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What do you do? is often the first question asked in D.C., where the federal government workers turn over like its, well, their job.

Consultant, lobbyist, policy researcher, strategist, legislative staffer. Yawn. Theyre a dime a dozen in this town.

But as any good native Washingtonian or longtime resident knows, theres another side of work that keeps the city going. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted fields that we absolutely cannot do without: medical care, emergency services, education, food production, infrastructure, transportation, and, ahem, journalism to name a few.

But there are also the less obvious jobs that are equally important to the function and character of the District.

The following profiles are stories of odd, ordinary, and otherwise un-thought-of local jobs, and the people who do them. Mitch Ryals

Nadine Seiler had no idea when she showed up at the Womens March in 2017 that four years later she would be a lead guardian, and ultimately the preserver, of artifacts on what would become the BLM Memorial Fence.

Seiler wasnt a member of any activist group then, but she felt in each bone of her 5-foot, 5-inch frame every anti-Black, anti-woman, anti-immigrant restriction and rant under President Donald Trumps leadership. She felt she had to do something. So Seiler started going to the White House holding a regular rotation of provocative signs.

Her favorite activities included shouting obscenities at Trump supporters who got in her face and educating elementary school kids who chanted Make America great again! about the history behind their statements. Make America great again to when? she would ask. When they were lynching Black people? Her Trinidadian accent both offended and riled up such visitors.

Seiler joined the 2017 and 2018 global womens protests and most daily Kremlin Annex protests that started after Trumps 2018 Helsinki visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A shy activist she mentored at the Kremlin Annex rallies called her Warrior Goddess for the Resistance, an alias that still motivates her. Seiler had started protesting at Lafayette Square by herself when a White police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis. She joined the ensuing protests against systemic racism and police brutality in front of the White House. When law enforcement put up the first fence, amid the rattling of steel bars, Seiler glimpsed the beauty of Black Lives Matter signs, art, and photos left behind.

During the pandemic, Seiler lost her odd day jobs as a personal concierge specializing in helping local residents organize their homes. (IF the clutter makes you shudder, get you a Nadine, the tagline on her LinkedIn profile says.) Soon Seiler started leaving her Waldorf home at night to stay by the fence typically from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and do what she does best: organize and protect the things that had shown up.

During one of these shifts, word got around to Seiler that the fence was coming down. Seiler andother night-shifters acted on preservation instinct, taking photos and signs off the fence and sorting the items into categories based on material type and size. The processing made for an easier transfer to institutes such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was notified about the collection and came to collect items on June 9, 2020.

While Lafayette Park reopened to the public the next day, law enforcement soon fenced off the area again after some protesters sought to topple the Andrew Jackson statue. This second structure became the BLM Memorial Fence, which Seiler and a few others guarded for the next seven months. But as stunning as the stories and protest artwork posted there were, they werent properly secured to the fence, so they made for a messy second home. The home organizer in Seiler couldnt stand it.

It just looked bad, she says. I didnt want to be part of the [messiness]. So I just started picking up the stuff and putting them back on the fence as best as I could. Others also helped secure the items with zip ties and duct tape. The reorganization effort just grew and grew and grew and then [the fence] became a focus of Trump supporters, says Seiler. They were coming in mad they wanted to see White House and all this stuff that was negative against [Trump] is on the fence, blocking them.

In the months that followed, conflicts arose between the fence guardians and anti-BLM activists on a mission to tear down protest art. But the fence was also a site of community and allyship with volunteers and unhoused residents. In late January 2021, Seiler and others organized the memorabilia into more permanent resting places. They couldnt keep watch over the fence forever. The work didnt pay the bills.

Seiler and fellow activist Karen Irwin had reached out to museums to see if any institutions were interested in taking the mementos. They received lukewarm responses until a Howard University alum finally connected Seiler to a Howard employee who took 75 pieces for the school. The Library of Congress took 36 fence items, including two pieces Seiler created. Then Jodi Hoover, a digital resources specialist at Enoch Pratt Free Library, exceeded Seiler and Irwins expectations. Enoch Pratt would scan the items in batches through its high-tech scanner, which has the ability to keep every piece of debris intact on 3D items. The D.C. Public Library, Enoch Pratts partner in the project, would then create metadata to display the items in online archives.

The Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence Poster collection is a project spanning libraries and departments throughout the District. After training in metadata, volunteers spend most of their downtime creating titles, descriptions, and subject headings for collection items. The project will culminate in an archives launch in fall 2022. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is hosting a Black Lives Matter Describe-A-Thon on Feb. 9 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. where the public can help create descriptions for fence materials.

Enoch Pratt specializes in archival projects, and most of its collections are historical, so documenting contemporary history such as the BLM protests is rare. For Laura Farley, digital curation librarian at DCPL, the ingenuity of activists and allies takes us back to the moment when it began.

If you remember back to early, early in the pandemic, when people first started to contribute these posters and all kinds of items people were using whatever they could find at home, Farley says. Because nobody was going to the stores, nobody could get supplies. So the creativity of what people used that they had on hand to get their message through its pretty amazing.

Pro-Trump and other political items arent part of the preservation efforts and remain in storage; no organization has shown any interest in them, according to Seiler. These pieces might get scanned after BLM-related items are scanned at Enoch Pratt and if theres any funding left, but not as a part of the BLM Memorial Fence Collection.

Nowadays Seilers daily uniform incorporates souvenirs from the first and last movements she joined. On a recent Wednesday evening, she wears a pussy hat with black ears and a hoodie that says The Black Guy Did It during an impromptu video call. Behind her is a poster with her animated likeness photographed at the fence. Both the hoodie and the poster image are for sale in her Tee Public store, Subversive-Ware, which she created to help with the monthly storage fees she pays to keep mementos from the BLM Memorial Fence.

Seiler keeps a running list of institutions and individuals interested in taking items. She says its vital that folks value every mementoboth the more pristine items as well as those battered by wind and sleet and debrisas a story in their own right and as part of a mosaic of the moment.

Some of them are torn, and I know why when the circumstances under which it got torn, Seiler says. Everything has a story.

The work of preserving the fence mementos, and memories born there, hasnt ended for Seiler. Shes planning to form a diverse committee of D.C.-area residents in late spring to decide how to parcel out the remaining mementos.

The fence was a concerted effort, it wasnt [just] me. It was this community effort of goodwill and it was magical. Ambar Castillo

Imagine you are a young person. Old enough to drive but not old enough for much else. You possess all the ignorance that comes with that age and, while driving through New Jersey, you stop for gas. A man approaches your car, saying he will pump it for you. You decline his offer. He insists; its his job, he says. And you, who should know better but dont, respond, This isnt a job!

