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“We wanted to symbolize that both sides are the oppressor,” said a 25-year-old protester who wished not to be identified, fearing retaliation from the government. “We have all experienced firsthand that police violence is police violence regardless of (which political party has power).… It makes no difference to the battered person.”
“For the whites, maybe they think it’s time to let the administration work, but for the blacks and the natives who have a noose around their neck, there is no time,” said the protester. “There is no justice, therefore there is no peace.”
Biden in his inaugural address Wednesday called for racial justice and unity in America, acknowledging that the nation is deeply divided by systemic racism and political forces. He denounced white supremacy and domestic terrorism and said the country must be healed.
“A call for racial justice, which has been brewing for nearly 400 years, moves us,” Biden said. “The dream of justice for all will no longer be postponed”.
Still, protesters dressed in black clothes and gas masks took to the streets Thursday in Portland, where social justice protests have been going on for months. The day before, protesters had vandalized the state Democratic Party headquarters and a U.S. Federal Immigration and Customs Building, or ICE, building, police said, and four people were charged with the events.
CNN witnessed more arrests Thursday evening, when most of the people participating in a protest at the ICE building were white. Indeed, the demographics of the Portland protest movement have often been criticized. Protesters say this shouldn’t be surprising, given that the city is 77% white, or maligned.
“I want to dispel the fact that white anarchists are co-opting this for their own benefit,” said the 25-year-old protester, who is white, and told CNN he had lived in Portland for most of his life. “There are blacks and natives who cannot have the same external action as whites.”
‘It doesn’t matter who is president’
The anger of some protesters is fueled by their assumption that the Biden administration will not respond to their main demands: to abolish the ICE and withdraw funding from the police, a concept that can range from reinvesting police resources in marginalized communities. to the total disbandment of the forces, they told CNN.
“There is a lot of anger and rage” over social inequalities among Americans, protester Alix Powell told CNN. And vandalism is how some people express their anger, she said.
“There is a lot of desperation in people my age and people I know who feel like no matter how you vote, whatever you do, they don’t listen,” she said Thursday. “A riot is the language of the unheard of.”
“It doesn’t matter who the president is: the lives of black people don’t matter, the lives of Arabs don’t matter, they don’t care about us. They just don’t.” another protester of Arab descent, who also wished to remain anonymous, told CNN on Thursday.
National black leaders look to the new president to unify the county and pass policies that tackle the disparities blacks face in housing, education, employment, health care and voter suppression , they said. They also want Biden to reverse the prejudice caused by President Donald Trump’s offensive rhetoric towards people of color and the refusal to tackle police brutality in the black community.
Among the first three executive orders signed by Biden on inauguration day, there was one intended to ensure racial equality and support underserved communities. Biden also assembled the most racially diverse presidential cabinet in U.S. history. His Department of Homeland Security suspended deportations for 100 days, with a few exceptions. And on Friday, he’s set to sign executive orders that expand assistance to low-income Americans.
Portland’s many months of protests
As in cities across the country, protests erupted in Portland late last spring over the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police and have expanded to include demands for police accountability and prosecution reform in the cases of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain and other black victims.
Events have ranged from peaceful Black Lives Matter marches to violent protests, including arson and vandalism. Some have become the target of hate groups seeking to antagonize those who come forward to defend the rights of marginalized communities.
Oregon’s complex racial tensions date back to the time of the country’s founding. As recently as 1854, the Oregon Constitution was amended with exclusionary language to prevent blacks from entering the state, according to a calendar released by officials in the city of Portland.
The Fourteenth Amendment, granting citizenship to blacks, was passed there in 1868, two years after its approval by Congress.
But it wasn’t until the 1950s that Oregon began to abolish the laws and rules that supported racial discrimination in housing, schools, and employment.
CNN’s Andy Rose, Dakin Andone and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.
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