Black led coalition demands equitable distribution of American Rescue Plan Act funding to Black led organizations

 Rev-elution offers independent, local, Black journalism and reflections on faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash app, $CMizzou, or Venmo, $Carl-Kenney-1

A group of Black led organization leaders have joined forces in demanding a more equitable distribution of federal funding. Members of the group believes allocating 45% of the $100 million in local federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to Black led organizations with close the racial wealth gap in Durham, North Carolina.

The Back in the Black Coalition for Equitable Funding notes the massive impact of Covid-19 on Black -owned businesses. Between February and April of 2020, they declined by 41% compared with a 17% decline among white-owned businesses.

“The racialized impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has only heightened systemic inequality and Black-wealth divide,” the group states on their petition campaign page. “The embedded racism in our society must be met with an honest response of a just apportionment of 45 percent of funds towards Black and Black led projects.”

The ARPA will allocate $350 billion to local and state governments. Durham City is receiving $50 million, and Durham County will disburse approximately $62 million. Thirty-eight percent of Durham’s population is Black.

The Back in the Black Coalition for Equitable Funding submitted proposals to receive $22,950.00 from the Durham City Council and $27,000,000 from the Durham Board of County Commissioners. Members of the coalition include Valine Ziegler of Empowered Minds Academy, Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock representing we are, Nia Wilson, and Mya Hunter representing SpiritHouse, Dr. William Jackson with Village of Wisdom, Camryn Smith representing Communities in Partnership, Jason Williams with War 4 Life, Maya Jackson with MAAME and Joy Spencer representing Equity Before Birth.

Their proposal highlights conclusions on the Roosevelt Institute blog referencing the work of Duke University reparation scholar Dr. Sandy Darity and his wife Kristen Mullen.

“They argue that reparations are “a program of acknowledgement, redress, and closure for a grievous injustice and that reparations payments from local governments and institutions such as Georgetown University, are diluted and piece-meal,” the proposal states. “We agree that placing the financial burden of a true reparations framework on a small metropolitan city would create an adverse financial effect, and we are therefore asserting that ARPA funding allocations be considered a hybrid framework that both immediately ensures funding practices on the local level and sets a national precedent to implement closing racial wealth gaps.”

The groups theoretic approach sets it apart form other proposals to receive ARPA funding. The coalition reflects an emerging mindset that examines funding within the context of historical impacts on the Black community. Black Agenda919, formed in 2018 after the release of the movie Black Panther, is a collective of Black people, working from a Black cultural perspective, to amplify stories, visions, needs and desires of Durham’s thriving Black community.

The participants in the Back in the Black Coalition for Equitable Funding group are engaged in conversations with Black leaders and organizations working to shift the grip of white supremacy in allocating local funding.

The group proposes ARPA funds be placed in Mechanics & Farmers Bank, one of the historical institutions of Durham’s Black Wall Street. Proposals initially approved by the city and county funding processes will receive money either directly form the city or county, or through Mechanics & Farmers without an additional application process.

“The racialized impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened systemic inequality and the Black-wealth gap,” the proposal states. “The roots of this injustice stems from the period after the Civil War with racist practices solidified during the Jim Crow era.”

The proposal commends city and county elected officials in taking “bold actions to declare racism as a public health crisis and creating a Racial Equity Task Force” to provide recommendations aimed at addressing economic disparities.

“But, in order for that aim of repair to be truly met, there has to be justice-oriented action in thought, policy and practices,” the proposal states. “That’s why in addition to demanding the City of Durham and Durham County invest and reallocate resources to communities of color in order to build an inclusive economy where we all thrive, we are also demanding that the City and County allocate 45 percent of funds intended for the work of equity to go to exclusively Black and Black-led organizations and businesses that address the impact of Covid on communities already stressed because of the impact of systemic racism.”

 

Questions regarding the leadership of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People exposes the assumptions of white power and privilege

 Rev-elution offers independent, local, Black journalism and reflections on faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash app, $CMizzou, or Venmo, $Carl-Kenney-1

 

commentary -I challenged Antonio Jones, chairperson of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, to prove his leadership is making a difference. He offered a list of behind closed-doors meetings with corporate bigwigs.

