Oregonians Greet Northbound Eclipse Tourists With Anti-Semitic Overpass Banners

[Behind the Aegis]

Californians driving to Oregon see signs on I-5 saying "UNJEW HUMANITY" and "Jewish Financing Available."


Beth Dershowitz, her husband Michael and their children decided to drive from their home in Sacramento to Oregon this week because they wanted to see something unusual—Monday's solar eclipse.



Instead, on their drive up I-5, the Dershowitzes, who are Jewish, saw something they were not expecting.



"We witnessed two seemingly coordinated displays of hate on overpasses yesterday heading north," Beth Dershowitz tells WW via email.



The first was somewhere south of Eugene. It said "UNJEW HUMANITY." We were shaken but continued out of the rural area. Then I saw another near Salem, and my husband pulled to the shoulder to get a picture."

more...



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Doesn't seem to be the work of neo-Nazis, now does it?!

[SMC22307]

1. Sickening. (n/t)

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Disgusting.

I wish I could say there aren't any of those assholes in Oregon, but there are.

[barbtries]

4. there was an interest thread on twitter a couple days ago

from a doctor in OR. she has had numerous occasions where patients refused treatment by her even though she was the most qualified person to care for them. She handles it very gracefully, but some white supremacists would clearly rather die.

i don't get that at all. who are these people, how did they get this way.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Yeah--- I read the article about her in the Oregonian

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/08/portland_doctor_responds_to_ra.html

To answer your questions, Hell if I know. It is simply mind-boggling.

I will say, having lived a number of different (all blue, for the most part) places in this country, this particular spot- and I know it's a bubble, of course- is the best I have experienced. Politically, culturally, tolerance-wise, general laid backedness, by far.

But there are certainly some yahoos, particularly in the more red areas of the state--- same as you might find in rural parts of New York, Illinois, California, etc.

[barbtries]

3. oh no.

we must have the facts first, i'm sure there were some very fine people hanging signs off the overpasses. d. trump

[gtar100]

5. The crap these anti-Semitic jerk-offs are putting out there seems so out of place for 2017.

All I can think is that this shit is so out of touch with today's reality that their rants about "the jews" are absolute nonsense. They always have been but particularly in the US today they are acting like utter fools. Stupidity at its worst. As a non-Jewish person here, I have just one thing to say to them... go fuck off. It's not the heritage of a person causing their problems, it's the magnitude of income inequality... results of gluttony and greed not at all tied to a religion or nationality. Seriously, what idiots.

[SunSeeker]

6. K & R for exposure.

[sakabatou]

7. Grr

[MrScorpio]

8. I'm quite sure that the nazi filth who posted that shit felt that they were entitled to express...

...Their 1st Amendment right of free speech.

That message, just like violence, is as American as cherry pie.

[gordianot]

10. American version of ISIS as Nazi's emerge out of seemingly no where.

You would think humanity would get tired of scapegoating. Hate speech is not free speech.

[Hortensis]

11. They were gone when the Oregon Department of Transportation

arrived to remove them in response to calls. So were some mounted on another highway. So unless decent Oregonians (I'm sure there are a few in spite of this unfortunate headline) were the ones who removed them, which is very possible, likely they'll turn up elsewhere before the end of Monday.

Oregon eclipse tourists greeted by anti-Semitic banners on overpass
https://articles.oregonlive.com/eclipse/2017/08/oregon_eclipse_tourists_greete.amp

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Eugene is mostly known for the Oregon Country Fair and Ken Kesey.

To say this isn't indicative of how most people feel down there is an understatement.

[Hortensis]

14. For sure. :) I lived in the Portland area long ago and

it was a lovely city in many ways. Same for Eugene, a tad less liberal I think but a university town. Two couples of our friends retired in that area.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

There are days when I just wanna smack the shit out of people.

[dalton99a]

15. Oregon's racism is virulent and well documented:

http://gizmodo.com/oregon-was-founded-as-a-racist-utopia-1539567040
Oregon Was Founded As a Racist Utopia

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. Oregon is a hotbed for racists and bigots, and has been since before it was a state.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. "Oregon is a hotbed for racists and bigots" - TOTALLY!

Last edited Sun Aug 20, 2017, 06:50 PM - Edit history (1)

it's exactly like Alabama, but with better coffee.

[Shrike47]

32. Elections in Oregon seem to indicate that Dems out number all those bigots and racists.m

[WhiskeyGrinder]

33. Both can be true.

[LanternWaste]

45. is this simply an opinion pretending to be a premise?

What objective sources do you use to measure that premise on, and, again based on those objective sources, how does the state compare on average (per capita) to other states in that regard?

Or is this simply an opinion pretending to be a premise?

I ask as the SPLC doesn't have Oregon in its top 20 list of most racist states per capita.

[Boxerfan]

17. Lemme guess....Grants Pass Ore?

Just a guess because as others have posted Eugene is mostly a hippy dippy kinda town. Not that there are no knuckle draggers its just not a huge factor.

I tried competing in a Field target competition down south from Eugene-Grants Pass area. I came away with the opinion they had a very happy herd of racist preppers down there. Never returned for some reason.