But it is a job. All over New Jersey, in portions of Oregon, and at one Exxon at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 4th Street SE on Capitol Hill.

A man who goes by Woody watches a tow truck navigate the gas stations narrow curb cut as a dog barks from inside the small office space. He started in 1994 as a mechanic and now manages this place, its two pumps and adjoining garage. Operating for more than half a century, its the last full-service gas station in D.C.

Some customers, he says, come here specifically because its full service. They dont want to get out of the car or cant pump their own gas. These are the people who have been coming here for decades. The ones he and his fellow workers know by name. This is their station. Were the neighborhood shop, he says. Others stumble upon it and some dont want full service or understand how it works. They think they have to pay the attendant and dont want to. Or they think theyre getting robbed. To preempt that, the attendants wear uniforms.

Woody says the station will stay full service as long as they can find people to do the job. Which isnt easy, he says. Its cold in the winter, its hot in the summer. Its demanding. Youve got to deal with the public, and theyre not always very nice. Nevertheless, as cars pull up to the pumps, an attendant arrives without fail, ready to provide whatever services the driver needs. One of those attendants is Mr. Reed.

William Reed, 74, stands tall and his gray uniform bears his last name. He has worked at this gas station for too long, which equals roughly 37 years. He used to work days for DC Public Schools and nights here before retiring from DCPS. But hes still pumping gas. Its something to do, he says. Most people, when they retire, they die. I work and keep the body going. When his kids ask him when hell retire, he says, What am I gonna do? Stay home and die?

The key to being an excellent attendant, according to Mr. Reed: Wait on the people and see what they want. Some people dont want you to use their credit card, he explains. Sometimes you have to let people pump their own gas, even though its your job and theyre paying you to do it. It doesnt hurt to know something about cars, too. Woody makes sure to note that youll learn about cars on the job.

What person at his age can do what he does, Mr. Reed asks rhetorically. Its a good question, and pumping gas is not all he does. Here theyll put air in your tires and check your oil too, if you want it. (In New Jersey, they just pump your gas, Reed is quick to point out.) You pay a premium on the gas here, but you get a service for it.

Which is fortunate, because young people, you will remember, are ignorant. Most young kids nowadays dont know nothin, Reed says. Nothing useful, anyway. They dont know how to check oil, put air in the tires. The only thing they know is smokin weed. Will Warren

In a scene in the musical A Strange Loop, Usher, the storys protagonist, has sex with an older White man. The graphic scene involves anal foreplay. Its an intense scene for the characters and an incredible moment of physical intimacy for the actors.

Enter Chelsea Pace. As the shows intimacy choreographera relatively new role in live theater productionsshe works with actors to tell the story authentically while respecting their personal boundaries.

Theater is super uncomfortable, she says. Thats what makes it worth making a play out of.

For the scene from Woolly Mammoth Theatre Companys production of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, Pace worked with Jaquel Spivey, who plays Usher, on where hes open to being touched and where his counterpart, Antwayn Hopper, is open to touching. She coached them on specific movements and gestures, showing Hopper how to move his hand and arm to simulate digital penetration without actually moving his fingers.

Pace is currently the resident intimacy choreographer at D.C.s Studio Theatre and Arlingtons Signature Theatre and is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her journey to intimacy choreography started with a six-week streak of wearing good underwear.

As an undergraduate at Binghamton University, she was cast in a farcical play as a character who spent a lot of time running around in their undies. She came prepared to rehearsal for more than a month because she never knew when she would be asked to perform without clothes.

As a young actor, she didnt want to ask the director when shed be able to rehearse without clothes for fear of appearing overeager or ignorant. She notes that she had a good relationship with the director, who was also her professor, and says her reluctance to ask the question was due to her own nerves.

But it also speaks to the power imbalance that can exist between directors and actors, who are often told theyre replaceable, Pace says. Those who ask questions, make demands, or speak up in defense of their personal boundaries can be labeled as difficult, which could cost them work.

Its that dynamic that Pace seeks to address.

Actors are always in a position of Yes. Yes, well do that, says Tatiana Williams, an actor working with Pace on Studio Theatres production of White Noise. You finally got the job, beat out the other people, and you want to make it work, but sometimes you may not have the language or feel comfortable to say, Hey thats a trigger spot for me or Im going to get there, but I need more time.

After college, Pace pursued an MFA in theater performance at Arizona State University, and she remained curious about consent, boundaries, and power dynamics. Friends in the theater came to her for informal advice with intimate scenes they were working on.

Eventually her curiosity became part of her research, and a few years after she graduated, she co-founded a company called Theatrical Intimacy Education with her colleague Laura Rikard. The company offers workshops, choreography, and consultations for students and professionals. Pace has also written a book on the topic: Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy.

Intimacy choreography involves sex scenes, sure, but theres a spectrum. At one end are moments where characters appear as if theyre in love but never actually touch.

There are physical ways to make people look like theyre in love with each other without them having to actually fall in love with each other, Pace says. Which is better for everybody, including those individuals and their respective relationships.

Williams says thats one major way intimacy coaches have helped her.

You might come out of a scene, and you cant shake off what youve done, Williams says. So how do you separate yourself from that moment? Theyre not your therapist, but they do have a good way of checking in in a different way: Are you comfortable with what we just blocked? Do you feel comfortable in your costume? Its just another voice in the room thats championing the actors.

At the other end of the spectrum are scenes of graphic or hyper-realistic physical and sexual intimacy.

Before Pace begins working with actors on individual scenes, she instructs them on how to speak up for their boundaries. It typically includes introducing a self-care cue, which acts like a safe word. Its a tool for an actor to stop the scene and ask for what they need: a hand to be placed a little higher, for example, or less pressure in an embrace.

Then she has them do a show, guide, tell exercise. Each person physically shows a partner where theyre open to being touched, then guides their partners hand on their own bodies, and finally reinforces those boundaries verbally.

When rehearsals begin, actors walk through that same exercise before a scene.

Id be working with them to make a touch here, or make that touch just a little bit longer because it will help us understand that [the characters] have been together a long time, Pace says.

When its time to try a kiss for the first time, Pace first has the actors stage it with a high five in place of locking lips. That allows them to talk through the movements that make the moment feel authentic.

