StoryHelix

The Legare Series: Misael and Serenity, part 3

StoryHelix, Misael Legare, Serenity Legare, Wordcrafters in Eugene, Leah Velez, Intro and Outro Music by Otis McDonald Season 1 Episode 16

Misa and Serenity Legare talk about their differing experiences with racism in Lane County.

You can read more about the project, about Wordcrafters in Eugene, about our sponsors and community partners, and send in your own Lane County, Oregon stories at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org.

Thanks for listening!

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 You're listening to StoryHelix, intertwining
 stories past, present and not yet imagined,
 
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 in Lane County Oregon. What's up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez and
 
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 I'll be your host. The story
 we're about to hear was recorded at Oakshire
 
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 Brewing Company in the Whittaker neighborhood of
 Eugene, Oregon, in early 2022. Let's open
 
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 up our ear nuggets and give it
 a listen. Hi, my name's Serenity,
 
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 spelled like it sounds, S-E-R-E-N-I-T-Y.
 
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 I'm thirty-two years old. I
 am a white queer adult who's here with
 
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 my husband, Misa. I'm Misa
 spelled M-I-S-A. I am
 
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 thirty, Um, Latino, Hispanic, White, a little bit of everything.
 
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 Do you know any do you know
 any stories about Eugene? I don't
 
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 know much about the area. I
 just like, I know, like Oregon
 
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 as was very racist and like in
 the beginning, you know, like not
 
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 letting minorities in our own homes,
 and I don't know, I guess the
 
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 White Supremacist Haven, so to speak. (Right, after the Civil War.) So you know that like that kind
 
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 of like it's still here, obviously, and yeah, I guess you know
 
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 it's always in the back of my
 mind being a minority. Do you think
 
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 that's come more to light in just
 the past few years living here? I mean, yeah,
 
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 of course, like like, you
 know, like the seeing the guy with
 
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 it was the swastika at WinCo that
 one time that was fun. Oh yeah, or the guy with
 
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 the truck who had paint that had
 the loud speakers on his roof and on
 
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 his truck and have awful things coming
 out. I know for me, I
 
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 was definitely pretty oblivious for the first
 few years living here. I thought,
 
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 I thought Eugene was so woke and
 so diverse and you know, I also
 
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 came from a very religious bubble and
 so I thought it was all. You
 
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 know, now I'm learning not so
 much, but that's okay. It's good
 
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 to learn about that stuff too.
 And I mean that's always been obvious for
 
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 me, like anywhere there's white people, I just yeah, I mean sometimes
 
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 they, you know, people forget
 I'm, you know, not I am
 
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 Hispanic and Latino, and they say
 things in front of me, racist things,
 
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 forgetting, you know, like okay, how does that make you feel?
 
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 Does it make me feel? I
 mean, I'm not good, like
 
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 not seen. Yeah, just judged
 for the way I look. As you
 
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 know, it's not a good feeling. Yeah. Thanks for listening. You can find
 
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 us wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you've got your own Lane County
 
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 story to tell, we'd love to
 hear it at StoryHelix Dot Wordcrafters Dot Org.
 
  

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