Public domain image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King,_Jr_.svg
Patricia Kullberg hosts this Martin Luther King Day episode of the Old Mole, featuring the following segments:
Whites Would Not Like the Real MLK: Our Well-Read Red, Patricia Kullberg, reads excerpts from an article by Michael Harriot in which he argues that the real Martin Luther King Jr. made white people uncomfortable and intended to do so. And if MLK were not white-washed, White folks wouldn’t like him today. The article is titled “MLK is Revered Today but the Real King Would Make White People Uncomfortable” and was published in The Guardian on January 17, 2022. Michael Harriot is a journalist and the author of the book: Black AF History: the Un-Whitewashed Story of America.
Former Albina Residents Sue for Compensation: In December 2023, a team of civil rights lawyers, including Albies, Stark & Guerriero, LLC, Oregon Law Center and Legal Aid Services of Oregon brought a suit against the City of Portland, Emanuel Hospital, and Prosper Portland on behalf of Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 (EDPA2) and 27 Black survivors and descendants of families who lived, worked and thrived in the Central Albina neighborhood. The lawsuit seeks compensation for the destruction of the historic neighborhood, for the forced displacement and loss of intergenerational wealth following evictions and demolitions, ostensibly to make way for a hospital expansion. Desiree Hellegers speaks with Lisa Byrd of EDPA2 about the history of the neighborhood, the lawsuit, and the parallels to the violence and displacement of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The Fort Showalter Blues: Joe Birdsong is a man perpetually out of place. He’s at once too Black and not Black enough. His skin is too dark and his hair too kinky. But he is also teased for talking like a White man. He’s at once color blind and acutely aware of color in a way that penetrates to his very bones. He forms his friendships based not on race, but on a common love of music and literature. Still, he experiences his Blackness every moment of every day, sometimes in terrifying ways. Burdened with these contradictions, Joe Birdsong is having a tough time of it. The Fort Showalter Blues tells Joe’s story and how he navigates a world that has little love for a young, Black man, especially in the 1950’s. The semi-autobiographical novel is by beloved local author, poet and teacher Harold Johnson, who passed away on November 27 of last year at the age of 91. Our book mole Patricia Kullberg reviews his novel.
The Palestine Exception: The Palestine Exception, a Portland-based documentary film directed by PSU faculty Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth, will screen at Cinema 21 on Jan. 26. As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. The film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians. Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways. Denise Morris talks with co-director Jennifer Ruth about the film and responses so far at screenings on campuses across the US.
The screening at Cinema 21 will be followed by a panel and Q&A moderated by Marlene Eid, producer and psychology faculty member at Portland Community College, and panelists Stephanie Wahab, professor of social work at PSU, Hannah Alzgal, a PSU alum featured in the film, and the film directors.