Who closed the distance? What was the duration of the kiss? What was the depth of touch on the kiss? Whats the destination of your hands on your partners back? What was the power shift there when you pushed him down? Pace says. We craft all of that, but theyre finding it through palm to palm.

The work also extends beyond sex and romance. Onstage intimacy also includes scenes where actors are asked to draw from their personal experiences to tell a story. That could be experience related to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other aspects of their identities that can come with vulnerability.

That vulnerability has been really poorly managed, Pace says. We put actors in these ridiculous and impossible situations without acknowledging that were asking them to do something impossible by being both a sponge and having the worlds richest inner life and having absolutely no qualms about bringing any and all of yourself into the room. But please dont bring yourself into the room if youre having a bad day.

When Pace first started this work more than a decade ago, she says most professionals were defensive. Directors were resistant to the idea of ceding control and insisted that they could create a trusting relationship where actors could say no. She noticed a shift leading into 2017 that accelerated around October of that year, shortly after the story broke about movie producer and serial sexual abuser Harvey Weinstein.

These days, Pace works on about 20 productions a year spanning film, television, and live theater. Her job is part of a cultural shift thats giving more attention to actors boundaries.

Im not the sex police, she says. Im just here to support. Mitch Ryals

If you ask Robert Shaut what his favorite tree is, he doesnt hesitate. The question, which is perhaps too easy, elicits not just a reply, but a memory. He remembers one tree that stood out to him when he was younger. When he reminisces about the platanus occidentalis, or the American sycamore, it brings back memories of the tree that grew outside his childhood home in Glen Echo. He remembers the way the trees grew along the bank of the Potomac River, thriving along the edges. He would climb the trees and swing into the river water, he says. The giant sycamore inspired Shaut to build a life and career around trees.

Since February of 2018, Shaut has worked as the director of tree operations at Casey Trees, a D.C.-based nonprofit committed to restoring, enhancing, and protecting D.C.s tree canopy. His role often entails tons of prep work and logistics, while facilitating leads to plant new trees, and ensuring that the field crews have nice, smooth days of planting, pruning, maintaining, felling trees or whatever the job calls for that day. His staff plants trees whenever the weather is reasonable, and despite the recent snow, the winters have been more and more plantable, he says. Shaut notes that hes the one who has to consider which trees will still be here in 20 years, or even in 100 years. To determine this, Shaut and his team research and study tree species climate adaptivity and resiliency regarding temperature and precipitation variance. Certain trees that have more Northern nativity are maybe starting to fade out of the District, says Shaut, while trees that have more Southern nativity are starting to phase in.

Casey Trees was established in 2001 and works with several organizations including the National Park Service, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, and DC Public Schools, as well as cemeteries and places of worship. Shaut says that many clients want crape myrtles, dogwoods, or cherry trees. But when it makes sense, he may sway them to larger, environmentally impactful trees.

Theres a right place for every tree, Shaut says, but if the situation calls for a larger treecan allow for a larger treethats absolutely what were pushing to put in.

Part of this push is the organizational and citywide goal to cover 40 percent of the District in tree canopy by 2032. At one point, D.C. had the moniker the City of Trees thanks to its diverse array of native flora, with about half of the city covered by trees in the early 1950s, according to the Washington Post. By 2001, the tree canopy fell to just over 35 percent, WAMU reports. As of January 2022, Shaut tells City Paper that the most recent satellite imagery shows the current tree canopy in D.C. is now at 38 percent, a growth of 424 acres of tree canopy since 2006. In 2021 alone, Casey Trees planted 4,543 trees throughout the region. While Casey Trees may be close to its goal, Shaut notes that 1 percent of the Districts tree canopy is on the National Mall, which is substantial.

To meet this goal, Shaut has been allocating a lot of the organizations efforts to lower-canopy areas. He says that 75 percent of the tree plantings in 2021 were in wards 5, 7, and 8, areas that are also susceptible to the urban heat island effect. Planting trees in these and other similar areas can help reduce stormwater runoff and carbon footprint, improve air quality, add wildlife habitats, help reduce energy bills, and increase property values, according to the District of Columbia Urban Tree Canopy Plan, published by the D.C. government in January 2013.

Since Shaut took the reins as Casey Trees director of tree operations approximately four years ago, his vision hasnt changed. His goal has always been to be as impactful as we can, to really just make as much positive impact on local communities and to our environment, and I think weve been able to grow.

When he started, Casey Trees was planting 2,500 trees per year, but the organizations target for this year is 5,000 trees.

I think that every tree offers something, says Shaut. Michelle Goldchain

Getting from the visiting NBA teams locker room to the bus entrance inside Capital One Arena requires a lengthy walk, so Chase Rieder hops into a utility cart and drives it to meet the first of three buses carrying Philadelphia 76ers players, the teams staff, and their luggage. He loads the cart with three layers of suitcases from the bus, then navigates back through the arena corridor, past the Washington Wizards dancers practicing their routines, and parks it in front of the locker room. Rieder and his colleague Royce Reed then unload the cart and line the various equipment bags and personal belongings along the hallway before repeating the trip two more times.

Its 10:53 a.m. on Jan. 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the Wizards are facing the 76ers in a 2 p.m. tip-off game. Rieder has been at the arena since 10 a.m. For the past 15 years, this has been a regular routine for the 30-year-old from North Bethesda. Rieder is a Wizards team attendant and contributes to the vast game-day production that largely takes place out of public view and away from cameras.

As Rieder prepares for the next bus to arrive, he goes on a quick walk-through of the visiting teams locker room. Headshots of Rieder and Reed adorn a wall near the entrance below the words TEAM ATTENDANTS. Popcorn, fruit, coffee, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches await the players. The bathroom is stocked with mouthwash and deodorant, and towels and heat packs are piled nearby. Shirts, pants, and jerseys hang on each individual locker. Rieder describes this part of the job as similar to a hotel concierge service. When they come in, I want them feeling like theyre in their home locker room at their city, he says.

Being a team attendant isnt always glamorous. The Wizards have about 10 to 12 part-time staffers who work under Brandon Mango, the teams recently hired director of equipment and logistics, and the job involves long hours on your feet, whether its rebounding for players during warm-ups or mopping the floor during time-outs. Team attendants are essentially on call throughout their entire eight-hour game-day shift. But for die-hard NBA fans such as Rieder, it can be a dream job. Rieder, who is a special education teacher at North Bethesda Middle School and the boys varsity basketball head coach at Northwest High School in Germantown, started as a Wizards team attendant when he was 16. (Applicants now must be at least 18.) He worked all 41 home games of the 2007-08 NBA season during his junior year at Walter Johnson High School, forgoing the opportunity to play varsity basketball to be a Wizards team attendant.