My question reflected growing frustration with the state of Black leadership. I’m dismayed by the slow-motion movement toward embracing the goals of women, LGBTQIA inclusion and affirming the concerns of Durham’s Latinx community. My desire for more than the traditional rhetoric of a Black middle-class agenda is troubling my soul.

In fairness, these issues transcend questions related to Jones or other men and women appointed to lead Black organizations. The models for community organizing are massively outdated and reflect assumptions involving what it takes to move the needle. Changing times require more than a protest movement and the election of Black politicians to secure a Black agenda.

The suppositions regarding the agenda have changed. The perception of a Black agenda is clouded by a myriad of thoughts regarding what’s best for Black people. The legacy of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black people is the ability to rapidly mobilize Black people to confront an enemy. There was clarity involving what that meant. The influence of white supremacy was correlated to laws limiting the progress of all Black people.

Today, there are diverged opinions regarding the enemy in the way of progress. Black people are divided. Locally, this shows up in views regarding police funding. White progressives have strategically and effectively manipulated the division to persuade Black people to consider other ways to combat white supremacy. Their pitch – the problem isn’t Black versus white. It’s capitalism versus socialism. It’s the Black elite versus working class Black people. It’s homophobic Black people versus the force of an inclusive agenda.

Within this context, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is named the enemy of economically challenged Black people. The organization is labeled a relic of the past.

The organization is blamed for the dismantling of a Black power base. What is missing in this critique is something more consequential. The narrative surrounding the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and other Black led organizations, exposes the impact of white supremacy in minimizing Black mobilization.

The founders of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People were business owners. The leaders of Black movements across the country were religious leaders supported financially by their congregants. They could freely speak because they weren’t forced to capitulate to the interests and demands of their employers. They were free to challenge the systems created to regulate the movement of Black people. All of that changed when congregations shifted their theological and political positions. It changed when former business owners, supported by Black consumers, became employees at Duke and other white controlled businesses. It changed when urban removal dismantled more than 100 businesses in Durham’s Hayti business district.

It also matters that white funding channels dried up when white led organizations took on the business of fixing Black people’s problems. Most nonprofits doing work addressing Black disparities are managed by white people. The executive directors are white. The board members are white. Their program models are based on research with little or no input from Black people.

The impact of generational wealth feeds into the funding disparity of organizations like the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. White funders feed organizations like Durham’s People Alliance with enough to hire staffing to manage their political agenda. Organizations like the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People raise just enough to address the needs of their political action committee, and that amount pales in comparison to the People Alliance’s war chest.

This is the corollary of white people investing in Black folks’ business. The leaders of Black led organizations consistently walk on eggshells out of fear that saying too much will result in their termination. Black leaders incessantly endure the fear of being blackballed for being a “firebrand” within a community that wants it all to go away.

Black leaders aren’t protected by Black self-determination. They’re forced to assimilate in a world that measures achievement by the standards of white normality.

In this sense, the nature of Durham’s political system uncovers the impact of white supremacy and institutionalized racism. There are double standards limiting how Black people speak versus the freedom of white people to share opinions. The economic disparities related to the funding of nonprofits, who does Black focused work and political action committees engaged in getting Black people elected, is why groups like the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People seem to do less.

The municipal election is rapidly approaching. The Political Action Committee of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is endorsing candidates for mayor and three ward seats. They will do so after pondering the concerns of a cross-section of Black people. They will also consider the interests of Durham’s Latinx community.

During their recent annual dinner, Jones made a strong statement regarding LGBTQIA inclusion. His comments were met with a standing ovation. The narrative regarding the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People lingers in places managed by some white liberals.

Upon deeper evaluation, don’t believe the hype.

 

Durham City Council election is about police funding when what we need is trust

 Rev-elution offers independent, local, Black journalism and reflections on faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash app, $CMizzou, or Venmo, $Carl-Kenney-1

 

COMMENTARY - I listened with profound interest as A.J. Williams shared his concerns with law enforcement. The 34-year-old Durham native is running to serve as the Ward III representative on the Durham City Council.

I was interested because grown folks need to spend more time listening to what young people have to say. My ears popped up like a dog upon hearing an approaching fire truck when Williams shared his views involving the history of American law enforcement.