PDX-Portland-has more than a few but we consistently out vote them. But a a-hole with a oversize truck had twin flags-one a Confederate the other 'Merican. Definitely cruising for trouble the day after Charlotte. Seen the same guy & yeah he always does that but really just a lookie me I'm a racist move.

[ProudLib72]

18. The article mentions it is illegal to hang signs on overpasses

So why weren't the cops out there arresting these miscreants?

[Shrike47]

34. I-5 is not overwhelmed with cops.

[Ken Burch]

19. As a person born in Oregon, I join you in condemning this.

n/t.

[Nevernose]

20. I've got $20 says the ppl hanging those signs

Have never (knowingly) met a Jewish person (religiously, ethically, or culturally), nor could they give even a rudimentary description or definition of Judaism.

Any takers?

[Weekend Warrior]

22. No snap judgements.

Some of them might be very fine people.

[LWolf]

23. Well, we've certainly got our share.

More in eastern Oregon than up the 5.

We've also got people to stand up to that shit. For example, more than 70 different groups showed up on 4th June to counter-protest the alt-right rally in Portland.

Trump empowers them. We need to shut them down. I haven't seen anything in my region, which would be more likely to pull crap like this. Of course, I've been hiding at home, since the influx has overwhelmed our infrastructure; more people coming in than actually live here.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. it's funny how these threads bring out people with a curious axe to grind against this state

Last edited Sun Aug 20, 2017, 07:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Of course there are some racist fuckwits in Oregon, just as there are in every other state in the US, including the other "blue" ones.

Have people never been to upstate New York? Southern Illinois? Fresno?

so I'm not sure what exactly is actually bothering them so much, specifically, about Oregon. The creative facial hair? Vegan strip clubs? They got their shorts in a bunch over our legalized weed?

It's unclear.

[rufus dog]

28. Have been to all of them

Man Fresno really sucks, and I have to be in Peoria next month. Parts of Oregon and Washington are out there, but they ain't Phoenix, Phoenix fucking blows take it from me as someone who was forced by birth to spend 23 years in that shithole.

[Warren DeMontague]

31. Yeah, having been to Phoenix many times I hear you.

Although the further south you get, for obvious reasons, the better Mexican food you find. I miss that in the PNW.

[continentalop2]

35. Oregon has a particularly bad history of racism compared to CA or WA

I mean Fresno is 50% white. Portland is 76% white. So it's kind of funny that you tried to pick what you thought was CA's most racist shithole and it's still far more diverse than Oregon's big liberal city.

A 2007 survey of the 40 largest cities in the U.S. concluded that Portland's urban core has the highest percentage of white residents.[93] Some scholars have noted the Pacific Northwest as a whole is "one of the last Caucasian bastions of the United States".[94] While Portland's diversity was historically comparable to metro Seattle and Salt Lake City, those areas grew more diverse in the late 1990s and 2000s. Portland not only remains white, but migration to Portland is disproportionately white.[93][95]

[Warren DeMontague]

36. And yet, the city is undeniably progressive.

Axe to grind? Fine- Grind away! Enjoy.

At least we don't vote for right wing assholes.

[Behind the Aegis]

42. Amazing how people focus on the wrong thing.

I posted this, not about Oregon or its citizens, but the fact it was about anti-Semitism. I also posted it because it does not appear to be the work of neo-Nazis, and the remarks from some seem to focus on the wrong thing. Of course, as someone who is Southern, I am used to regionalism.

Don't worry, I know you know I wasn't commenting on Oregon, but the actual anti-Semitism. I just wish others understood that fact.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Of Course!

I wish I had had the opportunity to flip these shitheads off personally, myself.

But Im not going anywhere NEAR the 5 today.

[countryjake]

46. Actually, the one responsible is a Neo-Nazi, Jimmy Marr.

And from what little I could find about him, sounds like he's always been a virulent and vocal anti-Semite. He's mentioned by the SPLC.

Home to Anti-Semites, Campus Discussion Group Ponders a Plot
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2009/05/12/home-anti-semites-campus-discussion-group-ponders-plot

Pacifica Forum Speaker Celebrates National Socialism
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2009/12/23/pacifica-forum-speaker-celebrates-national-socialism


The danger I see with these older farts like him is they often have lots of children who they've raised with such an authoritarian-style, their irrational hatred is inherent to generations after, and this particular bastard has been attempting to infect college groups and organizations for years...young people looking for someone else to blame for their own dysfunctional failings, who've probably never even met a Jewish person.

That Marr took advantage of this Solar Eclipse to terrify visitors coming to the Pacific Northwest to watch a once in a lifetime event is particularly despicable. Eugene is a pretty groovy place and this guy is from nearby Springfield, so that he's managed to smear the entire area with his pissy signs, and he is now taking credit for such actions, may bring repercussions down on him that he didn't anticipate. We can only hope.

[pnwmom]

40. Oregon is full of out-of-staters this week and literally anyone could have put up those signs.

Oregon has its problems with race and with intolerant people -- just like the other 49 states. But "Oregonians" in general weren't responsible for those signs -- just the hateful individuals who hung them.

