Just because you're an old bastard doesn't make a racist symbol all right. I mean, you can cringe and look the other way if it's your grandfather or something, but with a business like this? Sorry. No love from me on this one. I love what they did to the sign. Come on, it's clipped on there with clothespins. No permament damage done. More power to 'em.

Goddam I hate the Dixie Mattress Company with every ounce of my being. They contribute 0% to the neighborhood, they are conspicuously absent from EVERY fair, festival, or community event along Belmont or in Sunnyside, and it's the high point of hilarity that they'll just jump to their feet to take down pictures of MLK but sit on their fat asses all day long while the trash and debris pile up in front of the store.

And, awesome that the idiot storeowner complains about "they've got the nerve to spray paint on your building," yet that spray paint has been there for months now without her doing a thing about it.

This has nothing to do with "class privilege," but rather doing the bare minimum to make the real estate you hold on a busy stretch of street look decent, and actually contributing something to the community.

Which reminds me. Jo Ann Bowman of Oregon Action had a post about Understanding White Privilege on Blue Oregon this weekend:

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/06/understanding-w.html

I have white privilege because I'm white, I was born to middle class parents, I had a private education, I own a condo downtown that used to be a single room occupancy hotel, I work in the media, I have friends and family who are in powerful positions, and so on, and so forth.

Because I have all those advantages, I tend to pick my battles when it comes to protesting perceived injustice. Like you say, cringe and look the other way when it's your grandfather, maybe. But not mine. He should know better.

I hate to say it but if I didn't have those advantages and I flew a confederate flag outside my business like the Dixie Company has, I'd think in some sense that the fuckers who did it were just lording their privilege over me. Whether or not they were "right" to do it. Whether or not is was excusable.

Poor white people? Shit. It's open season these days...

Bullying? They're putting a symbol up on Belmont that stands for slavery of an entire race. It doesn't matter what it means to Judie or her family. If she doesn't get why it's wrong to have a sign like this up then maybe someone needs to tell her in ways like this.

Wait. People actually work there? I've lived in Portland for almost 6 years and I have never ever (not even once!) seen the Dixie Mattress Company open. What do they do there? Do they sell things? Just judging by what I've seen peering through the dirty windows all the merchandise looks older than I am. I always just assumed it was a front for something sketchy.

Dixie Mattress Co. is choosing to make a statement that will be perceived as confrontational by some of the public.

These "protesters" chose to make a confrontational statement.

The difference is, one statement is clearly against the law, the other isn't.

Fucking with small business owners is not cool. Find another way to make your point.

This city has an long and sorted history when it comes to segregation and as progressive as we might think we are now, some things serve as potent reminders of how easy is to take a step backward.

Aside from the confederate flag, this place is a dive and a scar on the neighborhood. Tell them to fix their place up, take down the flag, and then maybe business will pick up for them.

They make custom mattresses and box springs in there. My girlfriend has an odd sized, antique bed. Dixie mattress made her a box spring and mattress to fit. Very high quality and very reasonable.

Whoa Matt there. Didn't know this was all about you. I thought it was about the confederate flag symbols on the Dixie Mattress sign? I think it's creative vandalism that's about sending a message. The place is a dump. Boo hoo they're going to have to climb up there with a ladder and take it down.

Fucking with small business owners is not cool. Find another way to make your point.

By putting up two easily removable signs? Seriously, it will take all of 3 minutes and a ladder. In the grand list of ways to "fuck with small businesses," this probably ranks about #3,582.

"Creative vandalism."

Is that part of Portland's creative class?

Sam Adams will be thrilled.

Clothespins? That's gotta be the most passive-aggressive "protest" ever. C'mon. It's not subtle at all but it definitely makes a point without causing any permanent damage. It's not like, say, naked skinny kids in front of a fur shop for months on end or anything.

Wait... Matt Davis asked for help? Did he leave himself signed on at work? Can someone get a hold of him and let him know his password isn't secure anymore? kthx

Matt, for a guy who claims he likes to pick his battles, you're picking a weird one here. Those two signs are probably the most attractive thing to grace that storefront in the past 8 years.

There's two sides to white privilege/white guilt. The first is that you don't recognize the advantages you've been born with, and go around expecting that everyone shares your belief system.

