout to
cover up the fact that I was really a
chubby closeted gay black boy trying
desperately to fit in outer space was a
place where black folks were engineers
where they spoke Klingon where they were
sought out for their advice they were
valued they were seen and they had power
Whoopi Goldberg like myself was also a
Trekkie as she tells it she was nine
years old in 1966 when she first saw
Nichelle Nichols play lieutenant Uhura
aboard the USS Enterprise come quick she
shouted there’s a black lady on TV and
this time she ain’t no maid as she tells
it it was right then and there that she
knew she could be anything she wanted to
be and when she got famous she begged to
be on Star Trek The Next Generation
Star Trek helped me see that
representation matters and I have come
to believe deeply that reflective
representation seeing yourself your
experience your people’s experience in
the places and positions that matter
most in this world it is critical to
meaningful civic engagement reflective
representation inspires the next
generation it gives kids a sense of the
possible a path to follow a more
inclusive future to envision it’s
turning on the TV during the Olympics
and seeing Simone Manuel take the gold
when black folks aren’t supposed to swim
or opening up the local paper and seeing
a local profile of our highest-ranking
latina judge Darlene Ortega reflective
representation also helps erase the
unconscious biases that we all have and
that fuel our everyday interactions as
neighbors and as co-workers we see black
men as deadbeat dads not because the
data suggested in fact black dads are
actually more involved with their kids
on a daily basis than white dads but we
see them as deadbeats because that’s how
we’re represented this effect is so
powerful that dispelling it is central
to the MTV campaign in their racial and
gender bias cleanses but the greatest
opportunity for reflective
representation comes when we apply it to
our very civic fabric our democracy we
are strongest when our elected
leadership reflects the full range of
talent and lived experience that I know
the Northwest has to offer but for too
long in Portland we have told ourselves
a lie a belief that we just trot out any
time it’s convenient
Portland is just so white it’s not true
but we tell ourselves this over and over
perhaps because we’re not living in the
same neighborhoods or attending the same
schools or stepping out of our social
circles long enough to see who Portland
really is
some of us are watching Portlandia while
the rest of us know who Portland really
is I say that because this is what the
average second grade classroom looks
like today in Portland and this data is
a little bit old so actually we can say
for certain that half the kids in our
schools today are not white and even
when you add in all of us adults
one out of three Portlanders is a person
of color one out of three and so when I
hear people say Portland so white what I
also hear is I don’t see a third of
y’all or a third of y’all don’t matter
or maybe a third of y’all have no power
and I guess when you put it like that
sort of true I say that because most of
Oregon’s elected officials are white and
by most I mean ninety-three percent and
we don’t have data on the school boards
and City Council’s but I’m pretty sure
if we did that number is even more out
of whack we do know that in Portland
there have been just two people of color
on our City Council ever this is not
reflective representation and I want to
pause to make a brief point when I talk
about a more reflective government I’m
talking about a more reflective
experience among our lawmakers that
being a person of color frankly often
means in this country but simply it’s
not about race it’s about the experience
of race if we are to improve our
unacceptable high school graduation
rates or fix our very broken criminal
justice system or make a more open and
accountable government we have to value
the lived experience of those that seek
to represent us as much as we value
their political experience I look most
recently to Baltimore where despite the
outcome Marilyn Mosby acted swiftly
against police violence swiftly where so
few district attorneys have this is in a
country where 95% of elected district
attorneys are white 85% of the
run unopposed and just 1% are women of
color 1% see Marilyn Mosby knows what
it’s like to both need the police and
fear the police and we need more elected
officials that understand that we need
more elected officials that know what
poverty feels like what the soft bigotry
of low expectations in the classroom
feels like what making your kids live
among mold and asbestos and lead for
fear of eviction feels like listen I
know we can do this I know we can meet
this vision of a more reflective
democracy this vision is what inspired a
group of us to start an organization we
call color pack which is recruiting and
training and supporting candidates of
color to win in elected office
throughout Oregon but it’s going to take
more than color pack to meet this vision
of a reflective democracy it’s going to
take all of us and what can we do well
we can give our time and our money to
candidates of color who are running not
just to represent their own communities
but to represent all of us we can gather
our friends our neighbors our co-workers
whatever have a conversation through the
Oregon humanities conversation project
white folks can join amazing
organizations like standing up for
racial justice but whatever it is we can
and we must speak up when we don’t see
the rainbow of people that is Portland
reflected in our work places on our City
Council on our school boards and we can
and we must speak out whenever any
racist act happens in this city and we
can and must do all of this beyond the
virtual walls of Facebook and the
impermanent sea of snapchat we can and
we must do this because at our core we
do believe that life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness belong not just to
some of us but to all of us that it is
everyone’s dream
and one we can achieve together to live
long and prosper
thank you
[Applause]
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