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By LaKeshia N. Myers

A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

These words were spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1967.

Kings words were fresh on my mind last week during our assembly floor session where we debated a bill that would define riot in statute as well as provide penalties for individuals who incite and/or participate in a riot. I voted No on the billand for good reason. First, the bill defined a riot as, a public disturbance that involves an act of violence, as part of an assembly, of at least three persons, that constitutes a clear and present danger of property damage or personal injury or a threat of an act of violence (Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, 2023). My colleagues widely referenced the protests of 2020, when statues we dismantled and storefronts were vandalized in the wake of George Floyds murder. They readily exclaimed that law enforcement groups were all on board with the legislation that would be aimed at saving property.

While they thought about property, I thought about people. The people whose lives are almost always at the heart of the protests. People who inherently carry the burden of fighting for their very existence and fight to hold on to their piece of American pie each and every generation. They are most often the people who would be prosecuted should a protest include any act of violence, and the truth of the matter is, they might very well be the perpetrator of a violent act done in the name of a worthy cause. But to me, riot, as defined by the legislation is par for the course of living in a democracy. It is the American way.

America itself exists because of riots. The Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and Shays Rebellionall can be classified as riots. The people who perpetrated the acts (in most cases) were prosecuted and tried (or killed) because of their participation. But the end result was that our country changed because they were courageous enough to stand up for what they believed in. It amazes me that now, because of Black Lives Matter protests and the subsequent violence that occurred we need harsher penalties. There are very few penalties for police and others who choose to wreak havoc on marginalized communities. Where was the outcry about saving property when Black churches were being burned? When the Greenwood District of Tulsa was being bombed and burned to the ground? When cities like Watts, Newark, and Miami were hurting?

I am not a proponent of violence, but I understand why it happens. I understand that there is a fine line that can be assuaged between riot and protest. The determination is most often based on whether or not we agree with the people making the noise. And that is the sad part. There is no right way to protest. Dr. King and his contemporaries dressed in their Sundays finest and were met with dogs and water hoses. In Ferguson, Missouri, some activists burned a police car and were met with tear gas. Same fight. Same result. Property damage is the cost of living in an ever evolving democracy.

Instead of creating new ways to stifle citizen outcry, we need to begin doing the real work to make our society more equitable and just. If we dont just wait for the next riot, after all, its the American blueprint for Democracy.

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Riots: The American Way - Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper

Amid all the chants, Travonna Thompson-Wiley searched for a voice. Someone who could guide her next steps.

The Seattle native had never considered herself an activist before the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. But after the video, the one she and so many others couldnt get through, shed seen enough. Felt enough. On May 30, 2020, she streamed downtown with thousands of others to protest for Black lives.

Outside the Nordstrom corporate building where she once worked, Thompson-Wiley couldnt find a leader. She followed the crowd to I-5, then up to Capitol Hill. She listened closely to stories of suffering and resilience from Black and Indigenous community members who huddled in the early days of CHOP.

Those conversations inspired Thompson-Wiley and others to form the Black Action Coalition. Group members started weekly marches. Then, when they joined daily demonstrations backed by more experienced activists like Nikkita Oliver, Thompson-Wiley heard a cacophony of outrage finally coalesce into a chorus of three demands: Free the protesters. Invest in the Black community. Defund the police.

But how much, exactly, should they ask for?

In concert with groups from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, local activists landed on a 50 percent reduction of the Seattle Police Departments budget for the remainder of 2020 and 2021. The money could be reinvested in community-led solutions and a road map to life without policing, a proposal advocacy groups King County Equity Now and Decriminalize Seattle outlined to the city council on July 7, 2020. Seven of the nine politicians pledged their support.

But three years since protesters hatched a bold plan to reimagine public safety, Seattle hasnt sniffed divestment of this magnitude. With a new administration in place, the city has quietly reversed course, raising questions about just how genuine, or widespread, calls for change in 2020 really were. And what their legacy will be.

SPD is receiving nearly $19 million more this year than in 2022. With crime and response times on the rise, the money will, in part, pay for hiring bonuses to bolster a depleted force. Over a two-and-half-year span, the department lost more than 400 trained and deployable officers for a variety of reasons, ranging from departmental squabbles to complaints about Seattles political climate.

The reimbursement fulfills one of mayor Bruce Harrells promises on the campaign trail. Make no mistake about it: Im not defunding the police, Harrell said during a debate with M. Lorena Gonzlez, part of the city council contingent who supported the 50 percent cut.

