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"Every injustice has awakened more people from their dream of 'it's all OK.," writes F. Willis Johnson. Above, demonstrators protest the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson., Mo., in 2014.
After six years of 'mourning runs,' a pause for optimism
Aug 12 2020
Johnson is a United Methodist pastor, the author of "Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community" (Abingdon Press, 2017) and a senior fellow at the Bridge Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 civic reform groups. (Disclosure: The Bridge Alliance Education Fund is a funder of The Fulcrum.)
<p>It has been six years this week since the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man who was shot in Ferguson, Mo., by police officer Darren Wilson. </p><p>Given the present news and political cycles, six years seems a long time ago. However, for those who lived through the pain of Ferguson — people like me, whose activism came of age, and especially for Lezley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., parents of the slain — six years ago feels like yesterday. </p><p>At the time, I was the senior minister of Wellspring Church in Ferguson — and, soon after the killing galvanized the nation, I began what I refer to as my "mourning runs." The running was not only therapeutic but also served as a form of protest. I ran to be reminded of what happened that dreadful day. I would run to be reminded to keep running towards the work yet undone. Though I'm no longer a resident in Ferguson, I continue to run. Ferguson is one leg of the relay towards equity and justice in America. </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Every injustice has awakened more people from their dream of "it's all OK." Each new death at the hand of system enforcers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4amCfVbA_c&t=92s" target="_blank">violates our social contract</a>. These unjust fatalities awaken us with a distinctly different visceral reaction. For some people, it was Michael Brown. For others it was Trayvon Martin. Or Charlottesville. Or Ahmaud Aubrey. Or George Floyd. Or Breonna Taylor. </p><p>I'm haunted by how comfortable and long-suffering we have become with the loss of Black life and with the persistent victimization of black and brown bodies by police officers. But America is slow to wake up, wanting to burrow back into the dream of justice. But many who are other-ed in America cannot sleep because they live in a nightmare of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ASSMnYfKKdTpsyUUPHbli?si=rP5geXXvSwWtyvkH_7nDNg" target="_blank">another Black person being dehumanized or hurt or killed or falsely accused of something. And it is exhausting.</a></p><p>Running is part of how I stay both awake and aware. As we awaken, we begin our part of the relay, taking the baton and doing our part. </p><p>My baton carry in Ferguson involved forwarding educational, social and civic uplift. Folks like the Rev. Steve Lawler, Nick Rhinehart-Sweirk, then-state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Mary McMutrey and the St. Louis Community Foundation assisted in establishing the Center for Social Empowerment. The center is a hub for theologically informed reflection and exploration of social and racial justice issues. In partnership with numerous local and national entities, we have curated space for deliberative dialogue and citizen empowerment. </p><p>We have an opportunity for an initial response, in times of trauma or critical situations, that restores stability. As a country we are now in such a traumatized and critical state. Unless we resolve the trauma, we will remain stagnant and fearful. But a restorative response — one that goes beyond stability — can aid in healing. <br></p><p>We are in a relay race to achieve restorative justice, an equitable economy — and a representative democracy. Not to mention accessible health care, a cleaner environment, better education and immigration reform.</p><p>Some team members in the earliest days of Ferguson have faded back into obscurity. But the dreams of freedom, voting, equity and justice — dreams shared by chattel slaves, abolitionists, reconstructionists, those who worked to eradicate Jim Crow, civil rights leaders and Black Power resistance fighters and now the people of Black Lives Matter — have remained. </p><p>My unsuccessful school board candidacy six years ago revealed the long-standing discriminatory election practices of Ferguson. With two others and the <a data-linked-post="2638969877" href="https://thefulcrum.us/naacp" target="_blank">NAACP</a>, we successfully sued and <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/education/2019-01-07/us-supreme-court-upholds-ruling-on-ferguson-florissant-school-board-elections" target="_blank">won a federal court ruling</a> declaring the Ferguson-Florissant Board of Education's elections violated the <a data-linked-post="2636710625" href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting-rights-act" target="_blank">Voting Rights Act</a> — and had to be switched to a system called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_voting" target="_blank">cumulative voting</a>. Missouri Faith Matters was a great ally, hosting grassroots civics training, get-out-the-vote phone banks and convening national town halls or national marches for sociopolitical redress. </p><p>There are many people who continue to carry the baton in Ferguson. People like Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County prosecutor; Ella Jones, the newly elected mayor of Ferguson as well as the first African American and woman to hold that office; and Cori Bush, who this month won the Democratic primary and unseated Lacy Clay, whose family has held the area's congressional seat for more than five decades.</p><p>There are countless others who are selflessly building, leading and advocating in Ferguson and beyond. Our race is far from over. </p><p>While we continue to mourn, grieve and lament for Michael Brown, and others who came before and who have been killed since, time passes. Life continues apace. Every issue is not our fault, but every issue of injustice, indifference and democratic inequality remains our responsibility. We are called to acts of continued remembrance and resistance even in the face of difficulty, uncertainty and opposition. </p><p>For those of us whose lives were touched by Michael Brown's death, we will never forget. His sacrifice will be remembered as our leg on the long run towards equity and justice. </p>
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Civic Ed
True
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Alumni of Houston's Jack Yates High School participate in a vigil honoring George Floyd, who played football at the school.