The second side is you become overly sensitive to the fact that you have these advantages, and attribute to people ideas and virtues that they probably don't hold, and probably lack. That's what I think is going on here--you're so wrapped up in your "oh my gosh, I'm rich, I'm white, I'm a member of the landed gentry, oh noes!11!!!" mentality that you can't see a harmless prank played against a shitty store for what it is: a harmless prank played against a shitty store.

It seems that your story is missing an important detail. If they left you a phone message, why don't you post it on blogtown?
Why hold back all the facts in your reporting?
After all you had no problem posting the phone messages of the confused Larry Norman fan awhile back.

I've always felt a bit weird passing by there. As a business owner myself, I've found it's usually best to keep my beliefs personal, even if they are popular, and not let them be reflected in my business so as to not risk alienating a potential customer. No matter how they feel personally about the meaning of the flag, it doesn't seem like a good move for a business to make. The name alone shows the pride you have. Drop the flags and sell more mattresses.

I suppose if you just moved to Portland the Dixie Mattress Co. signs might be offensive.

As a native of almost 30 years, I gotta say that even as a person of color this building and its signs never bothered me. It's funny that this issue comes up NOW, as people of color have since been relocated to other areas of the city and the inner-eastside is as white as ever.

Funny how folks who have lived in inner SE for 8 years think they have the pulse of the neighborhood. The liberal gentry rise up against the oppression of a . . . oh that's right, it's a mattress store. Taken it to the streets man. Oh, wait a minute, I need to pick up a latte before we start the revolution. Is that OK? And, if that store had picture of the iconic left, say Che, that would be fine wouldn't it? Or, if it sold cupcakes, coffee and new age crystals under a red sign that said, "The People's DooDads" that too would be juuust fine. Those damn mattress people, they don't act like the rest of us. Damn their eyes. Excuse me. Can someone give me directions to the Jack Reed book store?

While I'm not a fan of what Dixie Mattress Co.'s iconography stands for and I think they are probably not a very good community citizen BUT it's a freakin' free country (or used to be anyway pre GWB). They can fly whatever flag they want no matter how fucked-up (seems like they're just doing it to be assholes but whatever).

Conversely, other people can protest whatever way they want. As long as it isn't out and out vandalism(destruction of property that requires repair or replacement) and nobody gets hurt. I think this particular stunt is pretty brilliant. As for the graffiti and trash, DMC should clean it up themselves no question. One would think, with property values being what they are in that neighborhood they could sell, open up a new store in Gresham and make a nice profit, at the same time removing a longtime eyesore from Belmont street. Again, I think they probably stay just to be assholes.

It seems like a fairly harmless way to make a point. On a related note, ask-steve sounds like a real dick.

Anonymous? Can we even take this "protest" seriously if they anonymously put up the signs and then anonymously leave you a message about it? Sounds like they're not even taking themselves seriously. In other words, sounds like the hundreds of idiots (myself included) who rant on Blogtown anonymously just for shits and giggles.

Come on people, the confederate flag is not a racist symbol that stands for enslaving an entire race of people. If you believe the civil war was only about slavery then you probably believe the war in Iraq is strictly a war against terror. It’s just easier for the government to wage war if they make one side look evil and wrong. The main difference between the north and the south was that the south believed in more rights being given to the state and not the federal government. Read a history book people!

And by the way, I got a mattress there when I first moved here. Not sure how they managed it, but its nearly four inches taller on one side. I sleep with my feet going downhill.

dls3: perhaps not as it was originally used, but I have no doubt that most of the folks who fly it today do so because they know it pisses off the libs, and they enjoy infuriating other people.

Let's call it what it is: the battle flag of an armed insurrection against the US government. Why on earth should we celebrate that?

Also, the South? You guys got beat. Get over it, already.

flags old or new, are overrated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFU3obGOpEg

I'll help with your confliction.

"While the confederate flag stands for segregation in a different time"

First, what is wrong with those history classes in England? It didn't stand for "segregation". It stood for slavery and treason.

Now, replace the word confederate with nazi and segregation with holocaust..

Still conflicted?

Dear Portland,

Please unbunch your panties.

Thanks,

A Black Guy From The South

I should add that "BEING OFFENDED" is one of Stuff White People Like's most recent entries.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/

Nazis indeed.

Anyone know what's up with that storefront with all the creepy masks on Belmont? Way more scary and offensive than the stars and bars.