SPD BUDGET2020, actual: $402.3 million2021, actual: $361.7 million2022, adopted: $355.5 million2023, adopted: $374.3 million2024, endorsed: $384.9 millionIcon: EdwinPM / noun project

Harrells predecessor, Jenny Durkan, dismissed the feasibility of the councils stance back then. You cant govern by Twitter or bumper sticker. And the citys legislative body quickly discoveredthat a 50 percent cut was not possible, remembers council member Lisa Herbold, chair of the Public Safety and Human Services committee. A Covid-induced budget rebalancing shaved a paltry $3 million in the summer of 2020, and tweaks for 2021 ultimately amounted to just a 10 percent net cutprogress, but not what was promised.

Or what was necessarily popular. While a telephone survey in July 2020 showed 53 percent of likely Seattle voters backed a 50 percent cut, by October of that year, a separate Crosscut/Elway poll found just 20 percent did. Its respondents skewed older and whiter than the actual demographics of the city, but it also found a greater percentage of people of color wanted more police in neighborhoods than white city residents.

Focusing on a defunding number at all may have been part of the problem, Thompson-Wiley says. Especially such a large one. Initially she was a little ticked off when the city didnt allocate more money for community members marginalized by gentrification and the war on drugs. But she kept listening to the activist voices more seasoned than hers. Defunding the police wasnt just about dollars, she learned, a sentiment she would soon pass on to skeptics; it was also a broader mandate to reduce the power and size of the force.

Through that lens, she could see the steps forward.

Anglica Chzaro couldnt march during those early protests. With immunocompromised family members at home, she didnt dare come within shouting distance of the masses as a pandemic raged. Instead, she made her presence felt from behind a computer screen.

The University of Washington law professor and Decriminalize Seattle organizer helps steer the Seattle Solidarity Budget, a coalition of progressive groups that moves appeals for change from streets to spreadsheets.

The collective came together after some of its advocates were pitted against one another. In the first budget following 2020s Black Lives Matter protests, Durkan pushed for a $100 million investment in communities of color. But she wanted to fund the project with revenue from a new payroll tax earmarked for other progressive purposes.

Chzaro and peers balked. Investment couldnt substitute for divestment. And activists shouldnt have to draw from the same pot. Instead of competing for resources, they joined forces and asked, What does make us safe?

They helped secure nearly $30 million for participatory budgeting to address a broader slate of public needs: future housing, road safety, and climate change. The advocates clinched the removal of the civilian-run 911 call center from SPDs purview in 2021, potentially laying the groundwork for fewer armed responses to emergencies. And they requested the transfer of civilian parking officers to the Department of Transportation, the other major cut to the police budget.

SPD OFFICERS IN SERVICE2019: 1,2812020: 1,0942021: 9582022: 954Icon: EdwinPM / noun project

That one served as a learning experience. The move to SDOT contributed to a debacle (or a godsend, depending on your perspective), as the city had to cancel or refund more than 200,000 parking tickets from a seven-month period when its officers lacked the authority to write them. Now those officers have returned to SPD.

The parking enforcement fiasco reaffirmed that an administrations implementation of changes is almost as important as the policies themselves. With Harrell pushing for the recruitment and retention of hundreds of more officers over the next several years, Chzaro knows the Solidarity Budget is at odds with his visionthough the coalition did manage to defund 80 unfilled, or ghost cop, positions recently.

Several allies from the council who helped push for trims in the months after protests are also gone or soon leaving office. But their support didnt come out of nowhere. We knew the only reason we had this opening was because there was still so much pressure on the streets, says Chzaro.

Thompson-Wiley kept marching into the spring of 2021. Then, as she expected, things died down. Keeping the energy up was labor-intensive. She admired the work of Chzaro and Oliver, who later left for Detroit after losing a city council race to Sara Nelson, a moderate whos pushed more police hiring bonuses.

Oliver, the interim executive director of Creative Justice, where Thompson-Wiley is now a community organizer, told her that theyd shifted the conversation. Though a 50 percent defund had fallen through, police abolition was now ingrained in local political conversations. A study with UW ties showed antiracist language from Black Lives Matter protests persisted on social media and in news stories long after marches dispersed. And Herbold says that community-based alternatives to police responses are now part of the dialogue tosupport other officers, not just the safety of those in crisis. When a majority of the council, including Herbold, initially backed halving the police budget, it was not so much about whether or not the goal was realistic; it was about recognizing that you have to reach in order to even make a small change.

