Weekly Newsletter 4/5/2017

You did it! Yesterday, Kansas City voted YES on Question 4, enacting a new sales tax that will raise $8.6 million a year for economic development in the long-neglected neighborhoods of the central city! It passed with 52% of the vote.

This monumental victory only came about because of people like you, who care about human dignity and social justice, who stepped up to spread the word and get to the polls. Thank you for taking action.

CCO is looking forward to many events this month, and we hope you will join us.

Join the Johnson County chapter of CCO! No county is completely free of poverty, lack of proper healthcare, racial inequities, and other social problems. Fortunately, there are always people committed to addressing these issues no matter where they live.

Join us at the Oak Park Library (9500 Bluejacket, Overland Park, KS 66214) on Thursday, April 13, from 6 pm to 8 pm. We will identify urgent issues in Johnson County, with a focus on low life expectancy zip codes. RSVP here.

Come view "The Raising of America" film at Visitation! On Monday, April 17, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm, Visitation Church will host a viewing of the groundbreaking documentary that explores how social conditions affect childhood development.

It will take place in Tighe Hall at Visitation, 5141 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64112. Please RSVP here.

Join us for our Entrepreneurial Workshop! On Saturday, April 22, from 10 am to 2 pm, CCO will host a free workshop to identify and make available local resources, share effective ideas from emerging entrepreneurship, and work on changing local culture to provide ongoing support to entrepreneurs. Speakers include Dell Gines of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and EconAvenue.

This event will take place at the Haven Center, 735 Walker Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66101. RSVP today.

Attend our White Privilege Conference 2017 Reception at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine! On Thursday, April 27, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, come meet the nationally renowned White Privilege Conference speakers, including Michael Eric Dyson, Glen Singleton, and more.

You will enjoy a tour of the American Jazz and National Negro League museums, KC BBQ, a cash bar, music, and spoken word artists.

Purchase your ticket(s) here, or contact Marquita Taylor at marquita@cco.org to become an official sponsor, which includes several unique benefits. Free transportation by Hobson's Limousines will be provided to the first 100 White Privilege Conference participants to purchase tickets for the reception.

Thank you, and we can't wait to see you at these events!

Weekly Newsletter 3/28/2017

Happy Tuesday, CCO community! There are a wide variety of exciting events on the horizon, so pull out your calendars. 

On Thursday, March 30, join us to celebrate outgoing CCO Executive Director Eva Kathleen Schulte. For the past 12 years, Eva faithfully served CCO and the people of the region on some of the most consequential social justice and equity issues.

Join the CCO Board of Directors, staff, and volunteer leaders at a special reception to be held on Thursday, March 30, 2017, from 5:30 pm to 7 pm in the first floor atrium of the KC Health Department building (2400 Troost). We will formally thank Eva for her years of service. Let us know you're coming!

Tuesday, April 4 is election day in Kansas City, Missouri! A week from today registered voters of KCMO will have the opportunity to vote on Question 4, a one-eighth cent sales tax that would raise $8.6 million per year for economic development in some of the central city's poorest areas. CCO endorses this initiative.

The funds will go toward housing, restaurants, shops, public plazas, light infrastructure, street lighting, blight removal, gunfire sensing technology, and more. Investment like this is vital to creating jobs, renewing neighborhoods, and reducing crime. So vote YES on Question 4 on April 4. Find your voting place here. We are #OneCityKC!

Thursday, April 27 to Sunday, April 30 is the White Privilege Conference at the downtown Marriot. The conference examines problems and solutions related to white privilege and racial oppression. Its stated goals are "Organizing. Strategizing. Taking action. Deconstructing the Culture of White Supremacy and Privilege: Creating Peace, Equity, and Opportunity in the Heartland." 

Speakers include Michael Eric Dyson, Glen Singleton, Peggy McIntosh, and many others. See the White Privilege Conference website for details and registration.

On Friday, April 28-Saturday, April 29, CCO is co-sponsoring a youth leadership event, and we need your help! We are looking for volunteers passionate about working with young people and committed to being positive role models. 

The event is the Global Youth Initiative Lock-In at the Gregg/Klice Community Center in Kansas City. There is a lock-in for young men ages 12-19 on Friday, April 28, 2017, from 5 pm to midnight, followed by a lock-in for young women ages 12-19 on Saturday, April 29, 2017, from 5 pm to midnight. Events include games and character building activities.

If you are interested in having a positive impact on young adults and making this event a success, contact Ave Stokes at avrell@cco.org or 816-663-9794.

