There's been a contingency of people in America arguing for reparations for African Americans for over a century now. Social justice organizer Cameron Whitten of Portland, Oregon is reportedly taking it into his own hands.
On Monday Whitten officially launched an event called Reparations Happy Hour. Back attendees get $10 in cash as reparations, funded mostly by white donors.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Whitten said. “What I want to do is end the cycle of exploitation. For black, brown, indigenous people you face so many barriers, whether it’s tokenization or straight-up poverty.” He says he's gotten generous donations from both white and black people, some of whom signed up to be monthly donors.
“I felt so good. That was my best part of the night, just giving out that money,” he said. “I feel like Oprah—like, f*ck I’m Portland’s Oprah right now. And I want to give more than $10.”
Whitten is extremely active in Portland's local politics. In the past, he's held a 55-day hunger strike at city hall over the city’s housing crisis and later revealed open racism inside a city housing advocacy group. The white woman who led the housing group publicly resigned her position after Whitten exposed its practices.
Recently Whitten was fired from the city’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement, which he says was due to racism. He's reportedly planning to file a lawsuit against the city over the termination.
Source: rawstory.com
