What She Did – Something You Can Do

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Robert Lloyd

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This action grew out of our First Thursday Coffee Discussion at the Rocket Market last week. If you have taken a positive action please comment on this post.

River Park Square Customer Concerns
January 13, 2017 (as posted on 4comculture.com)

I want to share an experience with you that I have shared with many people – sometimes in a classroom of 30, sometimes to a friend. The other day I shared it with five or six people having coffee together. These are usually all white audiences. I am an African American. I have two memorable experiences in the River Park Square Shopping Mall. One was an art exhibit in Nordstrom’s during Black History Week in the late 1990’s. It was a very pleasant experience and the floorwalker came by and enjoyed my work, smiled and said pleasant things throughout the day. I have only shared that experience with a few people. The other experience took place maybe ten years ago but it often feels like it happened yesterday. Let me describe that second experience.

I am an older man with gray hair and dressed rather conservatively. I was shopping with my wife and began to feel tired and out of breath so I asked my wife to continue shopping while I found a seat in the entryway to the mall. There were two benches, one on the east side of the entrance and the other on the west side. The bench on the east side was filled with a family. A man with many packages was seated on the bench on the west side. I stood next to next to him on the bench, he saw me but he did not make an effort to move over or make room for me on the bench. Feeling very lightheaded at this point I sat down on the floor fearing I was going to fall down. Two or three minutes later a man approached in street clothes and told me that he was security and that I could get up or go to jail. I told him that I was feeling lightheaded and had to rest and that my wife would be back soon to take me home. He told me “Get up or go to jail.” So I got up, walked outside, got some air, came back, my wife came, and we went home. I had expected that mall security would have asked the man to move his packages that I might sit on the bench. He didn’t and I didn’t. I asked security to ask the man and his response was “Get up or go to jail.”

The only reason I am telling you this now, out of all the times I have told this story, is that usually when I do whites listen without saying anything while Blacks say “That’s life.” I think “What’s the use. They’re all white so avoid any kind of confrontation, let it go.” This time when I told the story to a white woman she later contacted me. Here is what she said in her message: “Hey Robert! What a pleasure to hear/see the history in your warm, inviting home. Thanks so much for taking the time to “educate” V and I. BTW, I forgot to mention, I visited for a long time with a Riverpark Square security manager last week about that incident you told me about and learned a lot…must share with you sometime. I encourage you to fill out this complaint form attached and send to Sara Cannon at the address provided. Let me know what you think.“ Attached was this form.

I don’t know how you can use this information. Maybe it can be an educational process for your staff and employees. I’ll probably keep telling the story. But there will be an addition to it. I will tell them about a white lady I met named BB who came to my defense and maybe there is hope after all. I will encourage my listeners to immediately document their own event and send it to the management of the facility and a copy to some social justice organization.

Robert J. Lloyd

Let’s Commit Ourselves to Action

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Robert Lloyd

During the last eight years I have heard so many complaints about what President Obama has and has not done for us. Barack Obama has done more for America than anyone since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. energized the Civil Rights Movement.

Since 2008 news and social media have done nothing but complain about what politicians did and did not do. If they have not accomplished goals and objectives it is no one’s fault but your own. If you are not satisfied with the 2016 election I suggest that you step up and do something about it.

If there is an issue or a problem that you feel needs fixing, post a comment to this page describing the problem and the name of an organization that works on that problem that you are involved in or would like to be involved in. If you do not know of an organization, volunteer to start such an organization. Include your contact information. I will collate the information everyone contributes and post the results on this site 4comculture.com

What are the issues that you feel are important in the year 2017?

What is your level of commitment?
Are you an actor, are you an ally or are you an accomplice? Click the link to see how we are defining these terms and what you might do: http://wp.me/P1UPVH-2rX

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Spokane NAACP Spells Out Mission

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Robert Lloyd

In the January 2017 issue of the Black Lens News Spokane NAACP Secretary Deborah Rose describes how the organizations goals are chosen and that they are “designed to help create a community where all people of all colors feel safe and thrive. Our primary focus is the African American community.”

She goes on to describe the many phone calls and emails the organization receives from individuals with specific problems and concerns that they feel are not being addressed. After explaining that they are “a referral agency only” she outlines the steps taken to listen to the complainants and connect them with the appropriate agency or resource: “People with complaints must first do the following – write down a clear, objective description of the incident including names, places, dates, times. A copy of the Spokane NAACP complaint form is available on our website at spokanenaacp.com, and serves as a template to compile the necessary information. A completed copy of the form must be sent to our office, where we review for clarity, patterns and solutions. We can then refer the complainant to the appropriate resource.” At the end of the article are links to the most frequently used agency complaint forms.

Spokane City Police Department Complaint – (be sure you get the name of the officer at the time of the incident) https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/police/accountability/citizen-complaint-form.pdf.

Spokane County Sheriff ’s Department Complaint – (be sure you get the name of the officer at the time of the incident) www.spokanecounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/3955.

