Interview conducted by Nancy Slavin
First question – Do you have a brief bio you’d like me to include? I imagine most people know you, but if there’s some fresh stuff, please add it in.
My name is Bruce AD Poinsette. I’m a writer and semi-retired journalist. For the last year and half, I’ve been serving as Executive Director of Respond to Racism (RtR). I’ve been involved with the organization since the third community meeting in 2017. I grew up in Lake Oswego (LO) and graduated from Lake Oswego High School in 2007. Throughout my time living in LO and then doing organizing work here, I’ve published essays on the experience so that dominant institutions and disconnected white people aren’t the only voices controlling the narrative, telling future generations that everything was fine because no one said anything. They include the following:
- Lake Oswego’s Worst Kept Secret (2012):
- I Dream an Oregon (2020):
- The Lesson (2025):
What changes did you and the leadership team find necessary to drive the sustainability of RtR in your year+ tenure?
We’ve made a few key changes since January 2024. The first was bringing in more current and former LO students of color in particular and younger people in general into various aspects of RtR decision making. Historically, RtR’s base has been retirees, but throughout these nearly eight years, student activism has been the heart of this work, producing the most enthusiasm and community engagement.
To that end, this demographic shift created an atmosphere for the second big change, which in itself has three aspects: 1) developing a theory of change, 2) de-centering whiteness in our approach and 3) making a commitment to move towards becoming an abolitionist organization. I’ll be honest, these changes have rubbed some in the RtR community, particularly in LO, the wrong way. However, that conflict created an opportunity to pursue the third major change, which isn’t really a change at all, to “expand” our scope to Clackamas County. The reason I say this isn’t a change and put the idea of expansion in quotes is because RtR has always depended on non-LO residents to power key aspects of the work and we’ve been engaged in activities and collaboration with organizations throughout the county our entire existence. However, with this official shift in scope, we hope to continue building relationships throughout the county and sharing resources that educate and empower communities to fight racism.
What changes would you like to see for RtR in the next, say, 3-5 years?
In many ways, the changes I would like to see are actually just going back to the basics. RtR grew so rapidly in the early days in part because there was a genuine community investment. Life circumstances change and people get tired. These are unavoidable facts of life and organizers must adjust to them.
That said, what I can’t abide by is people patting themselves on the back for a job well done in LO (and definitely not the County) when the reality for those most negatively affected by racism–students of color, isolated workers and parents who don’t know where to go to have their concerns taken seriously–hasn’t changed very much.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done but I never want my organization or myself as an individual to be weaponized to silence people or be used as a symbol to pacify resistance. When I hear dominant institutions like the City and the School District or even long-time RtR community members say that everything is fine because RtR exists, it scares me. The known opposition–Proud Boys, ICE, Patriot Front, Moms for Liberty, politicians that lend their support to fascism, and community members who donate their considerable disposable income to prop up these oppressive forces–are doing what we expect them to do.
When we opt out of pushing back, that’s when they win and, more importantly, harm the most vulnerable in our communities. If we don’t find that sense of collective responsibility and investment in each others’ ability to thrive, not just be tolerated, then we will lose. For some people, that loss will just be the distress that comes from watching people suffer on TV, and that loss is tolerable. For others, that loss could literally be their lives. I fear too many in our community have made it clear that is in fact where they stand, so if there’s one fundamental change I wish to see going forward, it’s the RtR community doing less sitting around and waiting for saviors, and more taking personal responsibility and accountability for moving the needle forward for justice. I refuse to believe that people can’t mobilize for racial justice the same way many in our community mobilize for trees. I refuse to believe the same people who tell me how educated they are and how hard they worked to buy a house in LO are unable to apply the knowledge from the RtR trainings and educational programming and take real, public action for racial justice.
What are you most proud of in terms of your work at RtR in this LO and beyond community?
If I had to pick one thing I’m most proud of during my tenure, it’s the deepening of RtR’s work supporting youth.
The Youth Empowerment Coalition grew from a group primarily based in one high school to a collaboration between LOHS and Lakeridge students, resulting in activities like RtR’s first ever fundraiser gala (which sold out a month in advance), the design of a fall strategic planning series for the community and YEC students taking on leadership roles for initiatives like the push to make ethnic studies mandatory in LOSD schools.
RtR has also continued to financially support student desires for change in the form of the Gloria Brown Scholarship and sponsoring both existing and new student organized events like Asian Cultural Festival and Black Student Union (BSU) Culture Fest, respectively. We also increased the number of workshops we were able to provide for high school students, with sessions on organizing skills and documenting history in collaboration with the Lakeridge GSA, Black Student Union, and Women of Color Alliance this past school year.
With all that is going on around us in our country and globally, what is your highest vision for our collective future in relation to Joy for Juneteenth, i.e., Freedom Day?
This may seem like a narrow answer but I wish we could collectively take understanding and fighting anti-Blackness seriously. It’s 2025 and I have far too many conversations with decision makers who consider themselves serious people yet think the discussion of anti-Blackness begins and ends with the n-word.
It’s distressing to watch school district officials shrug their shoulders and act helpless when parents ask for support for their students who are being asked for “the pass” to say the n-word by white students because that’s considered a clever loophole for obvious racial harassment. Furthermore, it’s infuriating for district officials to blame the victims and tell Black families that the answer is to simply not say the word themselves. It’s actually enraging for the response to anti-Black incidents to be the same canned talking points, namely that the district hosts an annual visit of the African American History 101 Mobile Museum, does a few Engage to Change discussions with several students and staff a few times a year, and utilizes the No Place for Hate curriculum. Meanwhile, even people who consider themselves allies and accomplices expect Black community members to do all the emotional labor and be their mules in perpetuity as a precondition for engaging with anything having to do with Black issues.
We are still having the tolerance vs. welcoming conversation in 2025 and somehow the bar has shifted even further to the notion that Black residents should just be grateful to be tolerated. That isn’t freedom to me. Having to find acceptance in making white people feel comfortable is just the “big house” dynamic of slavery updated for the laws and social standards of today. To that end, when I think of what a real collective commitment to combating anti-Blackness looks like in Clackamas County, I think it’s an investment in Black self-determination and community building, uplifting local Black history, and the passage of initiatives that directly serve and center Black communities.