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Winter 2009 A Journey to Tolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Hate

Leanne Claire Serbulo Portland State University

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Citation Details Serbulo, Leanne, "Journey to tolerance : overcoming the politics of hate" (2009 Metroscape, Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University)

This Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. A Journey to Tolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Hate

by Leanne Serbulo

istory was made on Election Day 2008 lesbians. This was the first electoral victory for in the northern Willamette Valley. The the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance (OCA), a conserva- Hsmall town of Silverton catapulted into tive group that would sponsor a number of state national attention with its election of the first and local initiatives including many high-profile transgendered mayor. This January, Portland City anti-gay ballot measures. One month after the Commissioner Sam Adams will become the first passage of Measure 8, a record number of anti- openly gay mayor to lead a large city. Aside from abortion protesters were arrested for blockading the groundbreaking nature of these electoral vic- two Portland women’s health clinics. Although tories, what made these two races truly remark- the metroscape remained politically liberal during able was the lack of attention that each candidate’s the 1980s, it appeared as if extremism was begin- gender identity or sexual orientation received ning to gain ground. throughout the campaigns. No protests or angry words of condemnation plagued Stu Rasmus- Far-Right Extremists v. Conservatives sen until the national press picked up the story of the Silverton mayoral election. A few weeks During the 1980s, a significant number of ex- later, when four protesters assembled downtown, tremist organizations were launched in the state they were not local residents, but members of a of Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Kansas-based fundamentalist church who travel Far-right extremist politics differ greatly from around the country staging anti-gay rallies. Judg- mainstream conservatism, which believes in lim- ing by the results of these two elections, the ited government and individual rights. Extrem- metroscape’s reputation for tolerance is well de- ist groups want to create a complete political and served. social revolution in the United States. Although Twenty years ago, Portland made headlines for some of these groups work through the system, a different type of politics, the politics of hate. others prefer to use extra-legal tactics to advance In 1988, Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant their goals. and former Portland State University student, was While the extremist groups that were active in beaten to death by three neo-Nazi skinheads in Portland differed in the revolutionary visions they Southeast Portland. Repeated acts of skinhead vi- espoused, they shared similar values. Members olence would shake the city during the late 1980s of the extreme wing of the anti-abortion move- and early 1990s. Just a few weeks before the mur- ment and the leaders of the Oregon Citizens’ Al- der of Mulugeta Seraw, Oregonians passed Mea- liance both wanted to turn the United States into sure 8, a ballot initiative that made it illegal to pass a Christian theocratic state. On the other hand, state laws protecting the civil rights of gay and Neo-Nazi skinheads followed a hodgepodge of