Rieder served as a home team attendant for his first seven seasons with the Wizards, and has been working in the visiting teams locker room for the past eight seasons. The biggest misconception about the job, both Rieder and Mango believe, can be derived from the sometimes dismissive names that team attendants are called: ball boys and ball girls, court moppers, water boys.

Some people think were just there to watch, Rieder says. But we feel like a lot of the games wouldnt run if there werent any team attendants.

Mango agrees: Without my locker room and team attendants, the show does not go on at Capital One Arena. I can be honest with that.

Its 2:11 p.m. when the game tips off, and Rieder takes his position on the court next to the 76ers bench. The coolers behind the players are packed with water and Gatorade bottles. A hydrocollator is stocked and ready for whoever needs a heat pad.

The 76ers, including 7-footer Joel Embiid, tower over Rieder, who isnt exactly short at 6-foot-1. As each player checks into the game, Rieder picks up their warm-up gear and neatly folds it into a stack. When the players return to the bench, he has a towel and their clothes ready. The players shirts and pants are all labeled with their jersey numbers. Rieder is no longer on mopping duty due to his senior status, but his current role calls for constant vigilance and a familiarity with the sport. He bounces back and forth between his seat on the court and the scorers table, and is so close to the action that he can hear players trash talking and the conversations between coaches and players during time-outs. Its one of Rieders favorite perks of the job. Team attendants may go unnoticed to the general viewer or fan, but for an NBA player accustomed to routine, having a team attendant nearby allows them to focus on the task at hand. Visiting NBA teams tip team attendants after each game, and Rieder has befriended several players over the years.

As the final buzzer goes off, marking the Wizards 117-98 victory, Rieder heads back to the visiting teams locker room, where he will stay until the last player leaves. He packs their bags and transports their luggage back to the bus with the utility truck. Around the same time, Wizards acting head coach Joseph Blair is speaking to media members in a postgame press conference. Blair was thrust into the position for the first time because head coach Wes Unseld Jr. and assistant coach Pat Delany are both out due to health and safety protocols.

After the game, inside the home teams locker room, Wizards forward-center Montrezl Harrell doused Blair with a bucket of ice cold water in celebration. The coach needed a new shirt, quickly, and so he turned to the person he knew would come through. Blair thinks about that moment while answering a reporters question. My back is pretty soaked right now. Big ups to Brandon Mango for getting me another shirt to put on, he says with a laugh.

The show, as Mango and his team attendants made sure, went on. Kelyn Soong

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Meet the People Keeping Ordinary and Extraordinary Parts of DC Going - Washington City Paper

The Army has reversed a reprimand a Colorado National Guard officer received after attending a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. Capt. Alan Kennedy, a white ally to the movement, wore civilian clothing as he filmed police tear gassing crowds in Denver. Later, he wrote op-eds about his experiences and was disciplined by commanders.

In a letter dated Jan. 3, 2022, the Army Suitability Evaluation Board sided with Kennedy and ordered that the reprimand and associated disciplinary documents, which can be a barrier to career advancement, be removed from his records.

It shouldn't take a year and a half, but this is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and the right to protest and the right to write op-eds, Kennedy told KUNC Wednesday.

The Army board noted that Kennedy was not in uniform or on duty when he protested.

After his op-ed accusing police of firing tear gas without provocation appeared in The Denver Post, Kennedy was summoned before commanders and told that he was flagged for an investigation. Later, he was reprimanded because he did not receive approval for the wording of a disclaimer that appeared at the bottom of the commentary.

Kennedy, a military attorney, citing documents that showed commanders complaining about much more than the disclaimer, appealed, but the Colorado National Guard declined it, adding concerns, like what if Kennedy had been arrested while protesting or accused of rioting.

Kennedy then turned to the Army board and made a series of arguments, including that the language of Colorado National Guard officers during the process showed bias. One general described Black Lives Matter protests as "inherently violent, while a colonel characterized protests as something that "begin peacefully and devolve into violent clashes with the police." Kennedy argued that such statements were evidence commanders were seeking to restrict his freedom of expression.

The Army board concluded Kennedy provided clear and convincing evidence to show reprimands were inaccurate, unjust, or otherwise flawed.

The reason I feel so strongly about this is because it is because you don't lose all of your constitutional rights simply because you take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the Army boards decision bodes well for his larger fight a lawsuit in Denver federal court that is seeking to overturn the portion of Defense Department Instruction 1325.06 that his commanders cited in his reprimand. Enclosure 3, Paragraph 6 (d) bars troops from participating in off-base demonstrations for several reasons, including whether violence is likely to result. Kennedy is adamant that the violence he filmed in Denver in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protest came from police.

Despite this decision, it is still in effect, Kennedy said. So it's really important that the case continues because the Department of Defense has not withdrawn this regulation.

The Army boards decision also opens the door for Kennedy to be considered for promotion in the Colorado National Guard. That is now a moot point as Kennedy has moved to Virginia, where he works as a lecturer in public policy at William & Mary, and is in the process of transferring to the Army Reserve as a captain.

Others in the military have spoken out about race after the death of George Floyd, including Charles Q. Brown, at the time a top Black general who later became the Air Forces chief of staff.

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Army sides with Colorado National Guard officer reprimanded for attending Black Lives Matter protests - KUNC

Zac Kriegman had the ideal rsum for the professional-managerial class: a bachelors in economics from Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard and years of experience with high-tech startups, a white-shoe law firm, and an econometrics research consultancy. He then spent six years at Thomson Reuters Corporation, the international media conglomerate, spearheading the companys efforts on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced software engineering. By the beginning of 2020, Kriegman had assumed the title of Director of Data Science and was leading a team tasked with implementing deep learning throughout the organization.

But within a few months, this would all collapse. A chain of eventsbeginning with the death of George Floyd and culminating with a statistical analysis of Black Lives Matters claimswould turn the 44-year-old data scientists life upside-down. By June 2020, as riots raged across the country, Kriegman would be locked out of Reuterss servers, denounced by his colleagues, and fired by email. Kriegman had committed an unpardonable offense: he directly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement in the companys internal communications forum, debunked Reuterss own biased reporting, and violated a corporate taboo. Driven by what he called a moral obligation to speak out, Kriegman refused to celebrate unquestioningly the BLM narrative and his companys diversity and inclusion programming; to the contrary, he argued that Reuters was exhibiting significant left-wing bias in the newsroom and that the ongoing BLM protests, riots, and calls to defund the police would wreak havoc on minority communities. Week after week, Kriegman felt increasingly disillusioned by the Thomson Reuters line. Finally, on the first Tuesday in May 2021, he posted a long, data-intensive critique of BLMs and his companys hypocrisy. He was sent to Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion for the chance to reform his thoughts.

