Portland is in the “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic activity can cause earthquakes. So, the city council decided to require signs on certain buildings warning they are structurally unsound and in danger of collapsing during a quake.
This was too much for the local NAACP chapter, which apparently believes the commonsense warning signs are evidence of white supremacy.
A new city policy requiring public signs on brick buildings warning they might collapse in an earthquake is part of a long history of white supremacy aimed at forcing black people to move out of neighborhoods, the NAACP of Portland, Oregon, says.
The group on Thursday decried the policy affecting some 1,600 unreinforced masonry buildings that are on average 90 years old, many in areas with a predominantly black population, The Oregonian/OregonLive reports .
The policy “exacerbates a long history of systemic and structural betrayals of trust and policies of displacement, demolition, and dispossession predicated on classism, racism, and white supremacy,” the group said.
You would think that even poor black people would want to know that the building they want to move into could come down around their heads in an earthquake.
You would think. But I’ve been wrong before about race questions because, well, you know…white supremacy.
The NAACP said the policy will make it tougher for owners of brick buildings to get loans and will discourage investment. It says that means buildings will have to be sold, and that developers will demolish and redevelop, increasing the cost to live there and forcing current residents out.
Yes, yes, and yes. And your point? That these death traps should be left alone and the people in them just take their chances in an earthquake, right?
The warning signs are to go up on public buildings this month, and on most other buildings by March 1. The warning on them says: “This is an unreinforced masonry building. Unreinforced masonry buildings may be unsafe in the event of a major earthquake.”
These are people who wake up every single morning looking to be offended. They want to be offended. They need to be offended. Without being offended, their lives would be meaningless and empty.
Truly pathetic.
When you look to make a political point at the cost of human life, you are a wretched creature, indeed.
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