[LWolf]

49. I love Oregon.

I also once lived in CA, and I can attest to there being plenty of racist fuckwits there, just as in every other state.

I think we'll do a decent job standing up to empowered agents of hate here in Oregon.

[countryjake]

25. Got them up here in wa state, too.

From my experience with those skeevy bastards here in the Northwestern part of the state, some of them fled West after the Aryan Nations was run out of north Idaho and they're holed up in the foothills around here with their guns and wimmin folk.

There was a whole pack of them that came to one of our Pow Wows this month, but it's always been a clean and sober event so they took their liquor and soon cleared out in a roar of dust, six Confederate flags flying from all their monster trucks. They hate Original People just as much as they hate Jewish, Muslim, and Black and Brown and Asian people, so the air definitely tensed up when that crew rolled into the festivities.

Personally, I doubt there's any rural area of this country that hasn't got a bunch of White Supremacists scattered about...the card-carrying kind.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Totally. I just find amusing the folks who magically materialize for these threads, just to explain

how much Oregon SUCKS, dammit!




that's great, man! Be sure to tell all those people moving here in droves.

[countryjake]

48. Well, the Ducks do suck...heh heh

Seriously tho, we have people up here who absolutely despise Californians and B.C. Canadians, mainly because of the public shoreline that keeps rapidly disappearing due to wealthy land purchasers and... get this, overcrowded parking lots at our popular shopping areas (if I had a Canadian license plate, I might consider disguising it to spend a day at the Factory Outlet Mall...cars have been keyed and vandalized because those "damm forrinners" got the best parking spaces).

And then, of course, there's that historical competition between wa and ore to out-liberalize one another. I've been to meetings where genuine arguments broke out over who has the more progressive representatives.

Ever have discussions with Cascadia proponents?

But I hear ya about the regional biases around this place, that's just one of the many reasons I bowed out of the last years' kerfuffle.

[emulatorloo]

26. Yes, Trump normalized these Nazis. During the campaign too, tweeting anti-Semitic imagery.

[tenderfoot]

27. WTF...

[Oubaas]

29. Ya Know...

If I banged my head against the wall every time that I have felt like banging my head against the wall in the past year, I'd have probably grown a big unicorn horn by now, from the scar tissue.

Why the hell would anyone do something like this? Do they just wake up in the morning and think, "How can I be an even bigger turd than I was yesterday?"

It's 2017, for crying out loud! Isn't this stupidity EVER going to go away?

[defacto7]

30. How many Nazis does it take to put up a banner on an overpass?

One.

How many Nazis does it take to make a statement that reaches millions of onlookers both on and off the net?

I don’t have to answer that, do I?

[pnwmom]

38. Oregon is JAMMED with out-of-staters right now. Whether the signing was done by

Nazis from Oregon or from another state, it isn't fair to blame Oregonians in general for the signs.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Either way, can anyone name one state in the USA that doesnt have at least 2 racist shitheads in it?

I mean, that's all it takes to hang a banner from an overpass.

But no, for some reason these threads always bring out people who really, really, really hate Oregon and, perversely enough, the city of Portland.

I'm not sure why that is- maybe it's Fred Armisen's fault, or maybe some people are really cheesed off by things like legal weed and vegan strip clubs.

[pnwmom]

41. Maybe they're jealous. Oregon's a beautiful city. n/t

[countryjake]

44. A Nazi who goes by the name "GenocideJimmy" takes credit

Oregon neo-Nazi takes credit for anti-Semitic freeway signs ahead of 2017 eclipse ~ by Gordon Friedman ~ The Oregonian/OregonLive ~ August 20, 2017

http://www.oregonlive.com/eclipse/2017/08/oregon_neo-nazi_takes_credit_f.html

Drivers on headed north on Interstate 5 Saturday to view the eclipse were greeted with a jarring sight: anti-Semitic banners on overpasses.

Jimmy Marr, a Springfield neo-Nazi known for his public displays of racism and anti-Semitism, seemed to take credit for the banners Sunday on social media. Marr, 64, tweeted pictures of the signs and news articles about them.

When Gov. Kate Brown repudiated the banners on social media, Marr, who online goes by the username @GenocideJimmy, wrote "Truth is hate to those who hate the truth."

He also posted photos Sunday evening of people holding up new signs, which read "Bolshevik Jews perpetrated the Holodomor" and "Resist Racial Eclipse," flanked by swastikas.

Anti-Semitic signs were first reported to the Oregon Department of Transportation on Saturday by Beth and Michael Dershowitz, Californians driving north to see the eclipse.

The couple told The Oregonian/OregonLive they were shocked to see the banners in the Eugene and Salem areas, which read "UnJew Humanity," "Eclipse Whitey," and "Jewish Financing Available."

[Behind the Aegis]

47. Thanks for the update.

Though, I suspect, he is taking credit for someone else's work. Seriously, a white supremacist is going to put up a sign "Eclipse Whitey"? There are likely more forces at work here, it is just difficult to tell who is who anymore, especially when it comes to anti-Semitism.