BuzzFeed: Oregon Reports More Hate Crimes Than Any Other State

Of the wave of hate crimes reported across the nation since the November presidential election, no state has reported (per capita) more threats than Oregon.

That’s according to a March 23 report by BuzzFeed News, which used information collected by a network of organizations tracking reported hate crimes in the U.S. between Nov. 8 and March 3. The report was written by BuzzFeed News reporters Albert Samaha, Mike Hayes, and Talal Ansari.

Led by nonprofit investigative journalism website ProPublica, the Documenting Hate project is a database of hate crime tips shared with more than 20 other news agencies. Via the project, the three BuzzFeed reporters counted 44 reported race-related incidents in the state during the tracked time period.

The reporters then followed up on 18 of those reports to establish credibility and found that none of the crimes were more serious than graffiti.

(BuzzFeed reports it’s still waiting to hear back from those who filed the 26 other reports.)

Reportedly speaking to more than a dozen Oregon residents, BuzzFeed reports learning the wave of hate speech was unlike anything seen before.

The BuzzFeed report thoroughly examines Oregon’s history of racism and bigotry, reminding readers that an 1857 Oregon law didn’t even allow black folks into the state before 1926 (when the law was repealed), and that Oregon had more Ku Klux Klan members per capita than any other state throughout the early 1900s.

With comments from Oregon attorneys, police, residents, and a University of Oregon professor, the BuzzFeed report reveals the dark side of our state and reminds residents in the mostly-liberal Willamette Valley and Interstate-5 corridor that parts of the eastern two-thirds of Oregon look and feel considerably different.

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