Page 6 Metroscape racist and religious doctrines; some were Chris- jobs that disappeared were not going to return. tians, while others believed in a Germanic pagan- Oregon had to economically transform itself. The ism. Their goal was to turn the Pacific Northwest environmental movement played an active role in (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) into a white that transformation, as groups pushed for protec- homeland. Religious extremists and the racist tion of the state’s remaining old growth forests. right had different visions, but they both shared An economic gulf opened up between the lagging a common goal: reversing the civil rights gains of timber industry in the rural parts of the state and the 1960s and 1970s that were won by people of the recovering urban areas that soon translated Despite its color, women, and gays and lesbians. into a cultural divide, pitting loggers against pro- Portland, a city known for its progressive pol- tectionists. liberal veneer, itics, may not seem like the ideal haven for far- Portland was also influenced by the national or- Portland has right extremist organizations. However, despite ganizing drives of the religious right. Like many a long history its liberal veneer, Portland has a long history of other cities across the nation, Portland was home to racism and intolerance. The Ku Klux Klan was a an active pro-life protest movement. While many of racism and major force in Oregon politics during the 1920s. pro-lifers used peaceful tactics such as prayer vigils intolerance. Klan initiation ceremonies were held on Mt. Scott; and petitions, the national movement was begin- burning crosses could be seen for miles. It was no ning to rely more heavily on direct action, some- surprise that the Klan got such a strong foothold times violent direct action: preventing prospective in the state. The Oregon constitutional clause patients from obtaining abortions through clinic barring African-Americans from owning property blockades, sidewalk “counseling,” and even bomb was not overturned until 1926. Public accom- threats and arson. By the late 1980s, Portland was modations, such as restaurants, hotels, and movie home to one of the most radical anti-abortion theaters, were segregated in Portland up until the groups in the nation. Portland’s Advocates for 1950s. When the City Council passed a ban on Life, founded in 1986, had the dubious distinction segregation in public accommodations, Portland- of being the only pro-life organization to endorse ers responded by sponsoring and passing a local the murder of abortion doctors. initiative to repeal the ban. The state legislature Advocates for Life was the primary organizer eventually took up the issue and banned segrega- of most of the anti-abortion protests in Portland. tion in public accommodations in 1957. In 1990, eight of their members sat in jail for months for refusing to abide by a judge’s injunc- ulugeta Seraw’s murder took tion against clinic blockades. The “Lovejoy Eight” most of the city by surprise. catalyzed Portland’s pro-life movement. While MHowever, the national politi- they were imprisoned, clinic blockades grew in cal climate combined with regional eco- number, frequency, and intensity. Bomb threats, nomic turmoil created the ideal context death threats, and arson attempts became com- for the rise of extremism in Portland. monplace at Portland area women’s health clinics, Nationally, the right wing was lead- although these crimes were never attributed to Mulugeta Seraw ing a backlash against the civil rights Advocates for Life. When an abortion doctor was gains won during the 1960s. Affirma- murdered in Pensacola, Florida, Advocates for tive action policies were under fierce attack. On Life issued a pamphlet called "A Time to Kill," the grassroots level, the Christian conservative which attempted to justify the act. A Grants Pass movement was rapidly growing, attracting fol- resident, Shelly Shannon, who had participated lowers with their “family values” platform. The in Advocates for Life actions, was arrested in the anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, launched mid 1990s for trying to shoot a doctor in Kansas a national campaign of civil disobedience aimed at and for setting fire to six women’s health clinics. shutting down health clinics that offered abortion Advocates for Life drew national headlines when services. During this time, the Pacific Northwest they created and distributed wanted posters with was experiencing additional turmoil both cultural- the pictures and home addresses of Portland doc- ly and economically. In the early 1980s, the timber tors who performed abortions. industry collapsed. The leading timber produc- The anti-abortion movement wasn’t the only ex- ing state at that time, Oregon experienced double tremist group using violence to advance its goals. digit unemployment. The demise of the timber During the 1980s, white supremacist groups called industry was due in part to over-harvesting and for the establishment of an all-white “homeland” automation. This meant that many of the timber in the Pacific Northwest. Richard Butler, the