Still, Thompson-Wiley wonders if some of the city councils promises to defund the police were really just pleas to get them off the streets.

If so, at least she knows now where to negotiate.

Read the rest here:
What Happened to Defunding the Seattle Police Department? - Seattle Met

One of Britain's largest charities will stop considering applications for grants so that its board members can learn about colonialism and become truly anti-racist.

The Tudor Trust, which has assets of nearly 300 million and awards about 20 million a year to good causes, announced this week that it was temporarily halting awarding grants to new applicants so its staff could better understand racism.

In a statement, first reported by The Times, the charity said: Staff and trustees are still learning about racial justice, white supremacy culture and how racism exists within Tudor and the wider society in which we operate.

It comes after the charitys trustees attended anti-racism workshops following the global Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, with the trust saying at the time that it had started a journey towards a better understanding of the history of racism, the inequity it perpetuates today and how it can be dismantled.

The trust was set up in 1955 following a bequest by Sir Godfrey Mitchell, an engineer who made his fortune after the First World War with his building company George Wimpey. Many of the current trustees are descendants of Sir Godfrey.

The board of trustees is led by Sir Godfrey's grandson, Matthew Dunwell, and also includes his brother Benjamin, author James Long, and Francis Runacres, who is an executive director of Arts Council England.

It is understood that Christopher Graves, the 120,000-a-year executive director who has worked for the trust for 38 years, is departing next month.

The trust, which is based in Notting Hill, made news in 2020 after it said that the Black Lives Matter protests had further exposed the systemic racism . . . upheld by our institutions, media and culture, causing harm and denying opportunity to so many.

The charity attacked the report by the Government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities which in March 2021 claimed that structural racism is not endemic in the UK.

Shortly after, the trust announced that it would undertake its journey into anti-racism, starting by looking inwards at our own understanding of racism and white supremacy.

According to the trust, these learnings included some initial thinking about whiteness at Tudor and areas that require change for the organisation to become truly anti-racist.

The white trustees undertook about 12 hours of workshops, which the trust said gave them a better grasp of the different characteristics of racism born of Britains colonial history, as well as the white supremacy culture that prevails.

Workshops were held with black, Asian and other minority ethnic staff while white employees attended separate meetings.

In its latest accounts, the trust donated about a quarter of its grants to causes it said focused on Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

The trust has awarded grants to 700 groups and said it will continue to support these beneficiaries while the applications process is frozen.

A spokesman told The Times: The process to become a truly anti-racist organisation takes time and involves a complex dialogue with our staff and trustees. This process is not yet complete and as a responsible organisation we cannot commit to a date when we will accept new applications.

He added: Tudor is moving away from its long history as a family trust and will be seeking new trustees to reflect that as the reimagining process progresses.

See more here:
Tudor Trust suspends grant applications while staff learn about ... - The Telegraph

As part of our Black History Month activities, the Venable Success Network (VSN) hosted a panel discussion on Black resistance in America, which is the theme of this years celebration. Moderated by William Lawrence, an associate in our DC office, the panel included Lynn French, executive director of Hope and a Home, Inc. and former member of the Black Panther Party, and Frank Smith, executive director, African American Civil War Memorial and Museum.

Frank began the discussion by sharing the defining moment that led to his involvement in the civil rights movement. It occurred in 1955 when a girl in his high school class brought in an edition of Jet magazine featuring a picture of Emmett Tills mutilated body. (The 14-year-old Till had been brutally murdered during a visit to Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman.) As a young Black man growing up in the Jim Crow South, Frank realized that what had happened to Till could all too easily happen to him and other young men like him.

During his freshman year at Morehouse College, Frank joined the civil rights movement that was already under way and soon became an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He noted that many fellow members of SNCC were also motivated to join the movement after seeing Tills photo in that magazine. Facing such a real threat to their lives meant that the fight for civil rights inevitably became all-consuming, and in 1962 Frank left Morehouse to begin working full-time for SNCC. What followed were many years of fighting to end segregation at lunch counters, on buses, in schools, and indeed across society, meaning that Frank and his fellow activists spent much of their younger lives either on picket lines or in jail.

