Wow, okay folks. So this evening @wweek published a extremely brief piece "reporting" on a statement we sent specifically to press earlier today. They claim that in said statement, we are "distancing ourselves" from current protests in PDX specifically because of property damage.
This is a wildly inaccurate interpretation of a statement we sent out specifically in order to help remedy repeated inaccuracies and click-bait-reporting from mainstream journalists covering protest activity in Portland this last year! The irony.
From the beginning of the nationwide revolts against police murder this last summer, we have received a huge number of requests and emails from press asking us about our role in ongoing Portland protests. We have explained repeatedly that we are not planning them, or "in charge."
We again and again have redirected their requests to black organizers and black-led orgs in Portland. We have explained that we support the protests, but that our group has a specific focus, and we do our part for protesters by researching and countering fascist organizing.
It's been like, what, nearly eight months since anti-police-brutality protests began. And we are still getting emails and requests from press for comment and explanation regarding ongoing protests, because apparently googling actual black organizers in PDX is too hard.
Calling every protester "antifa" instead of asking literally anyone protesting how they identify, why they're protesting, what issues they want to see dealt with, etc. is lazy reporting. And if nobody will talk to you, it's time to examine why you're seen as untrustworthy.
Careful wording, actual research, and basic community engagement are absolutely necessary to cover civil unrest and resistance to oppression. We sent out a statement asking press to do their jobs with care rather than chasing inflammatory right-wing rhetoric from coast to coast.
If we had things to discuss with the local activist community we're a part of, we would have that discussion directly, in private, with members of said actual community. We sent a statement to press because we had something to say to press.
Our statement had nothing to do with any one protester's right to say that they are an anti-fascist. It had everything to do with reporters relying on far-right "antifa" fearmongering to excuse failure to directly engage with the people resisting violent repression day after day.
The Willamette Week may have been unaware that we gave a shorter version of this statement to nearly every reporter asking about the protests last year? After all, they haven't contacted us for comment on anti-fascist activity in Portland since *checks notes* 2017?
We really could get incredibly spicy about this, but we're going to stop ourselves here until there's something else specific we feel needs clarification. Anyone who has questions about our support of current protests is free to DM or email us literally any time.
We appreciate that @wweek has now included the full text of our statement at the end of their article. That said, they could have avoided getting Twitter-ratioed by simply absorbing and learning from the info we sent, like the other 50+ reporters who got that email hopefully did.
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