Kent Black Action Commission’s statement to Kent City Council:
Can Ferguson happen in Kent?
Kent is not Ferguson, Mo, however Kent is not totally free of some of the same drivers that led up to what did play out in that Missouri town. Because of the leadership of Chief Thomas our Police Department is better connected to Black community in Kent than in the past. The Chief’s outreach to the Black citizens of Kent has been deliberate and welcomed. However, that alone does not mean that we should not reflect on our city and how we can continue to avoid the same pitfalls that has culminated in the high profile shooting to dead of an unarmed Black teenager. When living in a city like Kent, your life experience is made up of more than just your interaction with the Police department. It is also about representation and inclusion. It’s about neighbors interacting with neighbors with respect. It’s about the school system. It’s about employment and economic development opportunities. Kent has a Black citizenry that has lived in Kent as long as 40 years plus and as little as less than 1 year. During that time there have been some incidents of racial insensitivity experienced here in Kent. This along with the exchange at the August 19th Kent City Council meeting regarding whether a moment of silence should be observed in the aftermath of nationally publicized death of Michael Brown brought to light the unspoken truth that there is a racial divide in Kent. The gap may or may not be as wide as Ferguson but it does exist. We need to talk about the past, the present, and the future when it comes to race relations in Kent and in America. We need to understand that a lot of the Black experience in America has been left out of commonly taught American history and thus has been omitted from the American consciousness. We need to display the courage to open the doors on the unspoken truths and commit to insure that Ferguson will never happen in Kent.
Let’s briefly highlight past experiences of Black people in Kent. Black people have been subjected to being called a racial epithet yelled from a passing vehicle while walking on Kent-Kangley Rd. Black people have seen vulgar racial epithets scrolled on bus stops. Black people have seen Black children handcuffed in school for disciplinary issues. Black people have experienced being stopped by Police in the predominately white neighborhood where they reside for no discernible reason other than driving while Black.
In our present we have been exposed to several nationally reported incidents of Black men mainly unarmed being killed by Police or someone acting under the color of authority. The Trayvon Martin case being one of the higher profile cases; however in the month of August there have been 4 additional cases of unarmed young Black men killed in interactions with the Police. Eric Gardner Long Allen, NY. Died after being the subject of a choke hold administered by Police even though you could hear exclaim at least eleven times that he could not breath. Mr. Gardner was confronted by Police for allegedly selling non-taxed cigarettes. John Crawford Beaver Creek, Ohio was shot by Police in side a Walmart Store while holding a BB gun that he picked off a store shelf. Walmart sells the guns. Ezell Ford Los Angeles, CA was shot in the back while lying on the ground. Dante Parker Victorville, CA died after being shocked with a Taser by Police. Parker was a pressman at the local news paper. He was out for a bike ride when stopped by the Police because the Police had a call that a robbery suspect had left the scene on a bicycle. And, then we have the case of Mike Brown an 18 year old that was unarmed when he was shot to death Police in Ferguson, Mo., and his body lay unattended in the street for over 4 hours. The release of details to this point has been slow and incomplete. All of this has prompted us to give pause and question can this happen in Kent and what can we do to make sure Kent could never be a Ferguson, Mo.
What do we need to do going forward to insure that Kent is a role model of diversity and inclusion. Our conversations on Race Relations should be open and honest. We need to stop stifling the conversations by saying you are just playing the race card. Ask yourself who’s game are we playing and who brought the cards. If you don’t want the race card played take it out of the deck. We need to stop telling Black people you personally were never enslaved and slavery was ended in 1863 so just get over it. We say to people with that attitude “do you really understand what you are telling me to get over”? The emancipation proclamation was signed in 1863; however you know that the Free Blacks immediately subjected to the “Black Codes” followed by “Jim Crow Laws”.
In the United States, the most notorious Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans’ freedom and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt.
Since the early 1800s, many laws in both North and South discriminated systematically against free Blacks. In the South, “slave codes” placed significant restrictions on Black Americans who were not themselves slaves. A major purpose of these laws was maintenance of the system of white supremacy that made slavery possible
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_(United_States)
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a “separate but equal” status for African Americans. The separation in practice led to conditions for African Americans that were inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States, while Northern segregation was generally de facto — patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.
These Jim Crow Laws followed the 1800–1866 Black Codes, which had previously restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans with no pretense of equality. State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
So when you say get over it you need to understand what needs to be overcome. For us to not let this legacy of racial injustice inhibit us from moving forward as a unified community we need to deal with each other with open minds. This brings us to the one demand at this time. The statement that Councilman Les Thomas made at the August 19, 2014 City Council “I will not participate in a moment of silence for an 18 year old thief” referring to Michael Brown, shows us that you sir do not have the kind of open mind that this city needs to move forward. So we are asking that you resign from the council.
Real Judgment 