His response came after a question about ShotSpotter, gunshot detection technology rejected by members of the Durham City Council in 2019. Williams participated in candidate interviews sponsored by the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

Williams says he was instrumental in opposing the technology. He offered two reasons. He noted how the FBI COINTELPRO program was used to dismantle the work of the Black Panther Party. He also discussed the genesis of American law enforcement was to track, punish and return runaway slaves. Williams shared the angst of his generation in witnessing the perpetual murders of unarmed Black men and women by law enforcement officers.

My ears perked up due to Williams’s interpretation of history. He’s not wrong. The FBI has used surveillance to attack the reputations of Black men and women involved in radical movements. They used it against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, members of the Black Panther Party and Assata Shakur. The law has not been the friend of Black people – ever. True that. My spirit felt like an echo of amens followed by the reverberating hallelujah of a Black gospel choir.

I get the anguish of young people. I do pause when I hear young people make assumptions implying, they understand more than us old fogies. I’m reminded of what we experienced firsthand. We not only read about it and watched movies about it; we lived it. I’m old enough, barely, to remember the cry to “burn, baby burn” during the 1965 Watts Riots. I grew up as a middle and high school student shaped by Black Nationalism. I called the police “pigs” and screamed “say it, loud, I’m Black and I’m proud” inspired by the radicalism of the Black Panthers.

It could be argued, justifiably, few things have changed. Granted. What can’t be debated is old folks not understanding what it feels like to engage in brutal wars with law enforcement. This not being new business adds credence to the demand to rid our streets of those crooked police. All of them. Why? Because the entire system is muddied by institutionalized racism.

Still, there is more to the story.

Young people in Durham may remember the turbulent years of former Police Chief Jose Lopez. There was the pathetically mishandled treatment of Stephanie Nickerson, a Chapel Hill resident beaten by a Durham police officer. We should never forget the case of Carlos Antonio Riley, Jr., the cousin of hip-hop icon Boots Riley, who was charged with shooting a Durham police officer while wrestling.

The police officer who battered Nickerson was terminated and Riley was found not guilty. The dreadful end of the Lopez years followed the sad story of Jesus Huerta, a Riverside High School student, who died in the back of a Durham police officer’s patrol car. Lopez claimed Huerta died from a self-inflicted gunshot, something hard to believe given the evidence.

Durham’s has bad apples and miserable days. We’ve also had leadership that understands and affirms the correlation between root causes and crime.

I’m reminded, there is more to the story.

Police Chief Jackie McNeil (1992-1997) incorporated the weed & seed model to infuse input from residents. Police Chief Steve Chalmers (2003-2007) and Director of Parks & Recreation Carl Washington, along with a group of community leaders -Jackie Wagstaff, Steve Hopkins, Effie Steele, Lenora Smith, and numerous others – changed the way Durham managed human service delivery.

Beginning in 1992, the North East Central Durham Reinvestment Strategy Board worked with the police department to reduce crime within a 96-block focus area. The city council allocated $1.7 million for seed funding. By 1993, $18 million was leveraged from other entities to support the project.

Chalmers continues his work in tackling root causes with Men of Vision, a nonprofit organization he started when he was chief of police. McNeil and Chalmers are both born and raised in Durham. They are among the police officers who understand the enforcement of law fails when the root causes aren’t addressed.

Durham history teaches us the focus on root causes of crime began within the Durham Police Department. The police department helped build a coalition while pressing an agenda forcing input from residents prior to approving public policy. It was a bottom-up approach of human service delivery that made the entire city partners against crime.

Crime will not be solved by blaming it on the police budget. The answers are in celebrating who we are, owning our responsibility to hear from all residents and in honoring the lessons from history.

The NECD model proved what it takes to succeed in Durham. It starts with building trust. Trust can’t be built when more time is invested in making enemies. It’s not about the budget. It’s about building relationships.

I like to think we should never make decisions based on our worst mistakes. It also helps to consider the accomplishments of our best days.

Hopefully, this election will be decided after listening to a variety of stories from old folks and young people.

It helps recognizing old fogies like me remember when Black Power was more than a slogan on a bumper sticker

 

Proposed House Bill will limit Durham's affordable housing strategy

Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly are pushing legislation that massively impacts Durham’s plans to provide affordable housing.