Metroscape Page 7 founder of the neo-Nazi Christian Identity move- Measure 8, the anti-gay and lesbian rights initia- ment, set-up a compound for his followers in his tive, was the first and would be the final statewide hometown of Hayden Lake, Idaho during the victory for the OCA. The OCA went on to push 1970s. The Hayden Lake compound served as a for more restrictive anti-gay legislation in Measure training ground for white supremacists organizers. 9, which voters rejected in 1992. The OCA had Butler’s Aryan Nation gatherings drew Ku Klux hoped to build upon their earlier Measure 8 vic- Klan members, neo-Nazi skinheads, and activists tory and their recent passage of a local anti-gay with Christian Patriot organizations. These as- measure in the city of Springfield. The Spring- sorted extremists were united by their racist ideol- field measure would eventually be declared un- ogies and their willingness to use violence and ter- constitutional. rorism to advance their goals. In the early 1980s, Anti-gay ballot measures soon became com- the Pacific Northwest was the site of a series of monplace across the nation. Despite the Chris- acts of domestic terrorism carried out by a white tian Coalition’s entrance into electoral politics na- supremacist group known as The Order. tionally, the OCA was a homegrown organization More common than underground cells like The that relied upon the statewide initiative process to Order were loosely organized neo-Nazi skinhead promote its goals. The Christian Coalition did not groups. During the 1980s, the skinhead move- even establish a presence in Oregon until 1992, ment exploded in cities like Portland, Seattle, and the peak year of OCA membership. San Francisco. The skinhead subculture origi- nated in England and was initially a multiracial Confronting the Politics of Hate in Portland phenomenon. Skinheads shaved their heads, dressed in combat boots and flight jackets, and In November of 1998, Portland’s gay and les- listened to ska or punk music. A sub-group of bian community was shocked by the passage of British skinheads became involved with neo-Nazi Measure 8. The measure had been trailing in the politics. When the fashion moved across the At- polls, and no one expected it to pass. Gay and lantic, young racists and neo-Nazis embraced the lesbian activists expressed their outrage by tak- look. For many skinheads, the look was just a cul- ing to the streets, blocking rush hour traffic on tural statement, but a significant group saw them- the Burnside Bridge. Within weeks, the gay and selves as the shock troops of the far-right political lesbian community organized a local chapter of movement. Organizers with neo-Nazi and other ACT-UP, a national group that used direct action extremist groups like American Front and WAR and confrontational tactics to draw attention to (White Aryan Resistance) recruited skinheads to the AIDS crisis. A series of militant demonstra- participate in targeted acts of violence against tions followed. The community’s initial shock people of color, immigrants, gays and lesbians, was channeled into a campaign of visibility and and anti-racist youth. In the mid 1980s, the Port- resistance. Prior to the passage of Measure 8, the land underground music scene was terrorized by community had always responded when the far- skinheads, who then began engaging in increas- right attacked, but they never initiated any actions ingly violent attacks against gays and blacks, punc- against the anti-gay activists without provocation. tuated by the murder of Mulugeta Seraw. A few months before the passage of Measure 8, Some members of extremist groups shied away extremists forced Tri-Met to remove public ser- from the violence the skinheads embraced. The vice ads sponsored by the Cascade AIDS project OCA, seemingly distant from mainstream atti- from buses and MAX trains. After the removal of tudes, worked through the electoral system to pro- the ads, the gay and lesbian community protested, mote its agenda. The OCA was founded in 1986 but to no avail. Once Measure 8 passed, gay and by former workers from fundamentalist preacher lesbian activists no longer waited for extremists to Joe Lutz’s Senatorial campaign. Although Lutz attack. Activists began targeting the local institu- failed to unseat Senator Bob Packwood in the tions that sponsored anti-gay proposals. In 1991, primary, he nevertheless gained a substantial por- members of ACT-UP and its spin-off group, tion of Republican votes. The OCA built upon Queer Nation, staged a silent protest during Sun- the electoral base they established during the Lutz day services at the Portland Foursquare church campaign to launch a series of initiatives aimed where OCA held its meetings. Gay and lesbian at overturning civil rights and undercutting gov- activists disrupted OCA rallies and successfully ernment programs. The OCA won an early and campaigned to get anti-gay petitioners removed surprising victory when Measure 8 passed in 1988. from local Fred Meyers.

Page 8 Metroscape By Signs similar to this one across the street from the Kenton Theater in north Portland poppedthe up around the town during World War II.time OrHi the CN OCA 0034 put Measure 9 on the ballot, the gay and lesbian community was organized and ready to respond. Measure 8 demonstrated that gays and lesbians could no longer assume that Portland was any more hospitable or tolerant than other parts of the nation. The Measure 9 cam- paign was hard fought. The “No on 9” campaign officesand werethe Earth broken Liberation into, and Front. mailing The Hate group activity is largely driven by listsleft were wing stolen. groups Gay-friendly tend to hate churches institu- white working class males. They are weretions vandalized. like governments Despite andthese corpora- acts of looking for scapegoats [such as]… intimidation,tions, while the the “No right onhates 9” individualscampaign immigrants, a black president. When carriedwho on.aren’t The like defeatthem. ofThere Measure is some 9 George Bush makes mistakes, it’s be- overlap between these groups, for cause he’s stupid, not because he’s instance on the war in Iraq, but the white. When Obama does some- right believes it it’s a war to defend Is- thing these people don’t like, it [will] rael and a global cabal of Jews. Right be because he’s black. wing hate groups sometimes support Randy Blazak Palestinian terror groups because If the economy improves it’ll be harder they are united by anti-Semitism. And for these groups to get an audience. Connoisseur of Hate both are compelled by their sense of Then the possibility of violence goes moral duty. up; they feel the mainstream doesn’t get it—Timothy McVeigh is a good ex- Professor Randy Blazak of the Portland Has the worldwide web empowered ample of how that works. State University Sociology Department these people? is an expert on hate groups nationally A big trend is toward what is known and in the Pacific Northwest and es- Sure. Now there is a constant Klan as “leaderless resistance.” The web pecially youth in hate groups and hate rally on the web, whereas people allows larger, amorphous groups with groups in prison. He is the author of used to be reticent about physically no structure to flourish. They’re hard- a soon-to-be released book entitled attending a rally. There is support for er to defeat because you can’t target Hate Offenders. Metroscape® asked the formation of a Northwest Aryan the leadership. McVeigh and Terry him to expand on some of the issues Homeland that is discussed online. Nichols were a group of two. The raised in Dr. Serbulo's article. Dr. There is a constitution for it, a flag, American National Socialist Workers Blazak’s responses have been edited a name… it’s sometimes called Cas- Party is a local group made up of one for brevity and clarity. cadia. person. Another trend is the growth of prison gangs. The European Kin- This article focuses on hate groups of What is the future of hate in the re- dred is one in the Oregon prison sys- the right. Are there groups of the left? gion? tem. Oregon already has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the The FBI in defining terrorist groups When the economy is down, hate country. With the passage of Mea- lumps together groups like those as- group activity goes up. Some people sure 57, the numbers in hate groups sociated with Timothy McVeigh [the begin looking for people to blame for will grow and they’ll return to society Oklahoma City Bomber of 1995] their losses in the American Dream. with these racist views.

