Black leaders in Marin discuss anti-racism strategies
Black leaders in education, law enforcement and religion hosted a teleconference this week to discuss solutions to social inequities and racism in Marin.
The panelists, meeting for two hours on Tuesday evening, called for more equitable hiring practices in law enforcement, government and education; paid internships for Black youths; the incorporation of Marin City; investments in public or affordable housing; and support for Black-owned businesses.
Even though the Black Lives Matter movement started in 2016, George Floyd’s death has mobilized the world against racism and police brutality, said Johnathan Logan, vice president of community engagement at the Marin Community Foundation. Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Logan said leaders across Marin have to bring issues of racial inequity to the Board of Supervisors.
“We need to be framing the conversation now, because I don’t think going up there with a militant stance is going to do it,” Logan said. “But there has to be some way that the demands that are necessary for change happen quickly. We don’t know how long these protests will go.”
Xiavanna Martin, Ayana Morgan-Woodard and David Haynes-Chivers were the youngest panelists. Martin, 28, said the focus of discussions should be transparency of resource allocation, school reform, police reform and investing in Black entrepreneurs.
“I’d like to see more transparency when it comes to the distribution of resources to different communities,” Martin said. “I want to know who makes those decisions. Who decides who gets what, how much and who supervises those decisions.”
Morgan-Woodard said the first step is incorporating Marin City so it could have its own elected leaders who have an intimate knowledge of the community they serve.
“We as Marin City can’t even do half of the things that we want to because we’re not even a real city,” she said. “We have the county making decisions for us.”
Otis Bruce, a deputy district attorney in Marin County, agreed. He said he lives in Novato and is not as connected to Marin City as those who live there.
“We have to stop letting other people select our leaders and be voices for us,” Bruce said. “Because not every African American person who talks to the Board of Supervisors has the best interests of our people at heart. … It’s very important that our allies understand. We choose our leaders. We choose our voices.”
He added that white people should stop saying they don’t see color, that racism is caused by talking about race or that a person can’t be racist if they don’t consciously act in a racist manner.
Both Martin and Haynes-Chivers went to K-12 schools with predominantly white classes and faculties, and both felt alienated because of the color of their skin.
“I’ve always felt awkward living or being in other parts of Marin by myself beyond Marin City,” Haynes-Chivers said. “That has been a struggle, even when I went to St. Hilary’s in Tiburon, a predominantly white private school.”
“I think all the time I was seen as a token Black boy,” he said. “I was also seen as ruthless, chaotic, crazy and disadvantaged. But even with these perceptions, I still graduated from there.”
Martin said she grew up in Santa Venetia and San Anselmo, attending San Rafael High School and graduating from Sir Francis Drake High School.
“I could have excelled to my full potential if there were programs in middle school that helped me transition into high school and high school into college,” she said. “I felt like I wasn’t able to compete with my peers. I’d also like to see more Black teachers at College of Marin.”
Walter Turner, a College of Marin professor, said the graduation rate for Black students is increasing thanks to the Umoja program. The program, named for a Kiswahili word that means unity, offers workshops, counseling, tutoring, scholarships and other academic support.
But Turner said people still need to confront racial inequity at the county, state and national level.
“There has to be accountability, and there has to be transparency,” said Turner, chairman of the social sciences department. “So when people talk about defund the police or defund this, what they’re saying in some senses is that there’s some areas of our communities that have already been defunded. Housing has been defunded. Education has been defunded. And because of the pandemic, we know that health care has been defunded.”