Emotions and Ambient Racism in America's Whitest Big City.

This article examines how communities of color in Portland, Oregon—the whitest large U.S. city—experience racism through the concept of ambient racism, which describes the pervasive, cumulative, and often subtle ways that historical and structural racism are embedded in the social environment and felt emotionally by racialized individuals. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with ethnically diverse, mostly middle-class Portlanders of color, the study highlights how demographic underrepresentation, historical exclusion, and predominantly white spaces produce feelings of isolation, fear, and emotional labor, including impression management and code-switching, as strategies to navigate everyday life. The findings emphasize the importance of place in shaping racialized emotions and reveal how ambient racism bridges structural and interpersonal dimensions of racism by materializing in the emotional experiences of people of color. The article calls for further research on how ambient racism operates across different racial groups, class positions, and regional contexts beyond predominantly white cities like Portland.