African-Americans are more likely to be targets of hate and discrimination in Eugene than other minorities. That's according to a report released this week.
The report records criminal and non-criminal hate and bias behavior that is reported in Eugene. That includes a wide spectrum of activity including harassment, graffiti, and assault.
The city found there were 47 criminal incidents reported last year. The majority of victims were African-American. Eugene Springfield NAACP Director Eric Richardson says this is not a surprise.
Richardson: "Well, I think it just tells us a story that we've already known. And that is that the African peoples in America are really at the bottom of the pile when it talks about racism."
Richardson says he's glad the data is being tracked in Eugene. He would like to see information on the whole state. He says he hears often about racial discrimination from people in rural areas of Oregon.
Richardson: "I do think this is a social narrative issue that I think we do need to keep our conversation about who we are, what we look like, where we're going to be in the future. And race definitely is going to play a part in that."
Michael Kinneson is with the city's office of Human Rights and Neighborhood involvement. He says there's a growing trend of people being targeted for their sexual orientation.
Kinneson: "Some of these incidents involve very disturbing acts of physical violence which is disconcerting. We know that this happens everywhere in our community so this is not a problem of just one neighborhood. We get reports from all over the city of Eugene, even in our schools."
Kinneson says most of these incidents go unreported.