Twelve years of school never taught me Black lives matter. Time to fix that.
Aug 06 2020
Before graduating in June from high school in Sugar Land, Texas, Tangirala launched the Anti-Racist Curriculum Reform effort to persuade school districts to teach more about racism and include more perspectives of people of color in social studies.
<p>"I come here today to talk about how I feel. And I feel like we are treated differently from other people." </p><p>The voice is from the elegant, determined, cocoa-tinted but tear-streaked face of a girl who's no more than 10 years old, imploring an online audience that includes me. And this was not the only such video I've seen recently.</p><p>Since the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor joined the deaths of countless others who have perished due to the stigmas of race, so many of our social media feeds have been filled with flicks of violence, pleas for change — and seeds of hope that our world can be converted from black and white to technicolor, once and for all. </p><p>"I don't like how we're treated, and just because of our color," the girl continues. "It doesn't mean anything to me." But the color of her skin makes what she's saying all the more powerful — and should assure her voice reverberates in the minds of people of every color on the spectrum.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>I don't like how Black students are treated, either. I have seen firsthand the immunity non-Black students receive in the classroom justice system versus the Black students. </p><p>My own skin color is not exceedingly lighter than those who have perished because of police brutality. It's a shade somewhere in the middle, dark enough that I know this is my fight, too. </p><p>The United States is a lofty name for a nation torn so pathetically asunder. And as our political polarization widens to create an increasingly unstable climate, today's teenagers face more mental burdens than the older members of Generation Z. As just one example, we have been told white mass shooters deserve impunity because they're mentally ill, but nonviolent Black protestors are "thugs."</p><p>Approaching graduation led me to realize something blatantly obvious: Never in 12 years of school, not once, was I taught anything about present-day racism. There was instruction on the civil rights movement back in the 1960s and the reasons behind it — but not a single instance where we learned in-depth about the manifestation of present-day racism, or even had a school-sponsored conversation regarding today's prevalent racial bias. </p><p>My teachers and school administrators were great educators and people, so ultimately this came down to a failure of our curriculum. </p><p>Discussion and civic education are the keys to societal reform; if we aren't striving for that, we have nothing left to be proud of. </p><p>This was the reasoning behind my effort to press school districts to do two things: First, incorporate more voices of people of color, especially their views on history and social thought, in lesson plans. Second, sponsor dialogues in schools to talk about the realities of present-day racism and its diverse manifestations.</p><p>Present-day racism may not necessarily include lynching or apartheid. It often has a subtler presence on and off campus — the haughty undertones of a condescending voice, or the affinity for rules and regulations that only stifle people of color. These seemingly minor infractions may not appear to put lives at risk, but they still encourage mindsets that put people's lives at risk every day. </p><p>This is what racism looks like. Why is this not explicitly taught in our schools? These crucial developmental years are the perfect time to expel any unjust biases lingering in mind.</p><p>More than a thousand students and graduates of five districts in the Houston area have signed up to support us in just a few months — and we're already working on expanding our initiative into New Jersey, California and Arizona. </p><p>We're eager to have more help, and to take our cause to more places. Don't wait for someone else to do it tomorrow. You can't keep social justice on hold. </p>
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Members of the Minnesota National Guard surround the statet Capitol on May 31.
Claim: President deployed National Guard to Minn. over objections of state leaders. Fact check: False
Jul 06 2020
"Minnesota's Democrat governor [Tim Walz] failed to urgently deploy the National Guard — it took President Trump for that to eventually happen; his suggestion — and the ultimate descendance into chaos there in Minneapolis." — White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, June 29
President Trump and his team repeated multiple times that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard to deal with rioting in Minnesota. The first time Trump took credit for the deployment was during an interview with Nexstar on June 17.
"I brought it out five days after they started. They wouldn't use the National Guard. I brought the National Guard to — I told them, I said, 'You got to get the National Guard.' We got them in," he told Nexstar. "Everything stopped in Minneapolis. It was really an amazing thing, actually, to see, and they had no problems after we called out the Guard."
Two days later, Trump tweeted: "Forced Democrat run Minnesota to bring in the National Guard & end rioting & looting after seeing the destruction & crime in Minneapolis."
