Skip to main contentWHEELCHAIR JOKES FROM THE EDGE
I'd like to respond to Michelle Herrmann's letter [Letters, WW, Sept. 5, 2001] in which she criticizes Callahan's cartoon regarding women's basketball. Michelle, you don't get it. You imply that WW would not have printed the cartoon if it referred to "white basketball," "Asian basketball," etc. You obviously haven't been around Portland long enough to understand this newspaper, which most certainly would have run the cartoon. The kids who run Willamette Week continue to print drawings by this racist, misogynist idiot because it confirms their oh-so-hip, cool and ironic status as self-styled cultural avatars.
Last year saw a tempest regarding a Callahan cartoon featuring the Pope and the word "nigger." After several weeks, the paper ran a sneering "apology," implying that those of us objecting just didn't understand references to Patti Smith, despite our assertions to the contrary. Anyone offended is humorless and, as you predict, "overreacting."
It would be one thing if Callahan's cartoons were at all amusing. As an admitted progressive, I particularly love it when the left savagely lambastes itself, but I reluctantly admit to snickering at decidedly non-PC barbs. However, there is rarely anything to even smile at in these stupid cartoons. But WW will continue to provide space to this bitter old fool, thereby keeping itself on the cutting edge of viciousness.
It's a sorry state when the "alternative" weekly is far more conservative than the mainstream daily. Welcome to Portland, Michelle.
Jon Scop
North Atlantic Avenue
DERRY'S CHOICE
My dad once imparted a great piece of wisdom to me when I was but a small child, and so I would like to share this bit of great wisdom with the small children of Portland, Oregon. My dad said to me, "Son, I want to tell you something very important about people, and I don't want you to forget it. It doesn't matter what people look like, or what country they come from; there are only two types of people on this planet: There are assholes, and there are regular people. It is up to you to decide which category you fall into."
Now, I am not sure what kind of mentoring Mr. Derry Jackson had as a child, but it is all too clear that he was foolish enough to tell the whole world which decision he has made ["What Derry Jackson Started," WW, Sept. 5, 2001]. If Mr. Jackson is foolish enough to believe that all Jews have in mind the best interests of all other Jews, or that all Africans have in mind the best interests of all other Africans (or any other gross racial stereotype you can think of), then he is sadly mistaken.
Some people are good, and some people are bad. It is unfortunate that such simple and obvious truths need to be pointed out time and time again. As Martin Luther King reminded us, people ought to be judged by their substance and character.
Anthony Cameron
Northwest Flanders Street
RACY TALK
Thank you for the sharing of perspectives on racism and black/Jewish conflict in the Derry Jackson article ["What Derry Jackson Started," WW, Sept. 5, 2001]. The "round table" was a good format in which to address a painful and difficult issue to many of us. As a Jewish high-school teacher, I have experienced the impact of Portland's extreme whiteness in the form of antisemitism that was based almost entirely on ignorance, not hate. At the school where I taught the past two years (where, incidentally, there were very few black students), the word "Jew" was used more as a verb than a noun (meaning: to rip off, cheat, swindle, rob or con someone). When I heard kids say this, I reacted more with dismay or disappointment than righteous indignation.
I think that some of the anger that blacks harbor toward Jews comes from the righteous indignation that often accompanies the Jewish response to stereotyping about Jews, and a feeling that other groups can be criticized, mocked or slandered, but not Jews. However, I also think that Jews, separated from the Holocaust by only one generation, are justified in having a wary, nervous, indignant response.
Many Jews think that Jews and blacks should be natural allies, not enemies. After all, James Baker, the campaign advisor to the Bushes, one of the most powerful families in the nation, was quoted as telling George Sr.: "Fuck the Jews--they don't vote for us anyway."
Hopefully, Jews and blacks in Portland and elsewhere will come to find more common ground, in working to ease the pains caused by hate, ignorance and alienation that our society suffers from.
Seth R. Needler
Northeast 7th Avenue
PORTLAND IS NO ST. LOUIS
I liked the interview with the cross-section of folks regarding issues of race in Portland ["What Derry Jackson Started," WW, Sept. 5, 2001]. I would not be one to argue the validity of any of their input (with the exception of Ms. [Elise] Marshall; I think that she has some race issues of her own, and I don't care what color her boss is).
I really liked the last two pieces of input from David Walker and, especially, James Posey. I think Mr. Posey hit the nail on the head about black Americans having to rely upon a non-black media to get their message across to other black Americans or whoever else. As he said: "You're going to put this piece together, and you're going to put it together the way you want."
Being white and from St. Louis, I have seen much in the way of racial bigotry. I have been on the receiving end, and have seen it sent in the other direction. Living in Northeast Portland, I've never felt so safe in such a racially mixed community. Yes, I know that this was not always the case. And while Portland definitely has some racial issues to work out, it is comparatively one of the more racially harmonious places I have lived.
Rich Quinn
Northeast 9th Avenue
WWeek 2015