Posted on 06/12/2018 11:56:48 AM PDT by rickmichaels
An “iconic feminist bookstore and community space” is closing in Portland, Oregon.
What could be the cause of this retailer’s failure? People don’t want to buy their books? Perhaps the rise of e-commerce?
Not in the slightest, obviously. The problem lies in white power, patriarchy and white cisgendered feminism.
That’s the takeaway from a statement posted last Monday announcing the closing of In Other Words, a volunteer-run bookstore made famous by the television show “Portlandia.” According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the store will be closing at the end of this month — and it’s all the fault of you blue-eyed devils.
“The current volunteers and board members stepped into and took over a space that was founded on white, cis feminism (read: white supremacy). It’s really difficult, actually, impossible, for us to disentangle from that foundational ideology,” the statement said.
“Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Capitalism cannot be reformed and ever serve the people. Abolition is the goal.”
Apparently, all of us white people are responsible for making In Other Words an unsafe space.
“This isn’t sustainable, especially emotionally, for the people who come here and work to provide this space as a resource to Portland Feminist communities,” the statement said.
Of course, this has nothing to do with people not wanting In Other Words’ wares. Nor does it have anything to do with the fact the store’s management decided to shirk the fame they garnered through “Portlandia,” severing ties with the show in 2016 because they “struggled with the spotlight of the hit show,” according to OPB.
Nor was it the fact that as the store’s “focus has shifted from indie bookstore to community space, it has welcomed groups as diverse as AA meetings to Rock Camp for Girls to anti-racist activists.” While this is a nice thing to do, it can’t actually be the focus of a business. A bookstore can indeed be an important community space, but its first goal is to sell books.
No, it’s all the perfidy of white folks. Their supremacy is the sole reason this bookstore is closing down.
There seems to be another non-profit which is interested in running the space, however — although its attitude seems to indicate it will run into the same problems the previous group did.
“We’re definitely keeping things open-ended, in the spirit of In Other Words,” said Anna Swanson, a representative of social justice group Critical Resistance.
OPB says she’s “keeping the space free or low cost and open to all-ages, with an eye to anti-capitalist, anti-racist, intersectional work.”
“It’s really important to us,” Swanson said, “if we can to keep the space alive in that sense, but also to take the opportunity to transition it out of the sort of intractable problems the volunteers and board are talking about.”
Given that the store seems to be definitely anti-capitalist (inasmuch as it can’t actually sell enough to stay in business), I think there’s one very intractable problem that Critical Resistance will still run into.
Good luck solving that one.
I’ve meet some folks from Portland and they say the show is accurate.
“One of the funniest part of the show is the bookstore. The one where their a/c broke is hilarious. In one episode Steve Buscemi makes the mistake of coming in to ask to use their restroom.”
definitely. it was the Buscemi episode that got be hooked on the show ... unfortunately, the last two seasons of the show were truly awful as they had fired all of their writers and brownstein and Armisen tried to write it themselves ...
Maybe it’s just the male chauvinist pig in me, but I would SO ask her if the carpet matched the drapes...
Hmmm, is this another way of saying: “We're America, Bitches!”? 8-)
I noticed that. I was wondering why the show was going down hill but I thought maybe it had just run it’s course. I don’t watch it that much anymore.
I think I see the problem here. They didn't speak English.
Proof that Leftists have no real sense of humor. Their idea of “humor” is Robert DeNiro’s recent outburst using the effenheimer, or Kathy Griffin holding an effigy of PDJT’s severed head.
Portland Demographics
80.5% white; 2.9% black; 0.9% American Indian or Alaska Native; 4.9% Asian, 0.3% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 4.1% some other race, 3.3% two or more races.
If abolishing capitalism and white dominance is the issue, then maybe they shouldn't open up in a city that is almost all-white.
Exactly what it feels like as you slide into the dustbin of history.
So the place is haunted or something.
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