House 821, sponsored by Jeffery McNeely (R), and Lee Zachary (R),will deny “local governments the authority to take five listed actions unless otherwise provided by local act, including: (1) imposing impact fees for development; (2) conditioning a development approval on the existence of a community benefits agreement, as defined; (3) requiring a developer to provide funds for affordable housing of construct, set aside, or designate one or more dwellings or developments as affordable housing; (4)requiring a completed traffic impact analysis prior to a development approval; and (5) requiring a developer to construct a greenway.”

The bill appears to respond to Durham efforts to address rising housing cost and gentrification. Members of the Durham city council have prioritized negotiating affordable housing set asides with contractors as a condition of development approval.

The bill follows a long battle between members of the Walltown Community Association (WCA) and Northwood Ravin, the developer who purchased Northgate Mall. Negotiations between WCA and the Northwood Ravins left residents frustrated that increased gentrification would consume their community. Members of the Durham planning commission and city council attempted to lobby in support of the WCA.

The concerns of the WCA are reflected in a six-point statement on their website. Part of their request is for Northwood Ravins to set aside 30% of their units for affordable housing units and first right of purchase and rental to low-income Walltown residents.

“In order to make this vision a reality, we propose that Walltown - along with the other Northgate Mall adjacent neighborhoods - engage in a collaborative planning process with Northwood Investors, Duke University and the City of Durham,” the WCA website states.

In addition to the request for affordable housing set asides, WCA seeks:

1. Create spaces for affordable retail, including a cooperative grocery store (opportunity for community ownership), so that residents can have nearby access to healthy food and other items needed for work, school, and home.

2. Design and enhance the built environment with consideration for pedestrian safety, environmental sustainability, and accessibility for seniors, families with children, people with disabilities, and people of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

3. Foster community gathering and cultural enrichment spaces, such as, the Durham Arts Council clay studio, a satellite library branch, and an interactive Walltown history exhibit.

4. Develop a section of the property as a transportation hub for buses and bike riders, including a Park-and-Ride serving nearby universities, hospitals, and downtown Durham.

5. Provide space for a Community Advocacy Resource Center, which can serve as a hub for neighborhood residents about city and county services, access to homeownership and renter’s rights, and other information based on the interests and needs of the community.

The WCA vision reflects a longstanding relationship between elected officials and residents in developing and implementing planning goals. H 821 is a direct attack on Durham’s vision for participatory government. It grants unlimited power to developers with limited or no relationship with residents. It places corporate greed above the goals of a community engaged in affirming the needs of all citizens. It disavows our local aspiration in creating green spaces. It measures the ambition of developers above our desire to maintain a happy home.

During a recent conversation with Elaine O’Neal, candidate for mayor, she reflected on the future of Durham. She said Durham has five years to reverse the consequences of rampant development.

If she’s right, the clock is ticking.

Rev-elution offers independent, local, Black journalism and reflections on faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash app, $CMizzou, or Venmo, $Carl-Kenney-1

The tarnished emotions of the children of public school intergration teaches vaulable lessons

Janice Mack Guess and her two sisters bravely integrated Durham’s Brogden Middle School shortly after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by Klansmen in Neshoba County, Mississippi. They were among the 16 Black students who walked into what felt like enemy territory after the turbulent summer of 1964.

Guess’s father, Rev. Benjamin Alexander Mack, was the circuit minister for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Central Conference before being called to serve as pastor of Durham’s Morehead Avenue Baptist Church in 1967. Her father participated in protest at Durham’s Howard Johnson’s Hotel. Guess remembers witnessing more than 500 Black people congregate on the parking lot of the hotel, Sunday after Sunday, for months of a different type of worship service.

Being called to do God’s work was deeply embedded into Guess’s understanding as the child of a Black religious leader, but she was too young to fully understand what it meant to participate in a history making decision. Her mother and father were parents to two sets of twins. Guess entered the 7^th grade with Joyce, her twin sister and Jennifer, her older sister who was held back a grade.

Guess recounts her story in Little Colored Girls Want to Wear Pearls Too, her memoir published in 2013.

Guess says she didn’t think much about entering middle school until that hot summer. With everything in the news, agitation and fear mounted leading up to the first day of school.