Metroscape Page 9 Volksfront, a neo-Nazi group, emerged in Portland in 1994. Courtesy of the Coalition for Human Dignity.

Page 10 Metroscape signaled the beginning of the end for the OCA. around the country flocked to the city. Tensions Although the organization continued to sponsor ran high and skirmishes broke out. Metzger was initiatives during the 1990s, it was no longer con- eventually found guilty in the trial that marked the sidered a potential force in Oregon politics. height of the war between the skinheads and anti- racists. After the verdict, many neo-Nazi groups Battling Boneheads and Bigots left the city. Hate crimes continued and occa- sional confrontations broke out, but Portland was The murder of Mulugeta Seraw took Portland no longer viewed as friendly territory for white by surprise, despite months of steadily escalat- supremacists. ing skinhead attacks throughout the city. Poli- ticians condemned the crime. The police, who Protecting a Women’s Right to Choose: had ignored the escalation, dedicated substantial Courts and the Clinics resources towards fighting skinhead violence. Portlanders rallied, marched, and formed the Met- After Advocates for Life began its 1988 civil dis- ropolitan Human Rights Commission to monitor obedience campaign, local women’s health care hate crimes in the city. The organization soon providers sought court injunctions to prevent split after MHRC refused to support an effort to protesters from blocking patient access to clinics. send Portlanders to march against the Aryan Na- However, the Lovejoy Eight demonstrated that tions gathering in Hayden Lake, Idaho. A new, anti-abortion protesters would not passively abide more activist group was formed. The Coalition by court orders. The Lovejoy Eight spent months for Human Dignity (CHD) not only wanted to in jail while their case moved through the courts, monitor hate groups, but also to actively organize catalyzing the pro-life movement. Eventually the to combat them. defendants were forced to pay fines, and subse- The CHD attracted young people from Port- quent rulings strengthened court injunctions. De- land’s punk rock scene who had witnessed skin- spite these legal victories, women’s clinics contin- head intimidation firsthand. In 1990, these young ued to be targeted by an increasingly emboldened punks became affiliated with a national organiza- pro-life movement. tion called Anti-Racist Action (ARA). Anti-Racist By 1989, local women’s health care centers were Action believed in using violence when necessary relying upon volunteer “clinic defenders” to escort to drive skinheads out of the community. ARA patients through the protests outside their doors. members collected intelligence on skinheads, or- Clinic defense ensured patient access, but it could ganized neighbors and co-workers to get them not protect clients or volunteers from verbal and evicted from their apartments or fired from their occasional physical attacks by pro-life protesters. jobs, spray-painted neo-Nazi’s homes, and fought Even with a dedicated team of clinic defenders, back when skinheads attacked. Anti-racist skin- the anti-abortion movement still had the upper Advocates heads, known as SHARPS (Skinheads Against hand. Because abortion rights are protected un- for Life ... Racial Prejudice), were especially eager to fight der the law, providers logically looked to the court produced their racist counterparts. SHARPS not only op- system to defend them. Although the courts con- posed the racist ideologies of skinheads, but they tinued to rule in the clinics’ favor, the anti-abor- a series of also wanted to reclaim the anti-racist origins of tion movement stayed one step ahead, issuing new wanted posters the skinhead movement. SHARPS were particu- challenges to abortion providers by shifting their larly hated by neo-Nazi skinheads and were often tactics. In the early 1990s, clinic blockades were ... of Portland targets of their violence. During the early 1990s, popular. After a federal injunction passed, pro-lif- area abortion skinheads and their newly organized opponents ers targeted the homes of abortion providers. By providers. waged war in the streets of Portland. In response, the mid-1990s, extremists within the movement the police listed both the SHARPS and skinheads began murdering doctors who performed abor- as gangs and prosecuted them equally. tion. Advocates for Life endorsed these actions In 1991, Morris Dees, a lawyer for the Southern and produced a series of wanted posters listing Poverty Law Center, filed a civil lawsuit against the names, home addresses and pictures of Port- Tom Metzger, the southern California-based land area abortion providers. Despite this escala- founder of White Aryan Resistance, a neo-Nazi tion of tactics, clinic administrators continued to skinhead group that some of the murderers of look for protection from the courts, filing a civil Mulugeta Seraw belonged to. The trial was held suit against Advocates for Life. Unlike the gay in Portland as skinheads and anti-racists from and lesbian movement or anti-racist efforts, pro-