He refusedso they fired him.

I spoke with Kriegman just before Thanksgiving via Zoom. He dialed in from a small, cluttered room in his Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts home, where he lives with his wife and three children. He described his feeling of alienation, then frustration, then moral outrage, as he watched his Reuters colleagues behavior following the death of George Floyd. He described the company as a blue bubble, where people were constantly celebrating Black Lives Matter, where it was assumed that everyone was on board.

Like many corporations in the United States in 2020, Reuters went through a quiet revolution in human resources and diversity and inclusion. The company launched a series of lectures and training programs, ranging from a study of Kimberl Crenshaws intersectionality theory to an interactive panel called Lets Talk About Race to a keynote presentation on unlocking the power of diversity. In honor of Floyd, the company asked employees to participate in a 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge, which promoted race-based reparations payments, academic articles on critical race theory, and instructions on how to be a better white person.

Some of the materials were patronizing and outright racist. One resource told Reuters employees that their black colleagues are confused and scared, barely able to show up to work, and feel pressured to take the personal trauma we all know to be true and tuck it away to protect white people, who cannot understand anything beyond their own whiteness. The proper etiquette, according to a subsequent lesson, is for white employees to let themselves get called out by their minority colleagues and then respond with automatic contrition: I believe you; I recognize that I have work to do; I apologize, Im going to do better. The ultimate solution is for whites to admit complicity in systemic racism and repent for their collective guilt. White people built this system. White people control this system, reads a module from self-described wypipologist Michael Harriot. It is white people who have tacitly agreed to perpetuate white supremacy throughout Americas history. It is you who must confront your racist friends, coworkers, and relatives. You have to cure your country of this disease. The sickness is not ours.

Kriegman came to believe that the companys blue bubble had created a significant bias in the companys news reporting. Reuters is not having the internal discussions about the facts and the research, and theyre not letting that shape how they present the news to people. I think theyve adopted a perspective and theyre unwilling to examine that perspective, even internally, and thats shaping everything that they write, Kriegman said. Consequently, Reuters adopted a narrative that promotes a nave, left-wing narrative about Black Lives Matter and fails to provide accurate contextwhich is particularly egregious because, unlike obviously left-leaning outlets such as the New York Times, Reuters has a reputation as a source of objective news reporting.

A review of Reuters coverage over the spring and summer of 2020 confirms Kriegmans interpretation. Though early articles covering the first days of the chaos in Minneapolis were straightforward about the violenceProtests, looting erupt in Minneapolis over racially charged killing by police, reads one headlineReuterss coverage eventually seemed like it had been processed to add ideology and euphemism. Beginning in the summer and continuing over the course of the year, the newswires reporting adopted the BLM narrative in substance and style. The stories framed the unrest as a a new national reckoning about racial injustice and described the protests as mostly peaceful or largely peaceful, despite widespread violence, looting, and crime. More than 93% of recent demonstrations connected to Black Lives Matter were peaceful, Reuters insisted, even as rioters caused up to $2 billion in property damage across the country. The companys news reporters adopted the syntax of BLM activists. A May 8 story opened with the familiar say their names recitation, ignoring the fact that the first named individual, for example, had attacked a police officer, who was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing: Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Freddie Gray. Their names are seared into Americans memories, egregious examples of lethal police violence that stirred protests and prompted big payouts to the victims families. Even as Seattles infamous Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone descended into lawlessness and saw the brutal murder of two black teenagers, the newswires headlines downplayed the destruction, claiming that the Seattle protests were diminished but not dismantled.

Reuterss data-based reporting and fact checks were also biased, always in favor of the BLM interpretations. One of the wire services special reports claims that a growing body of research supports the perception that police unfairly target Black Americans. They are more likely to be stopped, searched and arrested than their white compatriots. They also are more likely to be killed by police. In the 4,600-word story, Reuters gives only two short paragraphs to a dissenting viewpoint, then quickly dismisses it to advance the argument. In other stories, Reuters claims without evidence that Supreme Court protection of qualified immunity is rooted in racism, hosts an exclusively left-leaning panel on criminal-justice reform that uncritically promotes policies such as defund the police, and suggests that hundreds of unjustified police killings of black men fail to win victims any redress, without providing facts to substantiate the claim.

The companys data reporting consistently re-contextualized accurate information about racial violence and policing in order to align with Black Lives Matter rhetoric. In a fact check of a social media post that claimed whites are more likely to be killed by blacks than blacks are to be killed by whites, Reuters concedes that this is factually accurate but labels the post misleadingin part because it doesnt show that police kill black people at a higher rate than their share of the overall population, a completely unrelated claim. Likewise, when President Donald Trump accurately pointed out that police officers kill more white people than black people each year, Reuters immediately published a story reframing the narrative. Though the report admitted that half of people killed by police are white, the writers pushed the line that Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate and then used a quotation from the American Civil Liberties Union to paint the president as a racist.

Kriegmans decision to question his companys narrative wasnt sudden or impulsive. As he watched the riots and the news coverage unfold, he found himself increasingly filled with doubt and anxiety. He decided to take two monthsleave from Thomson Reuters in order to grapple with the statistical and ethical implications of the companys reporting on the riots and the Black Lives Matter movement. I did look through Reuterss news, and it was concerning to me that a lot of the same issues that I was seeing in other media outlets seemed to be replicated in Reuterss news, where they were reporting favorably about Black Lives Matter protests without giving any context to the claims that were being made at those protests [and] without giving any context about the Ferguson effect and how police pulling back on their proactive policing has been pretty clearly linked to a dramatic increase in murders, Kriegman told me. At a certain point, it just feels like a moral obligation to speak out when something thats having such a devastating impact is being celebrated so widely, especially in a news company where the perspective thats celebrated is having such a big impact externally.