If the dixie mattress company's logo was a big rainbow with an X through it it would have been defaced years ago and continuously. The confederate flag is obviously a symbol of hatred, as the governments of Alabama, South Carolina, and other states have taken steps to remove it from their government buildings and flags. I think it highlights how insensitive the northwest in general is to race issues while environmentalism and gay rights are at the top of their agenda.

If this were a discussion of a city ordinance would force the removal of said sign, I would take the opposite side. As it is, it doesn't bother me that someone, harmlessly, decided to call out Dixie for a controversial symbol.

I'm sure if you asked the owners, they wouldn't say anything about celebrating the institution of slavery; they'd say something about pride in southern traditions, state's rights, Jack Daniels, hush puppies etc...

Still, in most parts of the country, we see the flag and see nothing but slavery. While we may be ignoring some of the nuances of the civil war, the flag has come to bear a certain meaning that is (as it should be) offensive to most people. If the Dixie doesn't understand signs and signifiers, someone can surely clothespin up a bust of Saussure. No real harm is done, and the government isn't intervening--General Lee would be proud.

Now a separate issue is dumbass commentators whose issue is that the storefront isn't pretty enough for their precious neighborhood. Just because it doesn't have Neutral Milk Hotel playing over the PA, or skinny girls in American Apparel V-necks ignoring you while they make you coffee doesn't mean it should be moved out to 82nd with everyone else displaced from the neighborhood.

I don't see what the big deal is on either side. On the one hand, the Confederate flag is a symbol that's been highly diluted by the passage of time. It's like someone getting upset over an image of Julius Caesar cause he's a tyrant.

On the other hand, they're just a couple of pictures clothespinned to the damn sign. Seems harmless. It's a respectable image of a civil rights icon. Not like they plastered penises all over the building. haha. Penises.

Come on people, the confederate flag is not a racist symbol that stands for enslaving an entire race of people. If you believe the civil war was only about slavery then you probably believe the war in Iraq is strictly a war against terror.

Oh yes...it was all about states rights. Bullshit. I grew up in the South, I am a Southerner, I've seen that flag waving on capitol grounds and in front of people's houses. To Southerners it means they are still pledging their allegiance to the South. I know exactly what that flag means to Southerners and I'll give you a hint, it isn't about heritage. If you want to call heritage on a flag move down there. Here in Yankee Oregon you don't get to claim heritage. It's just a symbol of racism.

You can make the same argument about the Nazi flag. To some Germans it may represent Germany rising out of the quagmire of the muck they were in after WWI. How would you feel if those were Nazi flags instead?

welllll. there's paris hilton class and there's barack obama class.

my family works for a living and we know that the confederate flag is fraught with ugly connotations. don't automatically let people off the hook because they're poor. proud ignorance is unacceptable all the way up the various social ladders.

Of course Dixie Mattress has left their sign up. And (duh?) of course they don't sell many (if any) mattresses. They're most likely sitting on the property as long as possible before throwing in the towel and turning a profit on it. And meanwhile they're leaving their sign up as a big FUCK YOU to the neighborhood's newer, younger, lefter, and wealthier residents.

Which, I suppose they have the legal right to do. But that doesn't mean that they're not assholes for doing it.

And don't start comparing the "segregation" between poorer whites and wealthier whites with the STATE-MANDATED racial segregation that existed in the south. It's quite a bit different.

And about the SWPL website reference: I'm going to go out on a limb here and call it out for being racist -- but not "racist against white people." It's racist because it supports the racist ideology of perpetuating stereotypes. It seems that a lot of white people like this website -- probably because it makes them feel a little bit less guilty about the stereotypes they secretly hold about people of color.

As a foreigner Matt can you just trust us that the Confederate flag is a symbol of brutal racism?

There are African-Americans alive today whose parents were lynched under that flag. Saying it's power as a symbol of racism is diluted is wishful thinking.

And since when did Martin Luther King Jr. become a symbol of gentrification?

Now a separate issue is dumbass commentators whose issue is that the storefront isn't pretty enough for their precious neighborhood.

Must surprise you to find yourself in a discussion with people who want their neighborhood to look nice, eh? I shudder to think of the shithole you must inhabit.

That flag does not belong in Portland.
It maybe "ok" in the south where it can my considered to a symbol of southern pride or what ever. But here it doesn't stand for anything here but racism.