<p>White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany made a similar claim during her official briefing on June 29.</p><blockquote></blockquote><p>But it was actually Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Walz, and not Trump, who deployed the Minnesota National Guard. Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, first activated the Guard on May 28, more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to do it himself. According to his office, he was not acting under the president's advice, but rather under requests from officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul — cities also run by Democrats. Furthermore, the Guard was deployed two days after the riots had started, rather than the five claimed by Trump.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p>
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A country in crisis needs to call a truce with its government
Jun 22 2020
Anderson was editor of "Leveraging: A Political, Economic and Societal Framework" (Springer, 2014), has taught at five universities and sought the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Maryland in 2016.
<p>Approval ratings for Congress boomed in April, reaching 30 percent after the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill was passed. For years, though, congressional approval has been very low — even dipping to a "record" of 9 percent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/308675/trump-job-rating-slides-satisfaction-tumbles.aspx" target="_blank">after a government shutdown</a> seven years ago. Essentially, American citizens over the last generation, starting with Vietnam and Watergate, have lost confidence and trust in government.</p><p>For decades <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/5392/trust-government.aspx" target="_blank">polls have shown</a> a majority trust their state and especially local governments to solve problems. It is the federal government they judge harshly. Moreover, those who judge the federal government harshly are not the same group who want a smaller, more efficient federal government. Democrats may support a more expansive and more progressive federal government, but the vast majority join Republicans in judging the performance of the federal government as poor.</p><p>Even during the national crisis growing out of the brutal police killing of George Floyd, a natural question arises about what Americans think about government overall. Indeed, how much credence should we give to polls telling us a vast majority do not approve of their federal government or trust politicians? Yes, this is what they say. But do they really mean it? Are the questions good enough for citizens to give honest answers?</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Most Americans benefit enormously from government — local and state as well as federal. But they rarely get a chance to indicate what they like: </p><p>At the national level, their Social Security checks, Medicare benefits and food stamps from the SNAP program; a Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department assuring the safety of what they eat; a Defense Department protecting them from foreign invasions and an EPA working to keep the air breathable and water drinkable, for starters. At the state level, transportation departments that make our roads safer than otherwise and parks where we are free to roam. At the local level, such basic services as snow removal, firefighting and trash collection.</p><p>The media has brought considerable attention to the failings of the federal government, whether it was an inability to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, sloppy and delayed responses to hurricanes, regulations that might have staved off the 2008 financial crisis or the tepid response this spring to the spreading coronavirus. </p><p>There definitely is considerable dysfunction in Washington, but it does not follow from this reality that the federal government performs as poorly as many polls would make you think. State and local governments are not usually the target of citizen animus, although the national wave of protests during the past month have brought into focus the fierce critique the Black community has against police forces — especially at the local and state levels. </p><p>As we witness the continuing cases of excessive force by the police, we should recognize areas of our government that have failed to achieve two forms of justice: criminal justice, at the federal as well as state and local levels, and distributive justice, especially federal programs aimed at creating greater equality in housing, education and employment.</p><p>As insistent calls grow for fast systemic change to improve racial inequality in our country, and while we are seeing some critically important changes made at the local and state level in our criminal justice system — police departments banning choke-holds, for example, and redirecting funds to other agencies to ensure public safety — we should not give up on the power of the federal government to serve the people. </p><p>We must disabuse ourselves of the myth that the public, especially what the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the "white moderates," does not benefit enormously from our federal government. </p><p>For if we do not get rid of that misperception, we will not be able to harness the energy and organizational power needed to address systemic racism against Black citizens as well as serious problems afflicting all citizens, ranging from an inadequate health care system to an insufficient approach to the global warming catastrophe to our crisis in higher education.</p><p>Major changes in federal law that could combat racism, certainly concerning our system of distributive justice, will not get through Congress in the weeks ahead. A national dialogue is needed to address issues such as housing, education and employment — because, without such a sustained effort by citizens and advocacy organizations, no significant legislation that might pass the Democratic House will also get through the Republican Senate.</p><p>The parties, of course, are now fully involved in the battle to control the White House and the Capitol next year. During the campaign, it is past time for the GOP to stop making the federal government a major punching bag. It was certainly less of a target from the 1930s through the 1970s. It is time, instead, to debate the hard issues without hyperbole and simplicity, especially when there is a manifest need for strong federal support for an economy stricken by the novel coronavirus. </p><p>Something like a truce is needed with the federal government. If you don't like the concept and word "truce," then call it a transformed understanding. For if you stand for major changes — whether you are a Black citizen focused on our criminal justice system's failings or a white middle-income citizen seeking a fundamental overhaul of our distributive justice system — these will not come from alienating the very people in Washington who would write and implement the better rules. </p><p>The federal government is also a massive three-part system; it's not only the agencies of the executive branch, which take much of the abuse, but also the legislative branch at the Capitol and the judicial branch centered at the Supreme Court. Those wanting fundamental changes in our society have the opportunity to vote in November for politicians they believe could make, implement and enforce new laws and regulations.</p>
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