Washington State Human Rights Commission (for unfair work termination or housing issues) http://www.hum.wa.gov/discrimination-complaint?page_name=complaintProcess

For pest control in rentals – http://www.hum.wa.gov/discrimination-complaint?page_name=complaintProcess

Peace and Justice Action League Joins Showing Up for Racial Justice

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Robert Lloyd

Spokane PJALS joins SURJ Show Up for Racial Justice

SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. We work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.

Our Vision for PJALS

The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane engages everyday people to build a just and nonviolent world

Everyday people are together advancing peace, economic justice, and human rights, through campaigns grounded in the intersections of these values. We are:

Engaging youth, cultivating youth leadership and long-term involvement.
Nurturing strong relationships & active partnerships with communities of color, LGBT+ communities, faith communities, and other progressive bases.
Sharing our messages, setting the frame of debates, and engaging everyday people.
Delivering high-quality work through robust volunteer involvement and leadership, appropriate staffing, strong organizational systems, and a funding base that’s expanding, stable, and sufficient.

Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Robert Lloyd

Moving from Actor –> Ally –> Accomplice

The ideas captured on this website, very much a work in progress, have been developed to support White people to act for racial justice. It draws from ideas and resources developed mostly by Black, Brown and People of Color, and has been edited by Black, Brown, and People of Color. I recognize that categorizing actions under the labels of Actor, Ally, and Accomplice is an oversimplification, but hopefully this chart challenges all of us White folks to go outside of our comfort zones, take some bigger risks, and make some more significant sacrifices because this is what we’ve been asked to do by those most impacted by racism, colonialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, xenophobia, and hyper-capitalism. I believe that for real change to occur, we must confront and challenge all people, policies, systems, etc., that maintain privileges and power for White people.

STEP 1: Identify the racial justice organizations in your area.

Here are two lists of organizations (Black Led Racial Justice Organizations & A Partial Map of Black-Led Black Liberation Organizing) mostly led by “directly impacted” individuals (people who are most impacted by racist, xenophobic, and violent people/policies) and with missions to directly challenge institutionalized racism and White supremacy.

STEP 2: Explore the distinction between Actors, Allies, and Accomplices.

When Malcolm X was asked how white people could be allies and accomplices with Black people in 1964, he responded: “By visibly hovering near us, they are ‘proving’ that they are ‘with us.’ But the hard truth is this isn’t helping to solve America’s racist problem. The Negroes aren’t the racists. Where the really sincere white people have got to do their ‘proving’ of themselves is not among the black victims, but out on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is — and that’s in their home communities; America’s racism is among their own fellow whites. That’s where sincere whites who really mean to accomplish something have got to work.”

Keep in mind that as White people, whether as an Actor, Ally or Accomplice, we are still part of the ‘oppressor class’. This means we have to be very creative in flipping our privilege to help Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.

STEP 3: Act

Commit to taking 3 actions in the next month, and share these with a trusted friend, colleague, or family member in order to increase your accountability to follow through on your commitment. Can you take at least one action in the next two weeks in the Ally or Accomplice category?

If this was of interest CLICK http://www.whiteaccomplices.org/

First Thursday Discussion Group #1

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Robert Lloyd

I ran across this guy on Facebook and thought he had a great answer for all the people whom I have heard ask “What can we do?”

I have been to many rallies and meetings at the end of which no one knows what they can do. Here is a list that I am starting with our First Thursday Discussion Group here in Spokane. What I want us to do is break into small groups and for each group to come to a consensus on something that those sitting around the coffee table can do and are willing to do. I am asking them to record that consensus in a comment to this post 4comculture.com so we can develop a list of actions people are taking.

Originally posted on Facebook November 22, 2016 by Prof. Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale University

Republished at Reddit.com: https://m.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/5faksb/historian_holocaustthird_reich_expert_and_yale/?ref=search_posts

Professor Snyder’s homepage: http://history.yale.edu/people/timothy-snyder

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today.

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.

3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.

4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don’t fall for it.

6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don’t use the internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps “The Power of the Powerless” by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.

7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Bookmark PropOrNot or other sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.

10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

12. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.

14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.

15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.

16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.

18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.)

19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.

20. Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.”

Life After Trump Starts January 1,

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Robert Lloyd

THURSDAY December 1st bring ideas for the life after DONALD. Drop in ANY coffee house and start A DISCUSSION don’t wait on me! I am with Jay, Ron, Idris and Jim will be having are usual Thursday discussions at 10am the same place on the Spokane South Hill. We can make changes one cup at a time. Report back after you meeting. (Message me Robert Lloyd on Facebook for my coffee spot)

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PJALS Anti-Hate Rally Spokane WA

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Robert Lloyd

Salem Lutheran Church November 17, 2016

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Spokane Again Interviews Police Chief Finalists

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Robert Lloyd

Black Lens News Editor Sandy Williams has one-on-one interviews with finalists Robert Lehner and Dominic Rizzi.

Joan Butler, Chair of Police Advisory Committee presents community member questions that were emailed in advance. Participants in the audience felt that their questions had been cherry picked.