Thank you, and have a blessed week!

Who Belongs in Kansas City?

By Garrett S. Griffin

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THREE WEEKS AFTER the election, I found myself sitting between two men: a black man on my right, a white man on my left.

We sat together at the Shoal Creek Police Station in north Kansas City. The black man and I were under arrest for participating in a peaceful act of civil disobedience in support of a higher minimum wage and union rights for Kansas City workers. We’d known each other for a few hours. The white man was a drunk stranger, I believe hauled in for domestic violence.

My companion and I were forced to listen for an extended time to this man’s thoughts, some incoherent, others insensitive, a few overtly racist. We tried to counter some of this, but the man was in no condition to be reasoned with.

Civil disobedience “won’t do anything,” he said, a smug smile on his lips as he readied the punchline. “All you’re doing is disrupting the crack flow in the inner city.”

He explained that Somalis are foolish because they choose to drive taxis instead of finding better work, and how poor Americans in general need to work harder (as hard as he) and get off welfare.

He spoke of how native Africans are poor “because they’re just so stupid,” and how if I ever started a business I should take on my black comrade as a partner because “he looks like he could use a helping hand, if you know what I mean.”

This angered me, but as a white man my indignation was only against attacks on others; it’s not the hotter anger of one who is personally demeaned and defamed. I wondered what my companion was feeling at that moment. When I was able to put aside for a second my embarrassment that a fellow white person, intoxicated or not, would say such things in the presence of a black man, or at all, I saw my companion was stone-faced, eyes observing something far away, something I couldn’t see.

Perhaps it was memories. He’d seen and heard such things before. Perhaps he was simply trying to quell the anger toward this slander against where he lived, his work ethic, his ancestors from another continent, who he was.

I didn’t speak to him about it after our release. But I imagine he didn’t feel like he belonged.

Like the nation as a whole, Kansas City struggles to be a place where all people feel like they belong. That our city should be such a home is not the unrealistic demand of “sensitive, entitled snowflakes” who “get offended by everything.” It is the basic ideal of the American experiment, that all people are created equal, worthy of the same dignity, respect, and human rights. In a decent American society, that lived up to its principles, every person would feel like he or she belonged.

Clearly, this is not yet the case. The Southern Poverty Law Center recorded nearly 900 hate incidents in the ten days following Donald Trump’s election. Trump supporters were emboldened, validated, and set about verbally and physically attacking the people Trump demeaned and vilified. Women were grabbed by the genitals, homosexuals beaten, hijabs ripped off Muslim girls, blacks called "niggers," Jews called “kikes,” Hispanics mocked and told to leave the country. Vandalism featured swastikas, nooses, and racial slurs.

Whites and Trump supporters were victims also, to a small degree. 23 incidents, or 2.6%, were anti-Trump, and some included physical violence. All hate crimes are wrong and must be condemned, and all hate crimes make someone feel like he or she does not belong. But we cannot pretend all groups experience hate crimes equally. As The Star noted on January 6, only 10.5% of all hate crimes in 2015 were directed against whites (a typical percentage), even though the U.S. is still nearly 70% white. We also must not pretend hate crimes against one group cannot be a reaction to hate crimes against another. Such things do not always come from the same place.

What was the Kansas City experience? A black Kansas Citian found a swastika and noose spray-painted on his car. Alongside “Hail President Trump,” racial slurs, misogynistic slurs, and swastikas were left inside the Kansas City Public Library downtown. A Muslim business owner received threatening phone calls, and “white power!” was shouted at him in person. A student drew a Klansman saying “Kill all blacks!” at Piper High School. A gay man was beat, had a gun put to his head, and had “fag” spray-painted on his car. "Alt-Right" advertisements appeared saying "America was 90% white in 1950. It is now 60%. Make America Great Again." A white man shot three people, killing one, while hunting down Arabs -- he yelled "Get out of my country!" (The victim's grieving wife, in a public statement, asked, "Do we belong here? Is this the same country we dreamed of?") Further, a group of teenagers assaulted a white man they thought was a Trump supporter. Anti-white statements like “Kill Whitey” were scribbled on walls of a UMKC building.

Even before election day, things were getting bad. In 2015, religious hate crimes in KC rose 60%, most against Muslims, while general hate crimes rose 35%.

