A Letter to the People of Color in Portland

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Dear people of color in Portland, As I write this letter to you, I am sitting at a restaurant where I am the only person of color (POC). Yet again. I didn’t see another person of color on my walk to this restaurant. Nor did I see another person of color all day yesterday or today. This is not uncommon in inner Portland and in particular in inner Southeast Portland where I live. I am routinely the only person of color pretty much everywhere I go, including the grocery store, the book store, or the coffee shop. When I…

September 05, 2014

Bicycling’s Racist, Sexist and Classist Beginnings and How They Impact Bicycling Today

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet In today’s world, we like to hail the bicycle as the instrument of freedom for the underprivileged, the poor and the oppressed. But bicycling began in the 1880s and 90s in a context of racism, sexism and classism and for the most part was reflective of that context. But that’s long gone history, right? Actually no, bicycling’s not-so-egalitarian beginnings still cast a shadow in today’s world of bicycling and bicycling advocacy and this is something we need to look out for. Did you know that… – In the late nineteenth century, there was anxiety over whether “white, nonimmigrant…