It happens here (but it doesn’t have to)

This story comes out of all the stuff happening in Portland over the last many months.  Anti-racism protests in their 91^st day are raging on, and local business owners are furious at the mayor for not stopping it.  The federal police are gone, but the local police are still violent with the mostly-young protesters out every night. Racism is the central theme, but are Black rights and wellbeing taking a back seat?   So many fraught dynamics.

Fixing American racism is complex, and nobody seems to have a firm grasp on how to really make it work.  It would be a wise idea for Northwest Arkansas to study the Portland protests, because we do have some things in common.  Their experience may be instructive. 

• The Black population is similarly low.  7% Black people is a bit more than our 4.16%
• Like Arkansas, the low minority population came from racist jim crow laws that here we call “sundown laws”.  Oregon was a sundown state until 1926.
• Rural Oregon and Washington draw a large group of white supremacists because of their high white and low minority population density. They call it the “American Redoubt”. Northwest Arkansas has a strong contingent of white supremist groups in the hills and hollows around the cities.  The Southern Poverty Law Center says Arkansas has more hate groups per capita than nearly anybody.  All of them are heavily invested in gun culture and fear of “liberals.” 
• They affiliate most strongly through churches, especially conservative Christian churches.  We have our own populations of those.
• At the same time both areas have a strong and growing progressive population with interests in education, culture, nature, inclusion and diversity, self-development, and strong community.  They are more “spiritual” than “religious” if they’re interested in those things at all.  
• The two groups do not see the world in the same terms either on the west coast or in Northwest Arkansas.

It would be useful to think about the amazing protests in Portland, and how the people of Northwest Arkansas might handle protests that go on for long periods.  What can we learn from Portland’s experience?   And what can we learn from our own previous experience that might make similar protests more “productive”? Meaning: is it possible to assume that the protesters are more than just roving thugs or “violent extremists”?  Why yes, it is possible!  Activists actually have methods and strategies meant to accomplish specific goals!  Many people seem to be unaware of that.

In fact, the goals are specifically tied to ending racism, as activists across the country have said over and over. Including in Northwest Arkansas. 

It’s interesting that one of the most visible sustained protests are in a mostly white area.  The support for Black lives may be tainted by the whiteness since all us white people are in emergency learning mode right now, but Black activists are still taking leading roles, and the support seems to be unwavering on both sides. They’re all – Black and white – accepting a pretty intense level of abuse to continue the struggle. 

The question I hope we can ask is, “what choices can we make now so that protests here can be productive for everybody?” We might still have options that can move us away from racial quagmires toward a place where minority groups can bring their problems to employers, neighbors or local authorities or something and get results just like white people, and thereby forestall a need for some of the protests.

Fayetteville police started out by putting in some pretty deep soul-searching in preparation for the big protest here.  At the urging of Black Lives activists, they were then in a position to encourage Bentonville police when local Black Lives Matter leadership took them to task over their poor handling of the first Bentonville protest.  But it appears that Bentonville decided to learn from the experience rather than push forward with their militarized approach (which may have been a draw for armed protesters who failed to appear at the Fayetteville protest). 

It appears that progressive NWA is looking for a more productive path.  But the truth is that we have a lot to learn.  We are a Southern town in a Southern state with deep Southern roots. There are still folks who have trouble making eye contact with somebody of a different race. Negotiating three protests is not the same as ending racism.  After all, the same thoughtful Fayetteville police chief is still contracting with a federal Drug Task Force that has a long but buried history of brutally harassing, manipulating and arresting young people – many minority and queer – for questionable drug charges. 

The police can’t take all the blame though.  Minority students on campus have told me that they avoid going into town.  On campus they feel safe and don’t feel much racial discrimination.  But in our dear city of Fayetteville they get it a lot.  That’s something that makes me unbearably sad for the city I love. I don’t believe it’s what we want our city to be known for by its minority residents.  But they’re not making that up.  The stories are too frequent and too vividly real for that.

For instance, in a second-grade classroom in Fayetteville, the teacher told an African American student that slavery was good for the slaves.  In a local liquor store an African immigrant was told his kind wasn’t wanted in this store.  There was a time when neighborhood committees were suspended when local Black people made demands through them.  At Fayetteville High School the Black students and the white students have an unspoken agreement about which staircases they segregate themselves to for changing classes (at least as recently as 2007 when my daughter was a student there).  When Black and queer students were harassed in school, the administration seldom took action and left students to fend for themselves.  And we have had lynchings.  Three, as I recall, though I don’t know the names and I apologize for that.

We’re not immune to oppression here.  There are issues of compassion and care (or the absence thereof) that need to be addressed for our community to be whole and resilient.  In some ways we are trying to address them.  But when protesters appear on our streets let’s not turn a blind eye that acquiesces to violent suppression.  Let’s opt for care and clarifying questions that give us learning from our ignorance and possibly save us some future trouble. 

The young leaders of the Black Lives Movement in Northwest Arkansas are pretty amazing people with imagination and wisdom that’s worth attending to.  We’re fortunate and can show some gratitude for it by attending to their messages.  We can be on the side of wisdom in this.  I feel sure that if we’re aware, that’s the choice Northwest Arkansas wants to make.

If you’d be interested in hearing more about the young activists leading the local Black Lives Matter movement, and the Community Cohesion Project in Northwest Arkansas, drop me a message at Omni Center Open Forum. Tell Gladweaver “I want to know more about youth leading the movement for racial equity in Northwest Arkansas.”

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