“We could have used more training about what we had to face because we had never been around white children,” Guess said.  “We stayed in our communities and even though we lived in Walltown and just a block from were white people lived, and a block from Duke University women's campus, we didn't know what to expect.”

Guess says the Black students were placed in an environment without the support of Black people.

 “They did not prepare us with any kind of orientation about what to expect,” Guess said. “You know they wouldn't do that nowadays. They dropped us off at the school and people turned around and looked at us and we heard people say, ‘what them niggers doing here?’ Even the teachers had looks on their faces when they went to lunch while white students threw food down the table in the cafeteria.”

Guess says the gym teacher ordered Black students to walk around the track while white students played volleyball or other activities. The only Black people she saw was the janitor and the people who worked in the cafeteria. She says things got better after a few weeks, but there was a feeling that never went away.

“It was like we were invisible,” Guess says. “People call you nigger. They whisper things. It was a lot to deal with. We were 12-years old.  We just thought it was a way of life. They weren't kind at all.  I wondered what made people so mean. Everywhere you look you just got rolling eyes.”

She says the Black students believed the way they were treated was a normal way of life. Black students were taught lessons on how to behave in a white world, how to act while in your parent’s house and what is required to remain safe. Black students weren’t given any counter instructions aimed at helping them adjust in a hostile environment.

The experience taught an unintended and troubling lesson.

“I’ve never trusted white people. Even though every job I’ve had was opening doors for other Black people,” Guess said. “Our generation opened a lot of doors, but I don’t trust white people. I’ve never had a white friend. I’ve never allowed a white person in my house.”

Guess retired after decades of service at Burroughs Welcome, a pharmaceutical company that merged with Glaxo in 1995. She says her work as a trailblazer involved looking out for and protecting other Black people. She says the vice president of Burroughs Welcome often recognized her job performance.

“The vice president of Burroughs Welcome was very good to me. I was a good employee,” Guess said. “I think I'd say that it's living with the consequences of being treated the way you were treated. When you have a child.  When you hurt children - children live with pain of being hurt by white people.”

The parents of Stanley Vickers fought two years for him to attend Chapel Hill-Carrboro white public schools. In 1959, when Vickers was 10-years old, he was denied admission because he’s Black. On August 4, 1961, Judge Edwin Stanley, in an appeal led by future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall, overturned the school board’s ruling.

During the August 10 Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public Schools board meeting, current board members honored the 60^th anniversary of Vickers entering Chapel Hill High School. Vickers shared his recollection of those first days in an integrated school.

“There were people who were curious about me more than anything, and then I had people who were just openly hostile,” Vickers said.” I had lunch by myself, I had gym by myself. To some, I’m an anomaly, to others I am a threat, to others I am something less than human.”

Vickers and Guess hold internal scars related to leaving the security of an all-Black school.  They are trailblazers in a community quest in promoting equality and equity in public school education. They were supported by parents and faithful Black people. They were missionaries set into heated battles to undo the grip of white supremacy.

They are symbols of Black pride and courage. More than that, they were children thrust into the fight about grown folks’ business.

More than 60 years has passed since Black children entered school systems managed by white people. Many Black children did well academically. Many graduated from integrated schools before becoming successful in assimilated work settings. We measure the success of integration based on lists of who’s who and what they have achieved.

What about the emotions of the children?

How are they doing?

 -----------------------------------------

Rev-elution offers independent, local Black journalism for residents in Durham, North Carolina and reflections of faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash App, $CMizzou, or Venmo, @Carl-Kenney-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spreading the good news in a bad news world

 Commentary: My work as a journalist has always been flanked by my work in ministry. I started both when I was 19 years old. Over the years, I’ve attempted to balance the bad news with the good news. My last blog is a reminder of how the good news often gets gobbled by an overabundance of bullshit.

I trust in the power of amazing grace. I live by it due to how my own life is an overwhelming reminder of how I consistently get in my own way. My personal imperfections demand the enduring love of a forgiving God, coupled with the embrace of an understanding community. I know the power of affirmation and the satisfaction of being granted one more chance.

