Yes, we’re still talking about this.

(A note: I have made this public instead of just responding directly to Sally Krantz because I am beholden to the ~500 members of Anti-Colonial PDX and I want to make sure 1.) I address their concerns correctly and 2.) they have the opportunity to add their own comments.)

Thank you for responding. Since your email ignored all the requests I outlined previously, I assume you have no intention of honoring them.

Putting aside the comments about “hurling abuse” (I guess if you define “hurling abuse” as calmly explaining that it’s your job as a decent human being to make sure your business isn’t racist, not ours), it’s pretty disingenuous to act as though writer’s block is preventing you from changing the name, considering none of your other cafes have this branding.

So- where do we go from here? First I’d like to address some of the points you’ve repeatedly brought up, so we can settle this once and for all:

NO ONE IS PROTESTING THE MIXING OF CULTURES.

Go back and read that line again. So now you have no reason to use tired lines like “no one protests Bahn Mi!” (also you might want to re-listen to my statements on OPB re: the difference between honoring a culture’s resilience in the face of colonialism and honoring colonialism itself.) We’re not protesting a type of food- we’re protesting the messaging of your business, which is essentially a glorification of a history of domination and exploitation.

Regarding the “colonialism is just a descriptor” comments- I said it on OPB and I’ll say it again: the “colonial” in “colonial architecture”, “Colonial Williamsburg” etc is completely different from the colonialism you’re attempting to recreate. This understanding of colonialism comes from a historical appreciation of how (white) forefathers successfully shrugged off British tyranny (this unfortunately doesn’t speak to the colonizing activities the colonists themselves committed towards Native & Black populations but we’ll have to leave that for another discussion). To suggest that attitudes around American colonialism in the 18th century should be the same as those around British colonialism in the 20th century (which resulted in the death of millions) is at best uninformed and at worst deliberately misleading. As someone who claims to “know her history” this much should be obvious.

In regards to your IPA comments- since you were so keen to school me on your strange version of ‘history’ (where 3 million Bengali deserved to die because they were Nazis?!?!) and I have studied semiotics at the graduate level, let me do you a solid and provide an elementary understanding of linguistics:

Words and names change over time, as does their meanings. The true name of IPAs has come to be exactly that: “IPA” (much like ATM) and on most bottles there’s no reference to the history. The ingredients, makers of the products, intended audience of the product, basically everything about the original product is different, but when something’s been around a while (unlike your brand new restaurant)- it’s common to continue referring to it as the name by which it’s been known.

Does this mean the same thoughts and feelings remain attached to name “IPA”? NO. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. In Portland alone, dozens of micro and nano-breweries sprung up to battle the monopolistic legacy of large brewing manufacturers. For the most part, people do not sit around drinking IPAs, saying to themselves “remember when the British occupied India?” If you’re that concerned (obviously you aren’t and this is a poor excuse to deflect responsibility but if you *were*) it might be worth sitting down with some IPA enthusiasts to ask what they think of when they think of IPAs. They’d probably wax poetry about local brewers or hops grown in the region or even reflect on the high alcohol content, but they certainly won’t mention British colonialism, unless you bring it up to them (or maybe if you ask them specifically about the origin). The same cannot be said for highly charged words like “colonialism” and “plantation”.

(And before you go on about Imperial stouts and ales, you and your defenders might want to do more research on its origin.)

Now, to get to the actual contents of your email. While I love the idea of teaching children how to bake, the idea of having someone with such a stunning lack of cultural competency around children of color is appalling both to me and many of the parents I spoke to. If this is something you wish to do I will not stop you, but I (and others) hope this doesn’t happen before you receive the unconscious bias training you so desperately need.

I appreciate your offer to provide neighborhood kids the opportunity to have farming experiences with your head of pastry. I don’t know who your head of pastry is, but if they are anything like your head chef- there’s no way in hell a parent of a black or brown child should risk having their children around this person. Also can you explain how providing free labor to a stranger is preferable to the community garden that is literally blocks from their school, where they can contribute to their own family/neighbor’s plots of lands?

In regards to bringing Jaime Oliver to presumably “fix” Portland’s food issues- let me quickly explain something else since I know you’ve been gone for a while. Here in Portland, we’re all about going local. I assume at this point you may be rolling your eyes, saying “I know this!” If that’s the case, why would you feel it appropriate to import a foreign chef rather than work with one of the many organizations doing this work, like Ecotrust’s Farm to School program or any of the many other programs within the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network?

This isn’t a rural school district in West Virginia, which doesn’t have the resources to implement these types of programs. This isn’t an overburdened urban school district in LA, this is Portland. This is exactly the kind of thing we pride ourselves on. Yet for some reason you think someone from outside Portland better able to handle this than the organizations and hard-working citizens already doing this work? I have to wonder about your motivations for this (could it be a way to garner even more attention by getting on TV?).

And therein lies the rub. Your attitude towards the protestors and the community at large shows that your adoration of colonialism is more than a decorating style or tasteless marketing tactic. It is embedded in your very way of thinking.

Your suggestion that being “well-travelled” and living in a gentrified neighborhood somehow precludes you from being racist is laughable. Unfortunately, you do not gain intercultural understanding through osmosis. It takes a lot of questioning and uncomfortable feelings and you’re clearly not up for the challenge. However, if you do want to learn to “shift your race-based assumptions, reactivity, and discomfort into authentic solidarity” this event might be worth attending. EDIT: There’s a whole month’s worth of events you can check out!

The fact is, the legacy of colonialism is a complex beast and you have already shown yourself (particularly with your reliance on overly simplistic slippery-slope arguments) completely unwilling to engage in the critical thinking necessary to have these kinds of nuanced conversations. Like colonists before you, you are fine with profiting and having “fun” at the expense of community members and your privilege shields you from having to really think about the negative impact of your actions.

It is a special kind of egotism to think that your right to have “fun” trumps people’s right to live in a neighborhood where the abuses of the recent past are not flaunted as “kitchy.” I do not get to parade down the street in an SS uniform just because I think it’s cute. It’s clear that you’re more interested in finding excuses and defending yourself from the accusation of racism than actually listening to community members with an open mind. Learn to think beyond yourself/your identity as a well-meaning, liberal person and start thinking about the effect of your actions as a member of a diverse community.

In case you’re wondering, we will not be protesting tomorrow. Instead we’ll have a memorial for the lives harmed by colonialism. Feel free to celebrate as we pay our respects. It would be inappropriate but also befitting of your establishment.

To some extent I’m grateful for Saffron Colonial. I feel like I should be thankful to you in particular for presenting an excellent model to other business owners in the area of how *not* to act.

But mostly I’m grateful to see local activists continuing to have these nuanced conversations around history’s relation to the present. As Portland grows we need to be aware of the legacy of gentrification (itself part of the legacy of colonialism) and how it affects Portland residents today. Portland is rapidly changing and our actions now can determine what the future will look like. Right now, 40% of current K-12 students in Portland are black and brown and it is our responsibility to create a more equitable future for these (and all) kids.

At the end of the day, this movement is about saying (not just to you but to society at large)- we will not allow you to apply a glossy coat of paint over the injustices of the past. And as Portland grows and changes, we will not let these same injustices be recreated in new forms.

WE WILL NOT FORGET.