On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the annual NAACP Freedom Fund dinner at the Oregon Convention Center with over 800 other attendees, including many local elected officials and candidates. Together, we were honored to be inspired by Keynote Speaker Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson. 

This event got me thinking: I’ve been running for City Council for 7 months now and I’ll bet I’ve been to over 50 different candidate forums so far. I’ve been asked almost every question under the sun about a wide range of policy areas including climate, housing and houselessness, safety, mental health, addiction, revitalizing downtown, transportation, and more. But I have rarely been asked in candidate forums about advancing racial equity and justice in our community. 

Perhaps this is not surprising: Of all Portland’s new geographic districts, District 4 has the smallest proportion of women and non-binary candidates and the smallest proportion of BIPOC-identifying candidates. Still, anti-racism and equity are two of the City of Portland’s six core values and I believe residents deserve to know how their prospective representatives plan to demonstrate and advance these values.

I am not one of D4’s BIPOC-identifying candidates, but I take the values of anti-racism and equity seriously. I grew up in a very white, very conservative town in the Central Valley of California, so I had to learn (through many mistakes) what it means to be an anti-racist, and I am still learning (sometimes still through mistakes). But my career working in over a dozen different countries with hundreds of people of color from all over the world was a great classroom. Most of the countries I worked in were in the midst of some kind of crisis or violent conflict. Every place was different, but one thing I saw driving violence and instability everywhere is persistent and systematic marginalization and exclusion. So I know that oppression is not only wrong, but dangerous. Racial equity is critical to the stability and safety of our society.

This is the foundational belief I brought with me to the City and my work to reduce gun violence, which wildly disproportionally impacts communities of color in Portland. I managed one of the most diverse teams in the City tasked with addressing one of the worst crises. As we navigated how to work together and deliver for our community in the midst of an emergency, we talked about what it meant to be violence prevention professionals. One of my colleagues told me once: “To me, being professional just means not offending white people.” When we talked about embracing difference on our team, we also grappled with The Myth of Bringing Your Full, Authentic Self to Work for many BIPOC employees. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to build a team culture not centered on whiteness and learning to recognize characteristics of white supremacy in the workplace. Did I do these things perfectly? Hell no. But I believe it’s better to be in the arena “marred by dust and sweat and blood” than standing on the sidelines with clean hands. And that as a community, we desperately need to build the skills of apology, listening, curiosity, and repair.

So feel free to ask me more about anti-racism and equity the next time you see me - at a forum or on the street. Feel free to challenge me and educate me. And please ask the same of other City Council candidates you’re considering voting for - you deserve to know what we think and how we will advance these values while in office.

Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson speaking at the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner

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