Support for Community in the Face of Hate

Every so often, NAACP and organizations like ours receive threatening, white supremacist paraphernalia in the mail. This week, our branch received a series of disturbing racist printouts  and stickers that reminds us of how deeply racism runs close to home.

Hate often arrives looking careless, desperate, and poorly made. Beneath the tired language and crude presentation is something even smaller: a worldview rooted in ignorance, fear, and weakness. Over time, the intimidation such acts attempt to create gives way to a different emotion — unexpected pity for people who have willingly surrendered nearly all of their humanity to fear.

The only reason we prefer to address this issue publicly, as we have no desire to give groups like this attention, is to remind our community of Oregon’s racist roots, how we can stay safe against violence together, and how our power grows with every poor attempt at stirring fear.

Oregon’s racist roots are extensively documented, and they began with the violent seizure and occupation of Indigenous land, as Native tribes were displaced through treaties, coercion, warfare, and settler expansion long before statehood. When Oregon entered the Union in 1859, it did so with a Black exclusion clause in its constitution, barring Black people from living, working, or owning property in the state. Chinese exclusion laws and anti-immigrant violence also shaped the region’s history. For decades, sundown practices, discriminatory housing, and racial covenants limited where families could live and build wealth. 

That history directly connects to present-day hate activity, domestic extremism, and organized bias incidents. The Oregon Secretary of State has acknowledged the threat posed by political violence and anti-democratic extremism, while civil rights monitors continue to track white nationalist organizing in the Pacific Northwest. According to an Oregon Secretary of State report released on March 30, 2022 titled “Oregon Can Do More to Mitigate the Alarming Risk of Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremist Attacks,” Oregon has the highest rate of domestic extremism of any state in the U.S. The presence of domestic terrorism in Oregon is also clearly outlined in a letter written in August 2021 to the U.S. Department of Justice from Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, alongside Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1), stating: “We urge the Department [of Justice] to prioritize investigating the networks that exist across state lines to support and operationalize the violent intent of groups.”

While Oregon is seemingly at the forefront of these activities, the pattern exists across the United States. It’s not as simple as a seemingly constant expansion of membership in hate groups. Research has repeatedly shown that declining trust, economic instability, weakened public institutions, and educational inequity create openings for scapegoating and extremist recruitment. Hate preys on despair. It recruits where people are not able to thrive.

None of this excuses acts of racism and violence. However, these histories and facts do explain why the work of the NAACP and our partners is so critical in these times.

The NAACP exists to build the opposite of what hate requires. We create belonging where others sow division. We build civic power where others promote fear. We bring neighbors together across race, age, faith, and background to solve problems, protect rights, and strengthen democracy.

As our interim Executive Advisor, Deborah Lange, shared, “I was born and raised in the Eugene-Springfield community. I watched my grandmother, my family, and generations before me work for dignity and justice here. To still see this kind of hate is disheartening, but it also reminds me why our voice, our unity, and our work are still necessary.”

We honor those who carried this work before us, especially elders whose courage made room for future generations. We also recognize a harder truth: those drawn into hate movements are often losing their own humanity in the process. While we share a vision that racism will be uprooted, if not completely then in moments throughout our lifetimes, we also address underlying conditions in order to build a society where fewer people seek purpose through cruelty in the first place.

If you experience harassment, bias, or intimidation, you do not have to face it alone. Reach out to the Eugene-Springfield NAACP and use our website to report incidents if needed. We are here to support with legal connections, advocate, organize, and respond.

We will always be stronger together than we are apart.