I’m internally confronted with the need of a sermon challenging me to see the face of God in everyone I meet. Believing that has become increasingly more complicated over the past two years. Nationally, pro-Trump and alt-right extremism stirs memories of the first time I was called nigger while three white bullies decided to hurl fist at me to make a point regarding their assumed white supremacy. My days in mid-Missouri taught me lessons involving white rage as a tool in facilitating Black submission. Locally, I’m confronted with bullies on the Durham Board of County Commissioners who consistently refuse to hear the cries of the people.

My personal journey for freedom complicates everything related to my goal in spreading the good news. Praying in the name of Black Jesus helps me see the vast beauty in Black and Brown people. Reading the scriptures soothes the festering wrath that makes it effortless to envision a life separated from white people. My call to proclaim good news reminds me of the Quakers teachings about the spark of God in all people.

It’s becoming far too easy to reject that teaching. Still, I try to find grace as part of my personal faith practice. I hold no sense of obligation related to forgiving people who harm both my body and soul. Grace, for me, is not about loving the hell out of my enemies. Seeking grace matters because of how pride and a load of character defects prevent me from becoming the best version of myself. Grace is an act of submission. In offering it to others, I’m asserting my greatest need.

The bad news is not everyone deserves the beauty of grace. It’s perceived as weakness. They plunge deeper to take more than before. They refuse to honor the offering of grace as a gift of reconciliation. They lack the capacity in understanding how and when spiritual truth rises as the foundation for the beloved community.

The marriage between my work in ministry and journalism is an offering of grace. Within the perpetual cycle of bad news, is there hope for this divided world? Is redemption possible for communities consumed with lingering under the massive pile of dung shoveled on the path leading to better days?

The bad news informs how we think about community. It’s us versus them - the sheep versus the wolves. This is a world informed by political battles. My faith and quest in sharing good news strains to find new narratives to define what it means to be human. This is the power of transcendence. This is the faith in the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us to facilitate the coming of a new Queendom.

My wish for the world is to feel the desire of my heart. Mine is a vision for the world to embrace the teachings of our sacred text and religions. Our common bond is devotion to the possibility of better than this. Our faith imagines better than this vicious cycle of political malfeasance.

Faith is a spiritual practice. It doesn’t need a religion to validate its truth. Faith imagines a community characterized for embodying the magic of diversity, equity and inclusion. Faith reflects less on who we say we are, and more on what we do to validate our intentions.

In this sense, my work is a prayer. It’s a challenge to all of us to do better at becoming the beloved community. I offer transparency as an offering of grace. I extend the call for confession to anyone consumed with power and motivated by pride. I pray for politicians too proud to publicly confess the errors of their decisions. I challenge all of us to listen.

Finally, Black Jesus urged us to pray for our enemies. I do that daily. I pray they go away.

 

Rev-elution offers independent, local Black journalism for residents in Durham, North Carolina and reflections of faith in public space. Support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash App, $CMizzou, or Venmo, @Carl-Kenney-1

 

Durham's racial divide didn't begin with Rodrigo Dorfman

Rev-elution offers independent, local, Black journalism for residents of Durham, NC. Please support Rev-elution by contributing at: Cash App, $CMizzou, or Venmo, @Carl-Kenney-1

COMMENTARY: Durham’s racial divide didn’t begin when Rodrigo Dorfman wrote an incendiary letter to members of Nuestra Gente de PA, an action team created by Latinx activist. Dorfman, a documentary filmmaker, didn’t start the fight, but his fiery three-page email from August 30, 2019 illustrates massive hostility that woefully defines local politics.

The email was triggered by an intense confrontation between Dorfman and Nia Wilson, co-executive director of SpiritHouse, during the August 21, 2019 People’s Alliance PAC meeting. Dorfman endorsed Charlie Reece, Jillian Johnson and Javiera Caballero, the three incumbent city council members. Wilson made her pitch for Joshua Gunn, a fourth generation Durham born and raised hip-hop artist and businessman “who comes from a legacy of slavery and black people whose blood is in this soil.”

Wilson, in an interview with IndyWeek reporter Thomasi McDonald, says Dorfman told the audience: “Brown people built Durham, and [my] blood is in this soil, too.” Dorfman recalls it differently. He says his actual words were, “Brown people helped to build Durham, too.” Another Black woman bellowed at Dorfman not to support his candidate on the backs of Black ancestors. A deputy from the Sheriff Department stepped between the two during their confrontation.