Metroscape Page 11 choice activists remained on the defensive against of homophobic hate. Meanwhile, a highly capable the far-right. It was not until 1998, that a small electoral wing of the movement developed dur- group of feminists shocked pro-lifers by staging ing the “No on 9” campaign. Gays and lesbians a protest outside a church that sponsored anti- would go on to press for equal treatment and civil abortion activities. But this remained an isolated rights using a variety of tactics, from staging ral- incident, and the pro-life movement in Portland lies to lobbying state and local officials. The 2008 would continue to harangue abortion providers election results are a testament to the success of until it eventually defeated itself through its own the gay and lesbian movement’s approach. extremism. As Advocates for Life took progres- Even though the politics of tolerance dominate sively more radical stances, they began to lose the contemporary northern Willamette Valley, giv- popular support. After the publication of A Time en the right conditions, the politics of hate could Even though to Kill, the group tried to initiate a civil disobedi- once again flourish here. Until we address the in- the politics ence action a national Right to Life march. Few stitutional conditions that gave rise to extremism participants joined them. during the 1980s, Portland remains susceptible of tolerance to homegrown hate. Indeed, despite the electoral dominate the The End? gains of Stu Rasmussen and Sam Adams, a wom- an was recently assaulted in Washington County contemporary During the late 1980s and early 1990s, opponents because of her sexuality. Isolated incidents of northern used a variety of tactics to stem the growth of racism, such as the noose and effigy that were Willamette extremism in Portland. Through an organized, hung at George Fox University, surfaced during highly visible, and very militant response, the Obama’s presidential campaign. The lessons of Valley ... the OCA and skinhead groups were all but defeated the 1980s remain clear. The politics of hate re- politics of hate by 1992. Abortion rights activists used different main a legacy of intolerance that might one day tactics, seeking legal protection and working pri- shape our region again. M could once marily through the court system. Their response again flourish was not very costly to anti-abortion groups like Leanne Serbulo recently received a Ph.D. in urban studies here. Advocates for Life who had already demonstrated from Portland State University. This article is excerpted their willingness to flout the legal system. As a re- from a longer study of Pacific Northwest protests during sult, the anti-abortion movement lasted well into the 1990s. For a detailed list of sources and more in- the late 1990s. Its demise was due more to its sup- depth information and analysis see: “Whose Streets? Our port of increasingly extremist tactics rather than Streets! Urban Social Movements and the Transforma- any organized response by its opponents. tion of Everyday Life in Pacific Northwest Cities, 1990- Clearly, militancy was the key to defeating the 1999,” Ph.D. dissertation, Portland State University, politics of hate in Portland. However, militancy 2008 . comes with its own costs. The swift victories of groups like Anti-Racist Action led many activists to abandon the cause while it was still in its infan- cy. Although many individuals remained dedicat- ed to fighting all forms of racial oppression, the movement never fully matured into a lasting cam- paign that was capable of addressing the ongoing historical legacies of institutional racism in Port- land. A number of community groups continued to struggle against institutional racism in the city, but they were never able to attract the thousands who rallied against Tom Metzger. Ironically, it was this history of intolerance in the region that laid the foundation for the rise of extremists in the 1980s. In contrast to anti-racist efforts, the gay and lesbian movement adopted a big tent approach. The visibility and activism of groups like Queer Nation, ACT-UP, and, later, the Lesbian Avengers, played an important role in defeating the politics

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