While there has been a great amount of progress in Kansas City since its Jim Crow era, since the heyday of its anti-immigrant and anti-religious minority hysteria, since its very beginning as a slave society in the early 1800s, there is still much work to do to make this city a place where everyone feels like they belong. But how can this be accomplished?

One way is to ensure local and national laws protect the freedom and equality of all people. Many will ask: if the law does not offer all the same respect, why should the individual? We must push for moral and fair public policy. That must be Kansas City’s response to proposals like mass deportations, the registration of Muslims, the repeal of same-sex marriage, the return of stop-and-frisk, and so on.

This is done through people’s movements, when ordinary people come together to force the government to yield to their demands. Progress always comes on the backs of troublemakers: those who organize, agitate, petition, protest, march, strike, sit-in, and engage in civil disobedience. When the powerful realize the trouble will not stop -- only grow -- until demands are met, they surrender. If enough people unite, they can shut down a city, a state, or an entire country. From Kansas City’s Valentine’s Day strike of 1918, in which 15,000 workers brought the city to a halt, to India’s 2016 strike of 180 million workers that did the same to a nation, the people have the power to take whatever they want — by simply leaving their workplaces and flooding the streets. This will occur in Kansas City whenever injustice rears its ugly head. We saw it at the inauguration day march from Union Station to City Hall, the Women’s March in Kansas City, and the protest at MCI against the immigration ban.

A second way is to help change the way others think. Make no mistake, the activism described above can make bystanders think differently. But in general, Kansas Citians must encourage each other to hold one another to the same standards -- that is, you must offer the same rights, respect, kindness, and dignity to others that you expect. That simple maxim, which almost all profess to believe in, could transform society if actually followed.

Under such a rule, one would think registering Muslims as ludicrous as registering Christians. Immigration bans would be a thing of the past, because ethical societies don’t punish the many for the crimes of the few. Tearing apart families by deporting good men and women who came to the U.S. illegally to escape poverty and violence would be unthinkable, because no one would want that done to their family. Homosexuality would be accepted as a natural human trait, like heterosexuality, with marriage rights protected for all. Discriminatory policing against black folk would be under constant attack by all white Americans, who would not want to be subjected to such mistreatment. All men would likewise be up in arms against the constant sexual harassment against women, light sentences for rapists, and other trademarks of rape culture. Hate crimes and everyday racist comments, no matter who against, would be found only in the history books.

That would be a much better society, a Kansas City where all people lived without fear and with a sense of belonging. Such a society is ours to create.

When my black comrade and I were released, we sat in a warm van with many others who were trickling out of the police station.

“You think we made a difference?” he asked, to no one in particular.

I thought of all the ordinary troublemakers before us who had protested and been arrested: those who fought for decent wages and the 40 hour workweek, the end of child labor, equal rights for women, people of color, religious minorities, and LGBT people, and the end of bloody wars like Vietnam. Those men and women rose up against exploitation, injustice, and bigotry. Surely they asked themselves the same question, and surely there was only one correct answer.

 

Garrett S. Griffin is an activist, political writer, and the author of Racism in Kansas City: A Short History. He is the communications coordinator at CCO.

Weekly Newsletter 3/21/2017

It's long past time Kansas City invested in its poorest neighborhoods, and YOU can make it happen. On April 4, residents of Kansas City, Missouri, will vote on a 1/8 cent sales tax that will garner about $8.5 million per year to benefit the central city (specifically 9th to Gregory, and Paseo to Indiana).

This measure is Question 4 on the ballot, the "Central City Economic Development Sales Tax," also called the One City initiative. (See the entire ballot here.)

The funds will be used for economic development such as restaurants, stores, public plazas, housing, street lighting, gunfire detection technology, and so on. Development will create jobs, reduce crime, and renew blighted neighborhoods.

If you are a KCMO resident, we are asking you to vote YES on Question 4 on April 4. If you are a registered voter, find your polling location here. 

Not a KCMO resident or missed the registration deadline? You can still help! We need to spread the word far and wide. Share CCO's social media posts on Question 4, such as these on Twitter and Facebook. Use email, phone calls, social media, and in-person conversations to tell friends and family in KCMO to get to the polls on April 4 and vote Yes on Question 4.

These disadvantaged neighborhoods, left to rot after white flight and today dominated by people of color, have waited long enough to get the same government attention more prosperous -- and less diverse -- areas of the city have long enjoyed. We must finally recognize that we are One City, and find a new spirit of solidarity with and service to all Kansas Citians.

Thank you for your support of this effort, and have a great week!

Thank You For Joining the NightLIFE March!

