How Everything is About Race, Pt 3
Yup, everything.
It’s time for our newest series over here at Banned Histories of Race in America: How Everything is About Race! Once a month we throw three darts at our office map of every possible thing and then explain the history of race behind those completely random things! Last time we covered self-care, bathing and MSG. Before that was the Oklahoma panhandle, “marijuana” and paramedics. You get the idea. Anyway, this month the darts landed on…
Oregon
Yeah, the state of Oregon was created to be a white-only paradise! It was passing Black exclusion laws before it was even officially a territory. The first was in 1844, banning Black people from Oregon and punishing them with 39 lashes every six months until they left. The law was later amended to replace lashing with “forced labor”. Get it? *winks in slavery*
The next one was in 1849, stating, “it shall not be lawful for any negro or mulatto to enter into, or reside within the limits of this Territory.” No mulattos?!
The third Black exclusion law was in 1857 and even made it into Oregon’s Bill of Rights! Black people continued to be banned from the territory and also specifically kept from owning property and writing contracts. In 1859 Oregon officially became a state and joined the Union as the only “free state” with a Black exclusion law. An exclusion clause stayed in the state’s constitution until 1926.
Nirvana (the band)
I know what you’re gonna say. Was Nirvana “about” race? What does that even mean? I dunno, but when it comes to art, the question here is whether or not the art could exist without Black people. As with American music as a whole, of course none of it could, but Nirvana in particular? Oh, absolutely not!
Kurt Cobain used to be a roadie for the band Bam Bam, fronted by a Black woman named Tina Bell, who is a widely regarded as the godmother of grunge and a founder of the genre. So, there’s all of that. Also, Nirvana covered Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” and “Ain’t it A Shame?” (Nirvana covers here and here). And while covering songs can be about the coverer’s identity as much as the coveree’s, this interview with Dave Grohl admitting to wholesale copying—or as Dave himself puts it “ripping off”—Black drummers Charlie Wilson and Tony Thompson pretty much spells it out.
American Sign Language (ASL)
Did you know a main influence of ASL is Indigenous hand talk? It’s true and here’s a nice little video with a history we all should know!
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/oregon-exclusion-law-1849/