City of Vancouver hired Paul Mochrie to lead this city. It's a competent and ethical white man! No surprise there. So far, most folks who are congratulating on twitter are white. I wanna know how racialized folks feel. Developers must be happy to see another white man in power.

I'm asking also because Kennedy Stewart credited him for the establishment of the equity office in COV. I felt a little erased, and also just noting how fast the "equity accolades" come to the white male successor from another white dude.

So my immediate thought without knowing a lot about Paul is...true ally? Performative ally? Or just for the paycheck. I don't trust white folks. So racialized folks who know him will be who I listen to about this new city manager.

Cause damn. Racialized equity workers get no accolades and salaries that are over $300k. No mention from the mayor. We battle daily and often times for $30 p/h and less. My last project gave me a "lucky" $9 p/h with no benefits. Others do this work their whole life and no $.

So before I say, "cool Paul." I want to know what Paul is going to do to bring about equity as a priority for this city, for my communities and for my loved ones who are battling homelessness, gentrification and racial hate.

I want to know if Paul will create new structures that shares powers with those whose voices are constantly silenced by COV themselves.

I want to know if Paul supports defunding the police.

I want to know if Paul has the nod from fellow racialized folks to be as competent, ethical and useful as his white colleagues think of him.

I want to know if under him, everyone has a better chance at being housed.

I want to know if he will prioritize Indigenous folks, build strong relationships and abolish the transactional cultures of working within COV.

I want to know if Paul will support and expedite matters relating to Hogan's Alley and other projects that lift up Black and Indigenous Peoples.

I want to know so much more because Im very tired of living in a city where my city manager gets more than $300k when me and many others working in equitable issues live near the poverty line with unstable housing.

I'm also tired of the hierarchial structure of accountability that only reports up and not down.

I'm tired of watching communities get traumatized by joint decisions made by developers and council.

More than anything, I tired of trusting and being asked to trust.

This is not cynicism. This is "systemic exhaustion."

So many resources, time and effort are put into getting the approval of "higher ups".

Behind his salary will be the thousands and thousands of hours of racialized peoples time and energy being sucked into a corporate structure that consumes so that he can make decisions, for us

How do we as a community keep him accountable outside of the structure that protects him?

I'm going to leave this here. How will Paul dismantle this structure with his power?

[Image of the "problem" women of colour in the workplace, a map that tracks what women-of-colour go through in racist working structures.

More info https://coco-net.org/problem-woman-colour-nonprofit-organizations/