"Must surprise you to find yourself in a discussion with people who want their neighborhood to look nice, eh? I shudder to think of the shithole you must inhabit."

You might shudder, I don't know. I live on a pretty modest income, and probably couldn't afford that particular neighborhood or the Pottery Barn furniture you buy in lieu of bed from your neighborhood mattress shop. Apparently Dixie can afford it, and shouldn't made to feel unwelcome because they don't look like something that yuppie assholes like yourself think looks "nice." They've been their longer than the places you want them to resemble. Why would a custom mattress company want to participate in some bullshit street fair that would do absolutely nothing for their business? But I'm sure your ideas for Belmont capture all the subtlety of your above-take on the civil war.

The confederate flag without a doubt still symbolizes racism and slavery and is not just about "segregation of a different time." The fact that one of the oldest and most influential civil rights group, the NAACP, STILL has an official boycott of the State of Carolina for its continual display the flag on its State House grounds should imply something about how highly charged the issue is.

I think it's great that finally someone opened up conversation around these signs...I googled The Dixie when I first moved here and didn't see anything that implied that Portlanders had any kind of blog commentary or media coverage or any issue with those signs. And I agree with the statement above that if the flags had been anti-gay or anti-animals the whole city would be in a fury to have them removed. But somehow we are OK with a blatant sign of slavery?

Even if for the Dixie people the confederate flag is about Hank Williams and hush puppies I agree with "VOR" above that its association with slavery is just as strong and more commonly recognized than that other stuff. What is has taken Portland so long to have a public discussion about this?

Gee, I sure do wonder if any if the insightful critics of the Dixie have actually ever been in the store or know anything at all about the business, the history and people behind it.

Thought not.

Just like Portland to get up in arms about something fucking pointless.

Love it!!!!

Blondezilla---you actually googled, (fucking googled!!!) the Dixie to see whether or not Portlanders had any blog commentary or "public discussion" concerning the place?

Really?

God, I love this town!!!

"I should add that "BEING OFFENDED" is one of Stuff White People Like's most recent entries."

Matt, werent you upset that Robert Downey Jr portrayal of an african american in Tropic Thunder was "to suble for the average american...", and were therefore offended?

Gee, I sure do wonder if any if the insightful critics of the Dixie have actually ever been in the store or know anything at all about the business, the history and people behind it.

Thought not.

In my 9 years of living in this neighborhood I've never once seen one person walk in or out of that place. I don't really need a new bed but if I did I'd rather buy one from a place that looks like it's been cleaned since the Nixon administration.

All y'all going to miss it when it's gone.

I'd get it if it were a junk shop, or some badass carburetor rebuild hut, but no, this place sells things for you to sleep on.

And neither the flags on the sign, nor the windows so dirty you can barely see through them really make me want to get naked with what's inside that store.

I'd much rather get a mattress at Goodwill.

for real, i've never seen that place open! and then i'm confused by what's in their windows since it's a mattress store....
do you have their hours? b/c i would love to go in there sometime.

Wow. Apparently we all needed to discuss this. There's some stellar copy here. As a transplanted Southerner with honest-to-God Confederate ancestry, I will never be offended by that flag. We had it at picnics when I was a kid, right next to the American flag. We never thought of it as a hateful symbol. I can't tell you how to feel about it, but i can say that when we flew that flag it was about land and farming and family and heritage. That said, I was pretty surprised to see it on a storefront when I moved here. I mean, what with the relatively few important Civil War battles that happened in the Pacific Northwest. I guess where I am now is that enough assholes have adopted that flag as their banner that I've finally reached a point where I wouldn't display it. As for the Dr. King posters, I say it was a tasteful move not to deface the sign permanently. Harmless statement. I'm also happy to hear that people have shopped there. I'd pegged it for a money laundering operation. Stay civil, y'all.

No we don't think you're stupid Judy. We're think you're ignorant.

Now that everyone has their panties good and twisted into a big 'ol knot, can we please discuss people and symbols that are really and truly offensive... Washington residents. If the drunk numbnuts teenagers that vandalized a single nothing store that nobody goes to anyway would instead mobilize their efforts into vandalizing any car with a Washington license plate, we'd really be onto something.

And after that, we can move on to red heads. Offensive! Then men. Also offensive! Rawr! The no business mattress store is just the tip of the offended iceberg, people. I hear that if their employees float, they're witches.