During his leave, Kriegman used his skills as a data scientist to conduct a careful statistical investigation comparing BLMs claims on race, violence, and policing with the hard evidence from a range of academic and governmental sources. The result: a 12,000-word essay, titled BLM is Anti-Black Systemic Racism, that called into question the entire sequence of claims by the Black Lives Matter movement and echoed by the Reuters news team. I believe the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement arose out of a passionate desire to protect black people from racism and to move our whole society towards healing from a legacy of centuries of brutal oppression, Kriegman wrote in the introduction. Unfortunately, over the past few years I have grown more and more concerned about the damage that the movement is doing to many low-income black communities. I have avidly followed the research on the movement and its impacts, which has led me, inexorably, to the conclusion that the claim at the heart of the movement, that police more readily shoot black people, is false and likely responsible for thousands of black people being murdered in the most disadvantaged communities in the country. Thomson Reuters, Kriegman continued, has a special obligation to resist simplistic narratives that are not based in facts and evidence, especially when those narratives are having such a profoundly negative impact on minority or marginalized groups.

Kriegmans essay focuses on debunking what he sees as the three key claims of BLM activists and their media supporters: that police officers kill blacks disproportionately, that law enforcement over-polices black neighborhoods, and that policies such as defund the police will reduce violence. First, Kriegman writes that the narrative about police officers systematically hunting and killing blacks is not supported by the evidence. For instance, in 2020 there were 457 whites shot and killed by police, compared to 243 blacks. Of those, 24 of the whites killed were unarmed compared to 18 blacks, he writes, citing the Washington Post database of police shootings. And though the number of blacks killed might be disproportionate compared with the percentage of blacks in the overall population, it is not disproportionate to the level of violent crime committed by black citizens. Depending on the type of violent crime, whites either commit a slightly greater (non-fatal crimes) or slightly smaller (fatal, and serious non-fatal crimes) percentage of the total violent crime than blacks, but in all cases roughly in the same ballpark, Kriegman writes. However, according to the Justice Departments National Crime Victimization Survey data, there are many more whites killed by police, even though whites account for a similar absolute number of violent offenders. Thus, if the number of potentially violent encounters with police reflects the violent crime rates, then the raw statistics suggest that there is actually a slight anti-white bias in police applications of lethal force. To round out his case, Kriegman concludes with a study by Harvards Roland Fryer, which, according to Fryer, didnt find evidence for anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparity in police use of force across all shootings, and, if anything, found anti-White disparities when controlling for race-specific crime.

Next, Kriegman takes up over-policing. Black Lives Matter activists and Reuters reporters had pushed the idea that police officers focus disproportionate attention on black neighborhoods and, because of deep-seated racial bias, are more likely to stop, search, and arrest black Americans than their white compatriots. While this might be true on its face, Kriegman writes, it misses the appropriate context: black neighborhoods are significantly more violent than white neighborhoods. If police want to reduce violent crime, they must spend more time in the places where violent crime occurs. Kriegman points out to his colleagues in Thomson Reuterss Boston office that the reason that police have more confrontations in predominantly black neighborhoods in Boston is because that is where the great bulk of violent crime is occurring, with nearly all the annual murders happening in predominantly black neighborhoods such as Dorchester and Roxburyfar from the homes and offices of his colleagues in the professional-managerial class at Reuters. And Boston is hardly an outlier. According to Kriegman, the most rigorous statistical analyses demonstrate that violent-crime rates and policing are, in fact, highly correlated and proportionate. He quotes a Justice Department report which found that for nonfatal violent crimes that victims said were reported to police, whites accounted for 48% of offenders and 46% of arrestees. Blacks accounted for 35% of offenders and 33% of arrestees. Asians accounted for 2% of offenders and 1% of arrestees. None of these differences between the percentage of offenders and the percentage of arrestees of a given race were statistically significant.

Finally, Kriegman addresses the policy implications of de-policing. Contrary to Reuterss sometimes glowing coverage of the defund the police movement, Kriegman makes the case that de-policing, whether it occurs because of the Ferguson Effect or because of deliberate policy choices, has led to disaster for black communities. His argument, building on the work of City Journals Heather Mac Donald, follows this logic: after high-profile police-involved killings, such as those involving Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Black Lives Matter movement and the media have demonized police departments and caused many officers to reduce proactive policing measures and to pull back from situations out of fear that they might need to use force. The result, according to data from a range of academic literature, is an increase in crime and violence. Kriegman again cites Fryer, who concluded that the Ferguson Effect led to 900 excess murders in five cities he considered, and the University of Utahs Paul G. Cassell, who found that the Minneapolis Effect led to 1,520 excess murders in the United States. Thus, BLMs signature policy solutiondefund the policewould likely lead to incredible carnage in black communities.

Kriegman hoped that his essay would help his colleagues move beyond the blue bubble and see how devastating Black Lives Matter has been to black communities, which would in turn help them to do more accurate and responsible journalism. Returning from leave, he was ready to share his research with his colleagues at Thomson Reuters. I didnt know what to expect going into it, but I expected the reaction to be intense, Kriegman says. And it was. The essay dropped like a bomb on Reuterss internal discussion forum, called The Hub. According to Kriegman, content moderators immediately took down the post and called in a team of HR and communications professionals to manage the situation. They told Kriegman that they were reviewing the document but, according to Kriegman, failed to provide specific objections to what he wrote. The essay, while challenging the dominant left-wing culture at Thomson Reuters, made a reasoned, dispassionate case based on rigorous evidenceprecisely what a hard news organization should prioritize internally. Finally, after Kriegman inquired multiple times about the companys decision to remove the post, senior human resources director Melissa Budde told him that the post was too antagonistic and provocative and that he needed to work with Cristina Juvier, head of diversity and inclusion, if he wanted to pursue the matter further.

Over the next two weeks, Kriegman went through a gauntlet of calls, meetings, and chat conversations, hoping that he could revise the essay to the satisfaction of the various parties. In all these conversations, Kriegman maintains, the human resources and diversity-and-inclusion employees never offered substantive critique of his piece; they always retreated to vague concerns about tone and the belief that it would offend BLM supporters within the company. The transcripts of the calls and emails from May 4 and May 27, 2021, show a steady escalation of hostilities. Kriegman insisted that he be allowed to repost the essay. Two of his colleagues warned him that he was potentially heading toward disaster; another, according to Kriegman, screamed that he should fucking do [his] job instead of spending time fighting about Black Lives Matter. (None of the Reuters employees returned a request for comment.)