We here at Communities Creating Opportunity would like to thank you for joining us last week to show our presence and concern for life within our city.

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens heard the voices of those who will be directly affected by government policy.

As we reflect on our NightLIFE peace march, a deeper understanding arises: that suffering and violence have existed for far too long beyond the invisible wall of prosperity within our city. The time to act has long passed, but today marks a new beginning, as we have refused to let the moment pass while idly standing aside.

For those who signed up during the march, we will be contacting you on how you can support the ongoing work of reducing violence in our communities, as well as future NightLIFE walks. Please also note that CCO will be offering community organizing training in April (date to be determined soon).

Join us as we continue our efforts toward the preservation of life and the vitality of hope. If you didn't fill out a card at the event, sign up here to stay informed and get involved in CCO's violence interruption and prevention efforts. Or contact Ave Stokes at avrell@cco.org.

We will no longer simply ask for change...we will act for change!

Weekly Newsletter 3/14/2017

Wow. Last week was a whirlwind of activity here at CCO and in Kansas City!

We journeyed to the 26th floor of City Hall to urge the city council to pass a higher minimum wage for Kansas City before the Missouri Legislature passes its bill to forbid cities from doing just that. This effort ended in a huge victory: the council approved an $8.50 per hour wage by September 2017 and $13 by 2023. The fight is not over, as the Legislature could still attempt to strike down Kansas City's higher wage retroactively, but it's a start.

Incidentally, CCO published its first blog post this week, on the wage victory. Read all the details on the vote, including who voted for and who voted against, on CCO's website.

Then Missouri Governor Eric Greitens joined CCO in a NightLIFE Peace March from Metropolitan AME Zion Church down Prospect Avenue. We heard from Kendra Jackson and Natasha Flemons, two anti-violence activists who lost sons to gun violence. Rev. Susan McCann and Rev. Ken McKoy spoke of the public policies needed to address violent crime; Rev. McKoy started the NightLIFE marches in St. Louis, where he leads them three nights a week. We then heard from Governor Greitens, who said we need to ensure young people have access to quality education and jobs, but also know they are deeply loved.

This was not an endorsement of Governor Greitens or any of his past or current policies. This was an opportunity to urge him to support policies that immediately act to reduce violent crime, to show him the conditions that lead to violence in Kansas City neighborhoods, and to express our love for and solidarity with our brothers and sisters living in dangerous places long abandoned by local government.

Speaking of violence prevention, this has become one of CCO's organizational priorities. There are four key areas to which CCO will devote its focus and its passions:

• Health access and equity
• Economic dignity, particularly related to wages and debt
• Racial equity and inclusion
• Violence interruption and prevention

Please click on the focus area(s) you're interested in to get involved!

Have a blessed week!

Victory! City Council Passes Higher Minimum Wage

We did it! In a resounding victory for working families, the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council approved a higher minimum wage this afternoon. This result comes in large part from intense pressure placed on the City Council by social justice organizations, activists, and people like you: concerned citizens willing to add your signature to petitions, to contact councilpersons, and show up at City Hall when it mattered most.

The council members who voted for a higher minimum wage were Quinton Lucas, Jermaine Reed, Katheryn Shields, Lee Barnes Jr., Alissia Canady, Scott Taylor, Teresa Loar, and Kevin McManus. Mayor Sly James, Scott Wagner, Heather Hall, and Dan Fowler voted against, while Jolie Justus was absent.

The ordinance establishes an $8.50 per hour minimum wage starting September 18, 2017, an increase to $13.00 by January 1, 2023, and in 2024 it will increase or decrease according to the cost of living.

The measure came at a time when the future of wages throughout Missouri is uncertain. A bill is moving through the Missouri Legislature to prohibit cities from raising their own minimum wages. It is the hope of advocates that this move by the City Council secures higher pay for Kansas Citians before the bill can be passed, but the threat remains that the Missouri Legislature might retroactively veto the Council's ordinance. 

Councilpersons Lucas, Reed, and Shields spoke most passionately about the need to give Kansas Citians the ability to afford the necessities of life, such as rent, food, gas, utilities, and medicine, that are continually growing more expensive while wages remain stagnant. Shields reminded the chamber that "it is never the wrong time to do the right thing."

Mayor James was the most vocal against the ordinance, saying it will be overruled by the state. He put forward and helped pass a resolution to support a statewide petition initiative to get a higher minimum wage for all Missouri on the 2018 ballot.