Fresh Eyes

By Eliza Eagar

In the past few months, I have become increasingly aware of the reality of the demographic makeup of Oregon in general - and Corvallis in particular. Prior to real research, my assumption had been one of diversity; Corvallis and Eugene both bill themselves as diverse college towns, the state is ostensibly leftist, Portland has a certain reputation. But the census data did not match this impression. Which initially shocked me! But I began to pay attention to the people I was seeing, and keeping track of how many nonwhite people were actually around me - and I found that it was a whole lot less than I had assumed. There can be two black women in a room of twenty white students and my brain’s base assessment is to call that a lot!This should not have been surprising, and cleanly follows from the state’s racist history. But as a white woman, I am finding that in order to function as an ally for women of color I need to be able to root out and address my own unthinking biases.