A Warning From Portland: 1988
"Wouldn’t you know
We been hurt, been down before…
But if God got us, then we gon’ be alright."
- Kendrick Lamar, Alright
Kendrick Lamar’s Alright, written during the Ferguson uprising, became an anthem of protest and resilience because it made people feel their strength, their worth, their right to hope. Beyoncé’s Freedom carries a similar charge: “I’ma keep running ‘cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.” Bertolt Brecht said, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” And these songs don't just reflect the world, they do, in fact, shape it. They change what feels possible.
But the sad truth is that music can be wielded for harm as easily as for healing. To understand Portland, OR in the 1980s, we have to understand how art and culture, especially music, played a part in both the rise of hate and the resistance against it.
