As you're watching the working groups release recommendations, I think it's important for us to keep two contextual things in mind. First, the Community Police Council has been working for years and already has delivered recommendations. Why not start with those? https://twitter.com/nanwhaley/status/1313857759100559360
Second, and this thought was the genesis of this thread, there can be no authentic moving forward without a specific and clear acknowledgment of how black communities in Dayton have been wronged in the (recent!) past.
It's unconscionable to me that the mayor and the commission would seek credit for the working group's recommendations while simultaneously failing to acknowledge publicly the City's failures on May 30 and May 31.
This form of gaslighting, wherein white liberal politicians seek to "look forward, not backward," is a huge impediment to actual progress.
"White liberals, despite believing we are saying and doing the right things, have resisted the systemic changes our cities have needed for decades. We have mostly settled for illusions of change." --former Minneapolis mayor https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/minneapolis-hodges-racism.html
I’m told by people I trust that the working groups have done "some" good already. But I'll find it difficult to believe we have in Dayton an authentic desire for systemic change until there is some truth and reconciliation.
Despite what our local Democrats would have you believe, racism didn't begin with our openly white supremacist president. If we vote him out as I hope we do, Dayton will STILL have such a long road ahead when it comes to building a just and equitable city.
That building process must include acknowledging the truths that black communities in this city have seen and known and experienced all along.
As our mayor claims a national liberal platform for herself, I think those of us who still live here in Dayton ought to ask: Do you support the use of tear gas against your own citizens? Do you believe the Dayton Police committed strategic errors on May 30 and May 31?
There can be no real moving forward until and unless we acknowledge the past. We’re not talking ancient history here. These things just happened, and they need to be answered for.
Also? Also THIS. https://twitter.com/geedee215/status/1314197685365284864
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