Surely, this is worth so much blowhard angst, time, and negative vitriol. It's a small business with very few customers, after all. Clearly, this is very important in the grand scheme of things.

I moved here 20 years from Tennessee in part to escape the stifling racism, bigotry and small-mindedness in the South. Big surprise--there is no escape! Oregon does indeed have an ugly racist history, including the so-called "sundown" law which excluded blacks from moving here for decades. Until our shipbuilders needed any labor they could find during WWII, Portland was almost 100% white. The thriving African-American community of the 40's and 50's was then decimated by the wrong-headed (racist?) "urban renewal" policies of the 70's. A complacent and ignorant populace stood by and allowed this insidious attack on an entire community.
I was shocked the first time I saw the Dixie Mattress sign. Southern business owners for the most part abandoned this racist symbol even before I moved here, and it is only on display in the back windows of pickup trucks with gun racks. It is not a symbol of Southern pride or states' rights; rather, it is the defiant gesture of a dwindling number of clueless morons whose grip on reality has always been tenuous at best.

Wow, Dave J, your indignation at untidiness runs deep. Shall we guess that the Avalon/Electric Castle is next on your list of neighborhood anachronisms to whine about?

i think they should blow the fucking building up. that place has been grossing us out for years. fuck, i'll do it myself.

Matt Davis in attention seeking by teaching Portlanders about racism SHOCKER

Wow, Dave J, your indignation at untidiness runs deep. Shall we guess that the Avalon/Electric Castle is next on your list of neighborhood anachronisms to whine about?

No, it's a decent place and there's a constant flow of people going in and out.

Hey, we all have our own stupid little battles that make sense to nobody outside our immediate orbit. Mine is that I hate the little mattress shop near my house. I don't apologize for it.

Interesting that people are this upset about a facet of Southern culture in Belmont when 3 blocks down a purveyor of standard Southern cuisine is the hippest thing in town. 30 minutes for a fucking biscuit!? HIPSTER FAIL.

It's good to keep a little gritty business around, even if it does sport a questionable symbol. Surrounded as it is by all the progressive businesses and restaurants on Belmont, I feel like the confederate flag loses all it's potency- it just becomes this harmless curiosity, a "why's that there? How odd" kind of thing. Belmont has a more interesting and complex flavor because of it. Soon enough, it will all be new and shiny, and nice, and... sigh.

Of course, I am a total hypocrite- I live in "Deep SE", aka Felony Flats, and cringed the other day when I saw one of those Foster antique/junk shops flying a confederate flag, and I was relieved when I noticed it was gone the next day. But in this neighborhood you really feel like there might be gun totin redneck racists behind that flag- I never felt that with the Belmont one. Out here where "grit" and "character" are so common, I am less inclined to defend it as a rarity.

Hmm, I think I just talked myself out of my point, but I'm posting this anyway!

It appears that the owners have no sense of humor and seem just a little more offended then they should be.

Of course they have the right to display the white supremacist confederate flag publicly but why whine like a liberal when you get a response?

Yeah there were a lot of reasons for the Civil War i.e. the right to propety (the right to own slaves), state rights (the right to own slaves, economic competition with the North (the right to exploit your slaves for cheap labor). Nah, the war had nothing to do with slaver . . . yeah, right.

Folks who like to pretend they are so rebellious by flying the Confederate Flag are right about one thing though it does appear that the Confederate South will rise again, shit always floats to the top.

Good for you Portland for taking a stance, good for you!

Please do some research on the flags history. Once you are educated on its history you will be able to blog with knowledge. Order your $5.00 coffee and $4.00 muffin open your $2500 laptop and get to work. Look outside that coffee shop and wonder what alot of people of color can not afford. You are the problem, not the flag.

I believe I acknowledged my white privilege in the post, Braveheart. And incidentally, didn't the English kill you centuries ago?

Order your $5.00 coffee and $4.00 muffin open your $2500 laptop

ha ha, jokes on you, my coffee only cost $4.00. Wait, what?

P.S. Since we're all talking about the awesomeness that is Belmont, why no posts on the guy who (allegedly) flung himself through Stumptown's front window yesterday, requiring about 7 cops cars and a fire truck when he finally got chased down a few blocks away, Blogtown?

Because we rely on tips from dudes like you, Dave. See the top of Blogtown...

THANKS!

