Bennett Carpenter sent me this message at 9:26 a.m. I wasn’t happy with his assumptions. 

 

We were very pleased to see that $15 back pay had been moved to the consent agenda late last week, after Durham community members sent over 300 emails urging our County Commission to vote "yes" to the retroactive raise. We're so excited our commissioners are responding to their constituents and prioritizing a $15 minimum wage for DPS classified staff. 

 

Carpenter is the Lead Organizer with Durham For All. He is the author of a petition for Durham residents to pressure members of the Durham Board of County Commissioners to vote in support of retroactive pay for Durham Public School classified staff. 

 

I rapidly responded with a note to chill on claiming this as his victory. In moments where perceptions of wins are in high demand, it’s critical to consider the consequences of claiming victory. 

 

Bennett, this is what happens when community organizing takes place outside the context of actual relationship building. You have built a narrative placing your activism as the solution, and, in the process, labeling Heidi Carter as the shero among members of the BOCC. This issue was resolved from the beginning. There is NO doubt that the BOCC was set to approve retroactive pay, making this issue another weapon in painting Wendell Davis, and the two Black members of the BOCC, in opposition to public education. I hope you will consider the massive damage done here. Again, in my reporting on this subject, there are no negative votes here. NONE. Heidi Carter introduced retroactive pay without prior conversations with board members and staff, making it impossible for a vote when it was introduced. It had to be considered in reference to budget (unlike hazard pay, which is set in the budget and is a short-term matter) as a vote with lasting implications. Your position here reflects poor judgement, and a willingness to be used as a pawn in Heidi Carter's quest to disprove Wendell Davis' allegations of actions perceived as racist. The measure will pass tonight, but it has nothing to do with your activism. 

 

Many will conclude it doesn’t matter. A win for classified workers is more important than the game played to maximize positive votes. That is true when considered outside of the context of what has happened over the past year. As of today, members of the Durham Board of County Commissioners have failed to consider the recommendations in the final report of the investigator retained to consider the behavior of Heidi Carter, which Durham County Manager Wendell Davis complained about in a February 15, 2020 letter, was motivated by racial bias. 

 

In his report, James E. Coleman, the attorney paid $29,393.00 by the county, ruled that although none of Carter’s behavior was motivated by racial bias, it was reasonable for Carter’s criticism of Davis to be perceived as racially biased. In a separate report, Coleman determined Davis did not violate the International County/City Managers Association’s Code of Ethics for Appointed Elected Officials, the Code of Ethics for Appointed and Elected Officials of Durham County or state law. Wendy Jacobs, chair of the board, argued Davis complained to influence the primary election.  

 

Coleman’s report is critical in underscoring the process used in placing retroactive pay on the agenda immediately after $15/hr. was approved during the November board meeting. Carter pressed the issue prior to receiving input from staff. Coleman warned of a culture dismissive of the county manager and county staff. 

 

“In addition, the manner in which some Commissioners question the Manager and some members of the staff (or the tone of such questioning) could be perceived as micromanaging, disrespectful of their expertise, or biased,” Colemans concludes. 

 

Coleman noted a lack of communication that manifest as a highly dysfunctional system of governance.  

 

“These matters reflect a troubling lack of trust and communications between the Board, as the governing body, and the County Manager, and, to a lesser degree, a lack of collegiality among some members of the Board,” Coleman states. “As a result, the Durham County Government is in a state of periodic dysfunction, at a time when the residents of Durham County need it to be effective in dealing with several daunting issues, any one of which alone would be challenging.” 

 

In submitting retroactive pay without input from county staff, Carter disrespected process in the same way noted in Coleman’s critique. In villainizing Davis in opposition to public education, Durham For All negates policies honoring staff input in the quest of maintaining a sound AAA rating. The role of members of the board of county commissioners is to rule based on recommendations from county staff. The petition dismissed the importance of reasoned guidance prior to voting. 

 

The mistake here involves a variety of assumptions related to the will of commissioners, the manager and staff.  Support was never in question.   All members of the board, the county manager and staff want more for all county employees. The Durham For All petition named Davis in opposition to public education, and, by virtue of that assumption, resistant of $15/hr. for DPS classified staff. Premises like these feeds the us versus them mentality used in demeaning the role of staff. It makes Davis the target and enemy of public education, while the true foe is a culture aimed at empowering some at the expense of disqualifying others employed to protect taxpayer's interests.  

 

The outcome appears as a system of elevated white supremacy.  In this case, a white woman accused of racial insensitivity fighting on behalf of Black workers, and a Black man declared the enemy of Black prosperity. The real culprit is a massive load of assumptions that continue a trend of racial tension. 