The panelists also discussed how more modern movements like Black Lives Matter compare with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Frank noted that many of the Black people who were activists in his day were middle class and college educated. But despite the wealth they had accumulated and the professional success they had achieved, there was no place in society for them. He used the example of Rosa Parks being asked to give up her seat on a bus as a case in point: the public space she had to move in was wholly controlled by white people, creating an urgency in the demands of the movement that has since lessened somewhat. But while there has been progress regarding segregation, young Black people today remain at risk of wrongful arrests and police violence. So, the core goal of the movementto ensure all people are treated equallyhas not changed.

Lynn, a sixth-generation Washington native, also spoke about getting involved in the fight for civil rights while she was still in high school. She said she frequently attended SNCC demonstrations and hugely admired their work to change the unacceptable status quo. Ultimately, she joined the Black Panther Party after being drawn to its 10-point programthe first principle of which was We Want Freedom or the power to determine ones own destiny. As a young Black woman about to go to college, Lynn realized that her options were extremely limited and that she had little power over her own future. You either became a schoolteacher, married someone who you hoped would take good care of you, or you cleaned someones house, she explained, and that just wasnt how I envisioned my life.

Lynn also discussed the work the Black Panther Party did in monitoring police stops and challenging police brutality, while noting that the problems in how Black communities are policed persist to this day. Every decade or so, we see riots flare up because theres never been real change, she said, citing the example of George Floyd, who died after being held face down by several police officers in Minnesota, who knelt on his neck and back for more than nine minutes. Floyds murder did result in the prosecution and conviction of the officers who were involved in his arrest, largely because a bystander recorded the entire incident on their smart phone. But even though video evidence often exists these days, incidents of police brutality toward people of color appear to be proliferating, and convictions in such cases remain rare.

This country is still wrestling with what citizenship means for a Black person, Frank said, and sadly that means that the struggle for equal rights is far from over.

This program is part of Venables 2023 DEI Speaker Series. To learn more about Venables diversity initiatives, please click here.

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It Affects All of Us: A Panel Discussion on Black Resistance in America - JD Supra

On February 21, while addressing a National Security Council meeting in Tunis, Tunisias President Kais Saied condemned irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa and described it as a conspiracy to erase Tunisiasidentity.

The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations, he said. Hordes of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are still arriving, with all the violence, crime and unacceptable practices that entails.

Two days later, as he called on Tunisias interior minister to crack down on irregular migration, the 65-year-old leader denied accusations from human rights groups that his hateful comments were racist, and claimedthose accusing him of racism want division and discord and seek to damage our relations with our brothers.

He, however, did not renounce his unsubstantiated claim that migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are arriving in Tunisia as part of a plot to alter its demographics.

The estimated number of Black African migrants in Tunisia today, including those without proper documentation, is just 21,000. Given the countrys 12 million-strong population, they dont have anywhere near the numbers necessary to alter Tunisias demographic composition. The elaborate plot to end Tunisias affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations is clearly just a figment of Saieds imagination.

Nevertheless, the presidents provocative remarks unleashed a wave of discrimination and violence against sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia.

Hundreds were arbitrarilyarrested, dismissed from work, evicted from theirhomesand violently assaulted.

According to Amnesty International, a 22-year-old Cameroonian asylum seeker was hospitalised after she was stabbed in the chest and left for dead by six Tunisian men, who yelled go back home, you gang of Blacks, we dont want youhere.Another woman, a student from Burkina Faso, was arbitrarily detained and physically assaulted by the police, despite producing her school papers.

In my neighbourhood, Black people were sought out, chased, raped, and their homes looted by Tunisians, a university student who was voluntarily repatriated to Guinea told the AFP news agency.

In Tunis, scores of migrant families who were left homeless as a result of Saieds crackdown set up camp outside the headquarters of the International Organization for Migration.

The presidents racist rabble-rousing also sparked widespread condemnation.

On February 25, Tunisian protesters, holding Black Lives Matter placards, took to the streets to denounceracismand declare that they are Africans.

On the same day, the African Union Commission Chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, strongly condemnedthe shocking statement issued by Tunisian authorities targeting fellow Africans, and urged Tunis to refrain from racialised hate speech.

Later, the World Bank placed its Country Partnership Framework withTunisia on hold, while the Tunisian General Labour Union said it will defend the rights of migrants, regardless of their nationality or the colour of their skin.

In the face of growing criticism, Saied attempted to clarify his remarks during a meeting with Guinea-Bissaus President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on March 8.

