e n d o f t h e u n i v e r s e .

“I think there’s this sense of ownership by white people here, as far as hip-hop is concerned, that’s a little unsettling,” says KBOO DJ Deena B., of the “Soundbox” on Saturday night, who moved to Portland about 12 years ago from Ohio. “It can make you really lonely for your culture again.”

Hip-hop and hip-hop culture have their champions in the city, but they can’t make up for the lack of a foundation for the culture, she says.

The city needs a club that does “hip-hop, period,” not just occasional shows. One night something conscious, the next night gangsta boogie, another night maybe some turntablism. A place to nurture the genre in all its forms.

“I think that if there were more black people here, I think the culture would be here,” she says. “That’s what’s missing. I think there’s the authenticity inside the culture that’s missing.” 

kind of an old article, but still relevant. deena b’s statement stood out to me the most from the whole piece.

having gone to one of the most class/race -polarized high schools in portland exposed a lot of this sense of entitlement and ownership of hood culture in northeast portland.

the reason my high school was so divided had to do with its location in northeast, where predominantly white upper middle class to middle class neighborhoods (irvington, laurelhurst, alberta; though the last one is contendable considering how much gentrification has altered its economic and age demographic) fed their kids in, but the next closest school in north/northeast was jefferson, a performing arts public magnet school in an area more populous with black families and businesses that has been failing for years, due to budget cuts. many families who were/are in the jeff district opted to send their kids to grant, my high school. the racial/economic polarization of the campus doesn’t just stand on its own, either- consider the privilege divide- jeff kids having to commute via bus farther to school every day where the irvington kids all had cars, for example.

it’s not to say that students were self-segregating, at least not directly. in fact, there seemed to be the greatest harmony over sports- players on the teams, and students in attendance at games were far more integrated than in the classrooms. it was a big sports school, too, and students have a lot of grant pride, which was kind of nice, even though in my own personal experience i didn’t have many friends and i hated sporting events the most.

however, the sense of ownership of black north/northeast culture became most apparent to me in my advanced placement classes. classes that were almost always entirely white, upper middle class kids. a place where, perhaps, white kids felt more comfortable appropriating black culture because there was no threat of authenticity to call them out. there was a heightened interest in these kids with the hyphy movement more so than portland’s own hip hop culture, which was also true across the racial/economic board at my school. but it always bothered me in a certain way that these white kids in my classes thought they were the shit with their lacoste polos with the popped collars, and their sidekicks and sedans, and how they would only ever buy weed from other white kids. and just this total sense of entitlement to claim identification with the NEP that they never really grew up with, and owned this privilege of pursuing a stronger formal education without experiencing the struggle that real NEP kids have gone through to even be at grant. it was like the rich kids had gone “slumming” at grant. at least until they graduated and got to go back to the world of white elitism at fancy northeastern schools.

i dunno where i am going with all this. i could write tomes about racial inequality in portland and the racial politics of the NEP. and about my own privileges i had growing up in portland (and disprivileges as a radical woman of color in so many all-white, centrist situations). i do think that people need to think about it more, and i do also agree that portland really needs a hip hop venue. i think that we need to maintain the economic viability of north/northeast neighborhoods and keep the little diversity we have closer to the center. i think that jefferson high school needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. i think ap classes need to strive for more integration. i think there needs to be more counseling/outreach towards people of color at my high school. i think the privileged classes need to recognize their own sense of entitlement and learn more about the systems of oppression to which they belong.

i also am hopeful though, that things may get better as the city gets bigger. i can only hope that the city’s racial and economic diversity will grow with it. the hip hop scene is getting more national credit these days, too, which is something else to be hopeful about.

i’m interested in this concept, especially since this particular panera is a block away from my house in portland. what is more, this location is by the hollywood transit center, an area that transients and homeless individuals, those who would benefit most from the program, frequent. we shall see if it happens, and if it succeeds is another question i suppose.