Comments

1
Love the photograph. Thanks for sharing it.
2
I guarantee that the music of Zimbabwe will inspire more people and live for far longer than the legacy of that awful racist Brit from the 19th C.
3
they come to the PNW because we're a bunch of naïve babies when it comes to racial hatred. remember, most people in Spokane thought Rachel Dolezal was black.

the racists can operate without drawing attention, for a while at least. it's why sovereign citizen dipshits are here too.

4
Whoa. Eye-opening piece in Politico. I had no idea.
5
Here's how much Mr StormRoof "admired" the Northwest Front:
Here I would also like to touch on the idea of a Norhtwest Front.I think this idea is beyond stupid. Why should I for example, give up the beauty and history of my state to go to the Norhthwest? To me the whole idea just parralells the concept of White people running to the suburbs. The whole idea is pathetic and just another way to run from the problem without facing it.
And when it comes to "beyond stupid", the guy knows whereof he speaks, no?
6
Seriously how long does anyone thing some PNW wanna-be, like seattleblahs would have lasted in the Selous Scouts? or even the Rhodesian Light Infantry?

I suspect strongly that the whole "Rhodesia" fantasies are little more than the mastabutory fantasies of weak impotent little men who dream about being "a man among men"

Not that they can't be dangerous, especially if in a group, or in a uniform.
7
@3:

They also came because, traditionally, the Pacific Northwest has been relatively physically isolated from the rest of the Continental United States, with a low population density, and few minorities, particularly in the years between the two World Wars, so they were free to practice their racial bigotry far from the prying eyes of the authorities (who were often just as complicit themselves) among like-minded compatriots.

Most of us from around here have heard the stories of the big Klan rallies held out in Issaquah back in the 1920's, or the lynchings that occurred on the Oregon coast in the early part of the last century; we grew up associating places like Hayden Lake, Idaho, and Metaline, Washington, as epicenters of the White Supremacy movement; we knew the names of The Aryan Nation and The Order, and their leaders Richard Butler, Dan Bauer, Robert Jay Matthews, David Lane, Richard Scutari, and others from the daily recounts of their trials in the local press. As a kid I frequently heard my neighbors, my grandparents, my step-parents constantly berating "those shiftless niggers"; joking about redlining African American famlies from neighborhoods in Portland in the mid-1960's; and experienced casual forms of racism down to the referencing of the common Brazil nut as "nigger toes". We LIVED surrounded by racism - not the furtive, hiding-in-the-shadows racism of those secretly ashamed of being called-out, but rather the blatant, in-your-face racism of those for whom it was so ingrained, they didn't even notice it.

Believe me, for myself, and for many other Pacific Northwest natives, there's no such thing as naivety when it comes to racism...
8
The influence of Shona music on the Northwest is huge. Not only with Dumi, but with Thomas Mapfumo down in Eugene. If you go to the folk life festival these days you can see lots of bands featuring mbiras and marimbas, even though it used to be all fiddles and banjos, back in the day. Not that there aren't fiddles and banjos (and folks who know how to play all those instruments).

As far as the crazy racists are concerned, they move to a place because they figure they can either hide out or gain sympathy. In the case of the Northwest, it is mostly the former. It is very easy to hide here. People tend to mind their own business and leave you alone (which makes it easier to stock pile weapons, if that's what you are into). The main reason this corner of the country is so white is because it sits at the far end of the country where slaves were held. We were never part of the great black diaspora -- there were jobs in Bremerton, but that was about it. When Boeing was hiring, so was General Motors, and a lot closer. I can't speak for Portland, but Seattle was far more integrated back in the day than most American cities. The redlining here simply wasn't as severe -- when it ended, integration occurred with a lot less animosity than in areas like Chicago. When forced busing was implemented here (without a court order, no less) it looked nothing like Boston.

We are fairly white now because the high tech world is very white. Well, it is Asian and white. As the number of Asian and white people increases, the percentage of black people decreases. If the software world was a lot more integrated, then Seattle would be as well.
9
Breaking news: there are bad people in this world!
10
@9 thanks for that incredibly insightful comment, jackass.
11
Related Crosscut item from yestiddy: http://crosscut.com/2015/07/hate-filled-…
12
@8 "...Seattle was far more integrated back in the day than most American cities..."

Quite simply, this was not and, still, is not the case:
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/segre…
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/segre…

As for Portland:
http://kingneighborhood.org/wp-content/u…
13
@12, thanks for that...so many people are unaware of Seattle's history of segregation.
14
Also, thanks Charles. Love the juxtaposition of the different faces of Zimbabwe / Rhodesia in the PNW.
16
If you don't think the PNW is racist, read the Seattle Times comments section.

18
Awwwww..I just love Charles Meudede! Why can't he be Zimbabwe's strong man instead of Robert Mugabe and soar over his beautiful, prosperous, multicultural African "homeland on the hill" dropping thumb drives from a bi-plane loaded with teeny tiny libraries full of the complete works of Frantz Fanon and all of his French post-Structuralist favorites?
19
this is a terrific piece. love the personal touches & ruminations on what they mean in greater contexts. thanks charles!
20
@12

Dont you DARE show racists how wrong they are with :GASP: empirical, non-circumstantial evidence!

Please wait...

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