"P.S. Since we're all talking about the awesomeness that is Belmont, why no posts on the guy who (allegedly) flung himself through Stumptown's front window yesterday, requiring about 7 cops cars and a fire truck when he finally got chased down a few blocks away, Blogtown?"

I know I've felt much the same way after experiencing the joys of the Belmont Stumptown.

I like the Division store though.

That storefront is pertty gross but does anyone want SE Portland to become another sterile city -- DC, LA, NYC, the Pearl? It will if you push it in that direction. Maybe we could replace it with a nice Panera Bread. I'm hoping we can live with diversity in all it's forms. Echoing a sentiment above, if you don't like the store, go hang elsewhere.

Everybody knows that Dixie is a mob front. People have been saying that for years. Why else would a place that does no business take up 3 highly sought after store fronts for that long? Think about it.
They need to hurry up and shut down so the KKK can open up a smoothy shop.

The flags are racist and always have been. OTOH, Oregon has a stronger freedom of speech clause in its constitution than the federal one, which is a good thing. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get some grief for them. Good job, whoever did the MLK's on there.

The Dixie Mattress people are bad neighbors and it astonishes me that hipsters pretend their red neck thing is some kind of working class cool. NOT. They got exposed a few years ago for putting new covers on old pee-soaked mattresses and reselling them.

Word on the street is that the only reason they haven't sold is that nobody in the family can read, and they don't trust anybody enough to sign anything. Fine by me because it would probably just become another place for hipsters with six figure salaries to pose as bicycle messengers while getting shit-faced.

The flags are racist and always have been. OTOH, Oregon has a stronger freedom of speech clause in its constitution than the federal one, which is a good thing. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get some grief for them. Good job, whoever did the MLK's on there.

The Dixie Mattress people are bad neighbors and it astonishes me that hipsters pretend their red neck thing is some kind of working class cool. NOT. They got exposed a few years ago for putting new covers on old pee-soaked mattresses and reselling them.

Word on the street is that the only reason they haven't sold is that nobody in the family can read, and they don't trust anybody enough to sign anything. Fine by me because it would probably just become another place for hipsters with six figure salaries to pose as bicycle messengers while getting shit-faced.

Weird...The latest issue of Zyzzyva has a story set at (or above) the Dixie Mattress Company! It's by local author Liz Prato.

http://www.zyzzyva.org/w05.prato.htm

"On the other side of the Dixie Mattress Company was a store that sold candles and greeting cards. Veronica liked to go into this store, because it always smelled of vanilla and cinnamon, just like the kitchen when her mother used to bake spice cakes with brown-sugar-and-butter topping..."

Not really my bag, mate. Sorry.

I saw a place flying the Union Jack the other day.

Talk about offensive. I heard they used to tax whole countries!

i am from the south. the confederate flag definitely means something down there. i think if there was a concern about the flags on belmont, some one from the community would just try to talk about it with the owners. this just seems like privileged white trustifarians misbehavin en route from eating a wrap at laughing planet to reggae night at where ever.

I live near it. The door is always chained shut. It's an eyesore. I've never seen anybody working there, or shopping there. They've had the same stuff sitting in it for 2 or more years. It's trashy. If it's a front, it's not a very good one.

The confederate flag is just icing on that cake.

You know, I'm Cuban-American and I'm deeply offended by all the Che imagery around here in Portland, probably much worse than any black person who's looked at those confederate flags in the past year.

Where's my white American protest?!?! The only people who seem to know Che killed and tortured tens of thousands of Cubans in prison and did exactly jackSHIT for us are the Republicans, and I don't want to side with them!

Now THERE'S a conflict for ya..

I a few blocks off of Belmont.

I would rather have a McDonald's on that street than this place. Not only have I never seen it open (in 5 years), its a rat-hole, and I find it terribly insulting.

Every time I walk past I'm half tempted to toss a rock through their window.

I live a few blocks off of Belmont.

I would rather have a McDonald's on that street than this place. Not only have I never seen it open (in 5 years), its a rat-hole, and I find it terribly insulting.

Every time I walk past I'm half tempted to toss a rock through their window.

I'm offended by that place. Its really unneccesary to have the flags there, if anything it tells me that I'm not welcome to shop there. I applaud whoever did this for actually standing up for black people in portland instead of just talking about how white it is day in and day out like i overhear nearly every fucking day.