Today Portland is one of the most multi-cultural small cities our country has from what I saw.
The census reported the city as 76.1%
White (444,254 people), 7.1%
Asian(41,448), 6.3% Black or African American (36,778), 1.0% Native American (5,838), 0.5% Pacific Islander (2,919), 4.7% belonging to two or more racial groups (24,437) and 5.0% from other races (28,987).
[53] 9.4% were
Hispanic or Latino, of any race (54,840). Whites not of Hispanic origin made up 72.2% of the total population.
[53]
6.3% black.

The only nikkas in Portland are the Trailblazers.
The south and mid-west have always been racist and still are for the most part. In the same time period as the article in the op post and prior to the Civil War there was also racial violence in Chicago, Boston, and New York. It's not news to anyone.
Yup. America is racist. This is true.
Would you like to compare Portland to cities in the south today? I don't think so.
The south is a pretty big place. It depends on which cities you're talking about. And I'm not sure why you keep talking about Portland. We're talking about the whole state of Oregon here. That would be like me trying to downplay racism in Florida by citing just Miami. Only difference is Portland is notorious for white hate groups unlike Miami.
You really need to choose a better example of cacs in a northern city to

for because Portland is a known hotbed of violent white supremacist hate groups. Ever heard Volksfront?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksfront
Watch this Gangland episode about them if you can stomach it.
"Oregon is the mecca of white supremacists."

You don't say.