What followed was Dorfman’s legendary email rant outlining his views of Durham’s Black leadership. He labeled them anti-LGBTQIA. He called Gunn a Black capitalist. He called Pierce Freelon, who lost elections for mayor and state senate before being appointed by the city council to fill Vernetta Alston’s seat when she was elected to serve as a state senator, “an artist , with no clear useful ideology.” He said DeDreanna Freeman, a city council member serving Ward I, is “failing miserably at being a positive force for the council”. He called supporters of former school board and city council member Jackie Wagstaff homophobic and anti-immigrant and questioned their intelligence. He faulted Wilson for seizing the “blood and soil” battle cry of white nationalist.

Dorfman’s email was resurrected during conversations regarding the recommendation to add him to the Durham City Council Cultural Advisory Board. A group of concerned Black and Brown residents believe it’s reasonable to suggest Dorfman’s email is a treatise attacking the merits of Black leadership in Durham. They believe the letter is part of a formalized effort to divide Black and Brown citizens of Durham.

Dorfman claims he’s not a racist. Wilson and others assert racism is based on what you say and do. If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Dorfman and his supporters maintain enough time has passed to move past the trauma created by his email. Critics maintain the terms of forgiveness should be determined by the people offended.

Dorfman has his own explanation regarding what happened after being forced to resign from the process to serve on the City Council Cultural Arts Advisory Board.

“I was recently publicly accused of being a racist, misogynist agent of the patriarchy. I was accused of “talking over people”. This politically motivated accusation was used against me in order to force me to withdraw my nomination from a Durham City Board (more on that later) and help certain local politicians to show how tough they are,” Dorfman posted on his Facebook page. “Let’s throw the Latino immigrant under the bus and win an election.”

 Politics aside, Dorfman offers a heartfelt assessment of his interactions with people.

 “Many of you know that I have been (finally) diagnosed with ADHD and I’m being treated for it. As you can imagine, the PTSD from growing up as a political refugee on the run from a fascist dictatorship did not make it any easier, since I just had to force my way through a very difficult childhood. It made me resilient. But that resiliency comes at a cost. One of the symptoms of ADHD is that your mind races very fast, all the time. And that unfortunately means that I’m impulsive and often times talk over people. I don’t mean any harm. and I’m working on it.”

Dorfman shares the challenge of “talking over people”. He discusses the conditioning of patriarchy and the influence of learned behaviors, “being born out of trauma” and “being reduced to a simple negative stereotype.”

I can’t help but think there is a lesson for all of us. All of us are learning to be present in a world of diversity. I would like to think none of us are measured fully by our mistakes. This is the miscalculation of cancel culture. I pray we are all moving toward understanding a better way. Sadly, politics eliminates the possibility for change. In a world managed by winners and losers, there’s limited space for adjusting to create a better way.

Dorfman’s confession is a step in a different direction. Steps are limited by the aches of political expulsion. Being called a racist is a terrible thing. It’s made worse by the lack of forgiveness in a political world insensitive to the damage created by the perception of racist deeds.

Durham’s racial divide didn’t begin with Dorfman. My faith teaches me never to judge the heart of a person. I refrain from calling people racist, while noting actions perceived to be racist. Often, things get lost in the translation.  

It helps to own the indiscretion. Personally, I’ve made comments perceived to be sexist. I’m certain I’ve made statements rooted in racism toward Brown people. In my lifetime, I can’t count homophobic comments made from ignorance. I’ve made stupid statements from pulpits. I’ve written things I wish I could make go away. I deserve to be chastised for uncountable cases of verbal malfeasance. 

Hopefully, prayerfully, God isn’t done with me.  I seek to continue to engage in conversations aimed at helping me become a better person and citizen of a diverse world. With that in mind, I’m present in a process of renewal. If people are willing, I’m present. If people can acknowledge how their words and deeds harm others, I’ll try. I’ll try the best I can. 

With this as a foundational claim, I’m not throwing my friendships away as long as they continue to engage in helping me understand. 

We can begin by you not telling me it’s all in my imagination. When I say ouch, stop. Stop and apologize. After apologizing, do better. 

I will try to do the same.