How I Saw It

• New President Phillip Tyler
• 80 In Attendance
• 15 Spokane Policemen
• 12 African Americans
• 2 Politicians
• 68 White People

Conspicuous Absence of Past Participants (Old Guard)

I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing, did 68 get religion? Did Spokane Police come because they wanted to return the favor of NAACP commitment to Blue Lives Matter? Was the old guard away at the national NAACP Convention? Was it because  of the constant turnover in NAACP presidents – 4 in less than two years?

President Tyler asked the whites in the room how many would change places with African Americans. No one in the room spoke up. I asked how many have broken bread with an African American in their home. Three or four raised their hands. I asked how many had had coffee with African Americans. Maybe 15 raised their hands. Most of them were Spokane policemen. But when I said I was not talking about in the coffee room on the job most of them laughed and put down their hands.

I would like to relieve the burden of the African Americans and true believers that have spent their lives educating white people and pass this burden on to the larger group of white people who by their presence seem to indicate concern:

White Nonsense Roundup  Facebook Page

From: “‘Commission on African American Affairs Spokane’ via CAAA Spokane Listserv” <caaa-spokane-listserv@googlegroups.com>
Date: July 8, 2016 at 8:58:24 PM PDT
To: CAAA Spokane Listserv <caaa-spokane-listserv@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Spokane Vigil in Response to this Weeks Shootings – Tomorrow, Saturday 7/9 at Noon
Reply-To: Commission on African American Affairs Spokane <sw9876@aol.com>

Hello Everyone,
This information has been posted on Facebook, but I wanted to make sure that as many as possible hear about it.

—–
A Spokane Vigil because BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Saturday, July 9, 2016, from 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Spokane County Courthouse – Downtown Spokane (Broadway and Monroe)

Join the NAACP, YWCA, Musicians Union, Peace & Justice Action League of Spokane, Sierra Club, Center for Justice, Greater Spokane Progress, Spokane Socialist Alternative, other community organizations and PEOPLE LIKE YOU!

We are coming together for this vigil to share our grief and anger about the deaths of Alton Sterling of Louisiana and Philondo Castile of Minnesota at the hands of police, as well as the deaths of five police officers in Dallas, and to demonstrate our commitment to acting together to expose and transform a racist criminal justice system.

You are invited to bring your families and friends to be part of this a powerful coming together to demonstrate our shared grief, anger, and deep valuing of Black Lives!!!! and to give folks in our communities a chance to connect with each other as well as to learn how THEY can be part of campaigns like the local police accountability & oversight organizing, the statewide John T. Williams Initiative 873 to change WA’s deadly force law, efforts to end the school-to-prison pipeline, AND MORE.

Let us mourn together and ORGANIZE together, bringing people together around shared needs & values, with ways to experience and assert OUR OWN SHARED POWER, and push to change policies while changing the balance of power in our communities and society.

—
Sandy Williams
Eastern Washington Representative
Washington State Commission on African American Affairs
http://www.caa.wa.gov
509-795-1964

Mission: To improve the well-being of African Americans by ensuring their access to participation in the fields of government, business, education, health care, and other areas.
—
—-
Sandy Williams
Commissioner – Eastern Washington Representative
Washington State Commission on African American Affairs
http://www.caa.wa.gov
sw9876@aol.com
509-795-1964
—
You received this message because so we Building the community you are looking for