On May 28, after incorporating some of the feedback on tone from human resources, Kriegman reposted his essay under a new title: BLM Spreads Falsehoods That Have Led to the Murders of Thousands of Black People in the Most Disadvantaged Communities. This time, the moderators at The Hub let it stay up. Kriegman considered this a victoryand then the comments started flooding in. They began politely, but soon descended into open hostility. Wow, this is incredibly inappropriate for a professional website, wrote commercial transactions intern Kasia Guzior. Your premise in the what about both sides sort of question youre asking here is that its a political question. That premise is incorrect; its a human rights issue . . . Statistics and facts have been used to support racist actions for at least all of US history, said tax analyst Abbie Gentry. The FBI put out an article (look it up) a couple of years ago, stating that Law Enforcement organizations have been infiltrated by white supremacists the likes of the KKK. If some law enforcement officers are white supremacist Klan members, is it a surprise when they target and kill disadvantaged black people? asked another commenter. As a white person I am embarrassed and ashamed for you. We, as white folks, should NEVER presume to speak for people of colorwhich is what youve chosen to do, concluded premier digital marketing strategist Joanne Fleming. White folks trying to help by whitesplaining how and why a movement that does not belong to us is harming people of color only does further harm.

Five days later, Thomson Reuters made the decision permanently to remove the post from the companys internal servers. Kriegman accused his colleagues of creating a hostile work environment and attempted to complain to that effect on the discussion board; he was then suspended from The Hub and locked out of email and other communications platforms. In a final, grand, and perhaps self-immolating gesture, Kriegman personally emailed Thomson Reuterss top executives, complaining about the companys bias and hostility toward his criticism of Black Lives Matter. And then they went ahead and fired me, Kriegman told me. I was expecting it. It didnt come as a great surprise that they ended up firing me. The final email from Melissa Budde hit with a thud: The manner in which youve conducted yourself in recent weeks does not align with our expectations for you as a leader within Thomson Reuters, she wrote. It was over. Six years as a data scientist, dozens of high-profile projectsall set ablaze out of a deep frustration about the falsehoods Kriegman felt were ruining the newsroom.

More than half a year after his firing, Kriegman is reflecting. He assures me that he and his family are in a comfortable financial situation, thanks to some early investments in Bitcoin and tech stocks. I have three kids, and Ill be completely honest. I would not have headed down this road if I thought it was going to have a devastating impact on my family. I was expecting that this would be one of the possibilities. . . . I was hoping for a different possibility, but I certainly knew that this was a chance. Through a Zoom window, he comes across as rational, intelligent, and mathematically minded, if somewhat lacking in social graces. Perhaps he was nave to believe that data and evidence would convince his colleagues that they were in the grip of a false narrative; perhaps he failed to understand that politics is not a rational science and that his colleagues would perceive his essay as a flagrant transgression. When I ask him how he feels after the ordeal, he laughs: You want me to talk about my emotions? I cant even talk about my emotions to my wife.

Still, Kriegman is genuine in his concern and sees a broader lesson in his experience. Im extremely disturbed by whats happening in our country, he says. Its absolutely clear that in our major news organizations, people are not discussing these issues openly. They cant afford to. Theyll be fired. He believes that critical race ideologies, adopted wholesale by the professional-managerial class, have become entrenched within American institutions. He tells me that the new racial orthodoxy is slowly creeping into every aspect of daily life, from the Reuters newsroom to his sons elementary school classroom, which has been teaching a book called Race Cars, a story depicting a committee of white race cars that conspires to make sure no black cars win the big race. Its absolutely poisonous to the country, he says.

Was it worth it? I feel proud of what I did, but I dont feel satisfied that I had a big impact within the company, Kriegman says. I dont think that it changed anything. He lost his job at Reuters, but more than that, he lost almost all his friends there, too. My closest friends have abandoned our friendships, he says. Only two of the people that Id actually worked with reached out to me and said, How are you doing? And neither of them were the people that I was closest with. Kriegman is now contemplating his next steps. He can afford to take some time away from work, but he fears that his once-golden rsum has sustained damage. I suspect that if Im honest about how I left my last job, it would be difficult to ever find another job, he tells me.

Kriegman follows in the footsteps of people like James Damore, Bari Weiss, Nellie Bowles, Jodi Shaw, and Paul Rossi, who found themselves unable to live honestly within the confines of Americas elite institutions. Like those other dissenters, he has immense talents that he could apply to the cultural and political problems facing our country. I hope that he does so. I also hope that one day, his former colleagues at Reuters see that, while Kriegman might have been a little abrasive, he was ultimately right. If the wire services continue to promote myths about race, violence, and policing, they will inflict grave harm on their reputations for fairness; they will also help unleash a new wave of destruction in Americas poorest and most vulnerable neighborhoods.

Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Sign up for his newsletter here.

Link:
BLM, Reuters, and the Price of Dissent - City Journal

CHICAGO Pastor Corey Brooks asked a question many are too afraid to ask: "What has Black Lives Matter done for our community?"

On the 44th day of his 100-day rooftop vigil, the pastor was visited by Dumisani Washington, CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, and Darwin Jiles Jr., former ethnic vice chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

The men discussed Black Lives Matter and the organizations impact on the Black community in America, especially in areas of high crime like the South Side of Chicago.

"I've been questioned about my not-for-profit doing what we do right here on O-Block in Chicago," the pastor said. "The one question that stands out in my mind that I woke up thinking about is: What has Black Lives Matter done for our community?"

ELI STEELE: WORKING AMERICAN FIGHTS PANDEMIC, SUPPLY CHAIN AND INFLATION TO KEEP BUSINESS ALIVE

Washington jumped in to answer the pastors question.

"You can use the issue of bringing some awareness to some of these very high-profile situations, like in Ferguson, that type of thing, but as a whole, my answer to that question is not very much," he said. "Not only that, there has been some detriment where the Black community is concerned."

The pastor then turned to Jiles and asked: "Do feel like Black Lives Matter has used the Black community?"

"A slogan is good, but wheres the results?" Jiles responded. "What have you really impacted? What crisis issues have you helped solve?"

"I believe there are individuals who are very honest in their intentions, who are a part because, yes, they want to stand in solidarity with the Black community," he said, referring to BLM supporters.

"I think for Black people, we demand not only justice, but accountability for people who have used our struggle and our pain to profit and gain and politicize, but they're not helping criminal justice reform, they're not helping attack the issues of mass incarceration, the illiteracy issues in California," Jiles said. "We need real justice for us and accountability."

Brooks brought up a statement he heard from Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, on the topic of Black Lives Matter.

"[Steele] said that Black Lives Matter sells a brand, a brand of innocence," Brooks said. "And they sell that brand of innocence to Whites."

