(Image source: Multnomah County)
Oregon’s Multnomah County, home to the city of Portland, ushered in its first all-female, majority minority Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
In an enthusiastic press release on the county’s website, the Multnomah government heralded a “new day” of government run entirely by women and mostly by minorities.
According to the website, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners is now the “first board with a majority people of color, and the seventh board in the county’s more than 160 years comprised entirely of women.”
Newly-elected commissioner Lori Stegmann, who is the first Asian to be elected to the board, called her election a “milestone.”
Stegmann referenced that, during her childhood, she looked up to Marsha Brady, which the government notes is “blond and fair-skinned.”
“When I was growing up, I didn’t have any role model of color,” Stegmann commented.
Despite reflecting on her own lack of ability to connect to white people because of their skin color, Stegmann said her election “isn’t about me.”
“It’s about my community, East County. Their voices. Their concerns,” she added.
According to demographic information provided by the U.S. Census from 2015, Multnomah County is 80.2 percent white. In fact, the demographics show Multnomah County is becoming increasingly white. In 2010, the county was only 76.5 percent white. And while the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners is 100 percent female, the county was only 50.5 percent female.
Considering Stegmann’s concerns about not being represented growing up, perhaps the white men of Multnomah County need to worry about not having any role models to admire.
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