He claimed there was a malicious interpretation of his comments, and issued a blatant denial that he is racist. I am African, and proud to be so. But, of course, while meeting with Embalo, who is also the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), he would claim to be one of us.

While Saieds clarification about his comments failed to convince most in the international community, he had already managed to secure enthusiastic support for his racist anti-migration agenda from one European politician.

Eric Zemmour, a far-right politician from France widely known for his anti-immigration and anti-Islam views, shared a news story about Saieds comments on Twitter and wrote: The Maghreb countries themselves are starting to sound the alarm in the face of the surge in migration. Here, it is Tunisia that wants to take urgent measures to protect its people. What are we waiting for to fight against the Great Replacement?

Zemmours mention of the great replacement in relation to Saieds comments was understandable, as Saieds claims about African migrants alleged ambition to alter Tunisias demographic composition indeed fits in well with the popular white supremacist conspiracy theory which falsely asserts that white people are being replaced and losing their standing in society as a result of a plot to increase non-white immigration.

In this context, it can be argued that Saied is borrowing his right-wing populist rhetoric from the Western far right and by doing so reintroducing to the African continent the race-based ideologies and false hierarchies of the colonial era.

As a Black African, who lives in Africa, I have always felt extremely blessed to be fairly insulated from the white supremacist hatred and violence that is pervasive in Europe and theUS.

I would have never imagined that an African president would employ a white nationalist conspiracy theory that originated in Europe to target Black Africans to score cheap political points in Tunisia, an African country.

I remember with immense fondness how, last December, Africans of all shades, socioeconomic backgrounds and nationalities supported Moroccoat the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

When the Atlas Lions became the first Arab and African team to reach the semifinals of a FIFA World Cup tournament, millions of sub-Saharan Africans wholeheartedly celebrated their amazing and unprecedented accomplishment as enthusiastically as their Arab neighbours.

After it lost to France in the semi-finals, Moroccos coach, Walid Regragui, paid homage to Africa declaring, We were representing our country and our continent.

His sincere and admirable words confirmed what everyone knew: The Atlas Lions did it not only for Morocco and the Arab world but the whole of Africa.

Africans across the continent felt proud and that feeling of pride, it must be said, transcended the football pitch.

For possibly the first time in history, a post-colonial and post-racial Africa stood united and celebrated together like one big, diverse family.

Barely three months after Qatar 2022, Saied is now attempting to destroy that unity to divert the worlds attention away from the extensive failings of his authoritarian regime.

In July 2021, he suspended parliament, dismissed the prime minister, seized executive control of the country and dismantled independent institutions. He cracked down on the political opposition and his other critics with incredible force, receiving condemnation from many of Tunisias international partners. Since assuming near absolute power, he not only destroyed Tunisias young democracy and international standing, but also failed to revitalise its economy and resolve the myriad socioeconomic problems facing its people.

Now, it seems, he is trying to scapegoat undocumented Black African migrants for all his failures and sacrificing African unity and solidarity in the process.

The African Union swiftly and firmly rebuked Saieds divisive comments and, in response to the consequent government crackdown and racist attacks against sub-Saharan nationals, indefinitely postponed a conference it was due to hold in Tunis in March.

However timely and commendable these actions were, they might not be enough to deter Saied from continuing to incite racial violence and sow divisions with Tunisias sub-Saharan neighbours under the guise of addressing irregular migration.

Xenophobic violence with racial undertones is not new to Africa or unique to Tunisia. Just last year the United Nations warned that South Africa is on the precipice of explosive xenophobic violence. But Tunisia is currently the only country on the continent where the president is blatantly flaming violence with racist dog whistles and conspiracy theories.

Sure, Saied said he is not racist and a proud African, but he is yet to denounce the sinister Great Replacement conspiracy. This calculated silence demonstrates enormous contempt for Africas collective wellbeing and unity.

Like Mahamat pointed out in his initial condemnation of Saieds remarks on irregular migrants, Tunisia has certainly flouted the letter and spirit of the AUs founding values.

So, it must be reprimanded accordingly and suspended from the organisation, at least until Saied publicly disowns the great replacement theory and ends his anti-migrant and anti-Black African fearmongering.

The AU must move to protect Africa from the populist nationalism and racism of the likes of Saied. Without unity, the 2063 Pan-African agenda is doomed tofail. Its high time the AU demonstrates its authority and brings in line African leaders who attempt to divide us along racial lines.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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The AU must not allow Tunisias Saied to harm African unity - Al Jazeera English