Hate and bias is very much alive in Eugene.

That’s according to more than a dozen people who offered raw and, sometimes, emotional testimony Tuesday evening during a community listening session at Harris Hall in downtown Eugene organized by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and the Oregon Department of Justice Task Force on Hate Crimes.

Testimony offered by some of the about 65 people in attendance ranged from descriptions of racism, anti-Semitism, bullying, homophobia, intimidation, white supremacy and more. The speakers' statements also put a face on a recent city of Eugene report that found the area’s rate of hate and bias crime incidents had nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017.

Betty Snowden, a local downtown business owner, described years of racism and threatened violence that she and her family faced from other community members — just for owning a business.

“People would tell us we didn’t fit,” she said. “That we didn’t look right … I suppose because we were black, we didn’t look right. On a daily basis we were called the N-word. We were cursed out and this is still happening, it hasn’t stopped. People told us to go back to Africa, there were piles of poop on our doorstep, broken windows, a knife shown to us."

In an impassioned speech, Snowden implored the attorney general to not only listen to what was being said during the session, but also to take action.

“What I’m saying to you is don’t just listen to this,” Snowden said. “If there are people in position that are doing these things, you need to get rid of them. Don’t just listen, do something about it.”

Tuesday's session was one of three taking place across the state — in Portland and Medford along with Eugene — this week in an effort to to hear directly from members of the public about how they've experienced hate-motivated incidents and discrimination. State officials hope to use the information gathered to shape legislation aimed at strengthening the state's hate crime laws.

The effort is spearheaded by the Oregon Department of Justice Task Force on Hate Crimes, established by Rosenblum in May. The committee — also tasked with determining if law enforcement have the appropriate tools to investigate and combat hate crimes — is made up of policymakers, advocacy group members, religious organization representatives, law enforcement officials and others.

Local officials say the increase in local hate and bias crimes is alarming, but recent attention paid to the issue is reassuring.

David Saez, executive director of Centro Latino Americano, a bilingual, multicultural agency serving Latino families in Lane County, said he’s glad state officials are looking into hate and bias incidents.

“It’s a pretty important event that shows that at the state level we’re taking a serious look at something that is such a significant issue for so many people in our community,” said Saez on Monday. “We’ve seen the increase here, but I think sometimes people underestimate the issue. It’s really critical that elected officials and state officials come out to particular communities to get the feedback they need.”

In addition to the city’s 2016-17 report on hate and bias crimes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its Hate Crimes Statistics report released in November ranked Eugene as the top city in the state for reported hate crimes in 2017.

The city and federal reports could indicate an actual increase in the number of incidents, but experts also point out that local efforts to increase awareness and reporting could be influencing the uptick.

The city of Eugene’s Office of Human Rights & Neighborhood Involvement collects data and compiles an annual report on the city’s hate and bias crimes. As a result, Eugene’s numbers may be the most accurately captured when compared to other cities that do not dedicate resources to collecting hate crime information, according to Katie Babits, the office’s human rights and equity analyst.

Additionally, the FBI’s 2017 report is based on numbers submitted on a voluntary basis — meaning not every agency in the state participated, and the report relies on reporting by participating cities which may have varying methods of gathering hate crime information.

Nonetheless, hate and bias crimes are taking place in Oregon — and Eugene — and Rosenblum wants to find ways to address them.

Rosenblum hopes that by having community listening sessions, she and the task force can hear first-hand the experiences of community members. In turn, that information can be used to expand the conversation on such topics to determine how to combat them.

“Frankly, I want to learn as much as I can about what is going on in terms of the hateful conduct but also how communities are addressing it, which can be helpful to us in proposing legislation,” Rosenblum said before the Tuesday meeting.

The attorney general said she and the committee would be reviewing the state’s current hate-related laws and introducing legislation to strengthen them. Rosenblum wasn’t quite ready to reveal exactly what would be in the bill introduced by her team this legislative session, but said data collection and reporting of such incidents would be a priority.

“Eugene seems to be doing a good job of keeping track of hate-related incidents,” she said. “But not every agency across the state is doing the same. We want to understand the hate motivated conduct and provide adequate services, but we need the data to do that. We can’t solve the problem without the data.”

Despite Eugene’s system of reporting and tracking such incidents, several of the about dozen people who testified at the meeting said it’s not enough.

“Oregon was founded on white supremacy,” said Robert Scott, a 60-year-old Eugene resident and taxi driver who’s lived in Oregon his entire life. “Not much as been done about this disease of white supremacy that has made a lot of people real sick, and the sickness causes hate.”

Scott asked that Rosenblum and the task force dig deep to examine the root of racism in Oregon.

"I don’t know what to do because Oregon has a very visible, horrible, racist, history of death, crime and murders,” Scott said. “All that stuff is all wrapped up in Oregon’s history, so again, what do you do? The first thing is to look at the white supremacy problem. It’s here. It exists.”

Follow Alisha Roemeling on Twitter @alisharoemeling. Email alisha.roemeling@registerguard.com.