That pastor reflected on what he and project H.O.O.D. sold to the public.

"I thought about that and I thought, Well, we sell hard work. We sell that the individual has to take responsibility and accountability for their life. We sell that racism is not the biggest problem that we face. We sell that capitalism is extremely important for us getting out of poverty.' That's what we sell," he said.

"Which brand do you think is more effective for what we're doing and needing in our community today?" he asked the two men.

Washington said: "Clearly it's the one that you just underscored at the end. That independent, that entrepreneurial, that industrial one."

"History has taught us that, more so than political power political power is fine to have but what's even more powerful is the capital, is the economic power," he continued. "Because economic power can dictate political power."

"But you can have political power and have no economic power, and you get vacuums in situations like we see all over the country right where politics is the issue Whats happening on the ground other than these positions that are being held?" Washington said.

Jiles added: "There's a proposal to eliminate a certain amount of school loan debt, and I understand, and I support that."

"But what is better?" he continued. "You being able to have enough money to not only pay off your own debt, but start a business and invest and you own and take full authority and control over your destiny or just basically let the government give you something that's going to cancel your debt but never actually put you in a position to give you free-market enterprise solutions?"

Brooks returned to the issue of Black Lives Matter.

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"From where I'm standing, there's a brand that tries to make White people feel guilty, tries to make them feel as if they need to support something so that they don't feel like they are racist," he said. "Im gonna tell you right off the bat, that's not my brand."

"I believe capitalism works. I believe individual responsibility works," the pastor continued. "I believe the dignity for having work, works. I believe that government will never solve our problems and come in and save us."

The pastor concluded by asking the public to help bring attention to the violence being perpetuated in Chicagos South Side and aid him in his effort to build a new community center he said will "help these young people transform their lives and transform this community."

DISCLOSURE: Shelby Steele is Eli Steele's father.

Follow along as Fox News checks in Pastor Corey Brooks each day with a new Rooftop Revelation.

For more information, please visitProject H.O.O.D.

Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is"What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter:@Hebro_Steele.

Camera by Terrell Allen.

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Rooftop Revelations: What has Black Lives Matter done for our community? - Fox News

Editors Note: Caesar Alimsinya Atuire is a Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy and Classics Department at the University of Ghana, Legon. He is also a 2020 Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. Dr. Atuires work draws from African and European philosophical traditions to reflect on normative issues in bioethics, health, and intercultural relations. He is co-editor of the volume Bioethics in Africa: Theories and Praxis. He has also lectured and published on epistemic decolonization in academia. Originally published as 21: INQUIRIES INTO ART, HISTORY, AND THE VISUAL #2-2020, pp. 449467 https://doi.org/10.11588/xxi.2020.2.76234

The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests have been accompanied by calls for the removal of statues of racists from public space. This has generated debate about the role of statues in the public sphere. I argue that statues are erected to represent a chosen narrative about history. The debate about the removal of statues is a controversy about history and how we relate to it. From this perspective, the Black Lives Matter movement is not a drive to remove or topple statues, but a call for an honest examination of systemic racism and the residual effects of slavery. This call can be a kairos to engage in a constructive dialogue about the societies we aspire to live in. The result of this dialogue, which includes a re-examination of dominant narratives, will decide which statues and monuments can occupy public space and represent our societies.

Premise

I begin this paper with a confession. I cannot be neutral in the Black Lives Matter conversation because mine is a black life and I would like it to matter. Nevertheless, as an academic philosopher, I can only try to be rational and possibly dispassionate.

The residual effects of the North Atlantic slave trade and its essentially racist framework have always been present in my life. My ethnicity, the Bulsa of Northern Ghana, is linked to the slave trade. The unity of the Bulsa as a distinct ethnic group came about when various clan and village leaders united to defend themselves and their families from the frequent attacks of slave raiders. The Feok Festival, celebrated by the Bulsa every year in December, affirms the Bulsa identity by commemorating and reenacting the defeat of Baabatu, the last notorious slave raider of the Upper East region of Ghana.1 The architecture of the Bulsa homes also bears witness to defence against human and livestock raiders. All domestic animals are kept within the courtyard of walled compounds, where, amidst the thatched roofs, there is always a flat-roofed terrace which serves among other things as an observation tower.

Growing up in the northern territories of Ghana, I was quite oblivious of racism. This changed when I left Ghana for the UK at the age of seventeen to continue my education. It was only then that I was made to become conscious of the weight of being black. Yet, apart from a few isolated incidents of being verbally and physically attacked because of the colour of my skin, the weight has been present principally in two subtle forms. First is a sort of burden of proof that I am a normal law-abiding, honest person and an intellectual. If we consider that onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat (the burden of proof lies with the one who affirms and not the one who negates), this is tedious. When a burden of proof is needed for such basic human characteristics, there is an implicit assumption that by claiming to possess these qualities I am making an affirmation that requires proof because it is not the accepted view about persons like me. The qualities which have often been assigned to me gratuitously and generously, such as being a good dancer, an athlete, a party freak, and possessing joints or being able to procure them, are qualities which I unfortunately do not possess. The second aspect of this weight is alienation. Even though I have lived, studied and worked in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Italy, and I speak four modern European languages fluently (whereas I can barely get by with two African languages), I have always been considered a foreigner in Europe, an outsider. I do not really belong. With hindsight, I realize how this has conditioned some of my reactions, especially on those occasions when I should have spoken up. The feeling of alienation, accompanied by the burden of justification, has made me think speaking out is counterproductive or pointless. I have been perhaps more fortunate than other persons of African descent born in Europe and America, since I always have a home to return to in Africa, whereas for them it must be more difficult because the only home they have and they know is the one that alienates them.

When I returned to Ghana after living in Europe for twentynine years, I chose to settle in a small fishing town on the Atlantic coast called Apam. There are three things I notice whenever I am returning home to Apam: the distinct smell of fish as I drive by the port; the Apam skyline, which is an endless series of bamboo sticks, none perfectly perpendicular to the ground, holding up TV antennas from low-rise rusting roofs; and, above all, the imposing structure of slave Fort Lijdzaamheid (Fort Patience), built by the Dutch from 1697 to 1702, standing on top of the promontory overlooking the town. It is an indelible and jarring reminder of the North Atlantic slave trade and its racist agenda.

It is with this baggage that I write about Black Lives Matter and the removal of statues of racists.

Next week

Introduction. Una passeggiata estiva romana (A Roman summer walk)

Excerpt from:
Black Lives Matter and the Removal of Racist Statues - Insight News