 

All of it could have been avoided if people would stop long enough to listen. I suppose that’s too easy in a world consumed with winning. Problem is, we all lose. In this case, Black leaders lose at the expense of white posturing aimed at maintaining white privilege. 

 

 

 

Black leaders say Durham For All petition is a misleading example of white savior posturing

A recent petition submitted by Bennett Carpenter, a lead organizer with Durham For All, has Black residents outraged over what they call savior posturing.  

 

“I'm so sick of these racist ass white Duke graduate baby organizers creating fake battles against our Black representatives in the name of oppressed people of color cause you got guilt!,” Nia Wilson, co-executive director of SpiritHouse, posted on her Facebook page. “Go take care of your cousin that stormed the capital and GET OUT OUR BUSINESS! We see you for who you are!” 

 

The petition challenges signees to act in demanding that members of the Durham Board of County Commissioners vote for all Durham Public School workers to make at least $15/hour applied retroactively to the entire 2020-2021 fiscal year.  

Go here for the link to the petition

 

Critics say the wording of the petition is deceptive in arguing “fiscal restraint is the same excuse Manager Davis used when Commissioner Carter and Commissioner Wendy Jacobs tried to raise wages to $15/hour during a June 8th BOCC meeting last year. In fact, the majority of years since becoming county manager in 2014, Davis has proposed county budgets that include less than the full funding that DPS has requested. Yet Manager Davis did not raise concerns of fiscal restraint when he allocated over $4 million in hazard pay to county staff last year without consulting or even informing commissioners at the time of his decision. 

 

Carter placed retroactive pay on the table prior to engaging with other commissioners and staff for input. Durham County Manager Wendell Davis has requested accountability from members of the Board of Education after years of subpar academic performance and declining student enrollment. Durham Public Schools consistently ranks top in the state in funding per student while paying administrators, principals and assistant principals the most of any district in North Carolina. In a district with an overwhelming majority of Black and brown students, Davis contends Durham deserves better given the financial commitment from the county.

 

Antonio Jones, chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, says the petition is a nonissue used to attack Davis. 

 

“As someone who’s personally fought for this issue for at least 10 years privately and publicly, and I specifically included it in my campaign platform when I ran for school board, let the public record show many of the elected officials were silent on this issue until it was “cool” to fight for $15/hour and it plays into the larger political agenda to discredit the county manager,” Jones said. “This could have been done 10 budget cycles ago. I don’t ever recall Heidi calling for $15/hr when she served on the school board and had the authority. As for the other elected officials I’d ask them to provide their track record on this issue.” 

 

Rev. Frederick Davis, pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church, served with Carter on the school board from 2006-2014. Davis says the issue of minimum pay wasn’t championed by Carter when she served as a member of the board from 2004-2016 and served as the board chair when bus drivers conducted a strike. 

 

“In terms of the board, I never saw a push from us (to increase wages) that I can remember. The only group that talked about increasing the minimum wage has been the city. It was in my last year when the bus drivers came up as classified employees. In fact, they did a little strike in 2015, and I was off the board then.” 

 

Wilson says many of the people fighting in support of DPS funding fail to understand the historical conflict between white board members and Black students and their parents. 

 

“Many of the people organizing this faux fight were either children or nowhere near Durham when Heidi as a school board member supported the worst superintendent (Ann Delinger) Durham's has ever had,” Wilson said.  “Her being positioned as a savior is offensive to Black people with memory and receipts.” 

 

Wilson said it’s an example of how white led community organizing takes place for the glory of white people without conversations with Black people. 

 

“Can we talk about the nature of white led community organizing that creates battles for their own glory and funding? Culturally, southern Black folk pick up the phone, sit on the porch and talk to each other. Because y’all have professionalize organizing grounded in the competitive nature of capitalism and whiteness you don’t build or value relationships,” Wilson said. “You choose to represent our needs and fight for our community, and the only way you know how. With the takedown. Tactics rooted in white supremacy. We have been seeking accountability for the racism, including insufficient pay for DPS employees, that we have been experiencing in Durham for decades with no support from these people who are attacking our representatives today.” 

 

The petition blames Davis for failing to prioritize pay increases for DPS employees. 

 

Manager Davis has both chosen and urged fiscal restraint when it comes to school workers like our bus drivers and janitors, while spending millions on county staff without consulting commissioners. All workers deserve a living wage, and all frontline workers deserve hazard pay. Because of Manager Davis’s budget priorities and uncollaborative decisions, most DPS classified staff have received neither throughout the pandemic. No more stalling. No more excuses. 

 

The Rev-elution contacted Bennett and Kaji Reyes, executive director of Durham For All, with questions regarding the petition. As of this post, we haven’t received answers.