Commentary: Criticism of Solidarity Space Illustrates Continued Need for Anti-Racism in Our Community

By David GreenwaldMarch 18, 202122 comments
A display at Central Park in Davis

By David M. Greenwald

When the Davis Mosque was defiled by an act of hateful vandalism, Kate Mellon-Anibaba helped to organize a community gathering in Central Park where over 1000 people gathered in solidarity with the Muslim community. When George Floyd was killed last year, Kate again helped to organize and found the Solidarity Space in Central Park.

She got good news recently. The location in Central Park “will become a permanent art installment, including a community art build component and funding for programming in the space.”

She posted on Facebook on Wednesday, “Along with the art, International House Davis will also be holding a series of anti-racism training for local non profits. These are all huge successes worth celebrating.”

Unfortunately, before she could do so, there was a letter in the local paper from Timothy Nutter complaining about it.

He noted that in August of 2020, the council approved $50,000 in art grants for social justice programming, in his words “in response to last summer’s convulsions.”

He writes, “The contents of this grant deserve a second look.”

He notes, “The second part involves erecting a public artwork and organizing associated activities in the vein of the pop-up shrine in Central Park, only this time the shrine will be permanent and the organizers and other activity participants, selected on the basis of race, will be paid.

“Of course, Davis already has many diversity murals, apparently to palliate the neurotic consciences of local progressives,” he writes. “We don’t also need a pyramid in Central Park to observe a
mortuary cult.”

Nutter continues: “The third part asks for $10,000 to fund “anti-racism” workshops to train nonprofits to be less racist and to help them begin building an anti-racist bureaucracy, led by a facilitator selected exclusively on the basis of her proximity to Davis and her race.”

He writes: “Fortunately, we don’t need anti-racism workshops, just like we don’t need workshops to help people stop desecrating the host. Given the approval of this grant, the need for cultivating an anti-racism bureaucracy seems equally absent.”

He argues: “Rather than refashioning the arts department into an arm of the critical social justice movement, city staff should focus on economic development, facility management, and partnerships with UCD. There is work to do. But anti-racism isn’t it.”

But isn’t it? From the tragic killing of Thong Hy Hunh to current racial inequities in policing, the Davis community is not immune to issues of race.

Certainly this week, our city council by unfortunate happenstance of history stood in solidarity with tragic events in Atlanta, where eight people were killed, six of them Asian women.

In a sad irony the Davis City Council passed a strong resolution on Tuesday night against anti-Asian hate, noting the Davis city council “hereby condemns racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against persons of Asian heritage and Pacific Island heritage; and accepts responsibility for preventing and correcting racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against everyone in the city, including persons of Asian heritage or Pacific Island heritage.

“(The) COVID-19 pandemic, inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric has put persons of Asian heritage or Pacific Island heritage, families, communities, and businesses at risk,” the resolution says.  “The City of Davis recognizes that statements at the federal level have played a role in furthering xenophobic sentiments, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin.”

Unfortunately the strong message comes at a time when it is desperately needed. Last night, eight people were shot to death in three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. News reports note that the shootings, where six of the eight killed were Asian and all but one were women, raise fears that the crimes may have targeted people of Asian descent.

In a strong message from Stop AAPI Hate, the nation’s leading coalition documenting and addressing anti-Asian hate and discrimination, they condemned the killings calling them “an unspeakable tragedy” for both the victims’ families and an Asian-American community that has “been reeling from high levels of racist attacks.”

The lesson of Martin Luther King must resonate—injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere—and the corollary, injustice to anyone is a threat to justice to everyone.

The language that Nutter uses, not just in his last two sentences but throughout his letter, belies the exact need for a better understanding of anti-racism.

As Ibram Kendi points out, people these days are very quick to defend themselves by declaring they are “not racist.” Not only is that not true, but it is also not sufficient.

Kendi argues that it’s not enough to say you’re not a racist. “What’s the problem with being ‘not racist?’ ” Kendi writes in the introduction. “It is a claim that signifies neutrality: ‘I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.’ ”

He adds: “One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist.”

The letter here illustrates exactly why anti-racism is needed in Davis. Having a public space as a shrine to anti-racism and the legacy of police violence seems very appropriate in a community like Davis.

I join many others in commending Kate Mellon-Anibaba and others for helping create such a space.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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22 comments

  2. Passing resolutions and installing shrines are fine gestures , but are no substitute for concrete action to combat racism and other forms of exclusion and intolerance. Davis and UCD have a disturbing track record, as illustrated in this timeline: https://www.sutori.com/story/discrimination-in-davis-ca–BUKLS6rf25qUgvY4J6prjRwj

    To this list I would add NIMBYism when it comes to social services and affordable housing, and approval of such policies as a Davis-Based Buyers Program that perpetuate existing racial demographic disparities.

    1. and approval of such policies as a Davis-Based Buyers Program that perpetuate existing racial demographic disparities.

      David recently informed me on this blog that this subject has been “beaten to death” (words to that effect).  So, you know – stop mentioning it.  😉

       

    3. Eric, to your list I would also add the “Make arrests” culture of the Davis Police Department. That culture starts with a mindset where Police personnel are asking the question “What are you doing?” rather than the question “How can I help you?” The result is a reactive approach that thinks in terms of confronting and containing incidents, rather than a proactive approach that thinks about preventing incidents.

      2. I’m also starting to wonder if the police will be allowed into the “solidarity space”, or if it will end up like that zone in Seattle. (Maybe if they’re off-duty and out-of-uniform, I guess.)

        But, this is just my sense of humor at work, apparently. Which I’m sure some don’t find amusing at all.

        On a more serious note, isn’t there a “Natalie Corona” space, outside of the police department?

        2. Yes – I gathered that from the article, along with the “BLM” sign. Not sure that’s always viewed as a sign of “solidarity”.

          Replacing the BLM sign that was chalked onto a street earlier, as I recall.

          Well, it’s one way to spend $50,000 of the city’s money.  In a (financially-challenged) college town like Davis, I guess it’s to be expected these days.

          Hey – do you think they’d welcome one of those “blue line” flags, there? 🙂 Or, anything which doesn’t go along with socially-approved causes, these days? Is there a committee in charge of such decisions, or is it essentially decided “by the people” (e.g., up to removing signs that aren’t welcome)?

          1. They are not in the same place. For a period of time they both existed simultaneously.

  3. For those who are interested in hearing some perspectives on these issues you may not feel pertain to you, I recommend listening to the panel discussion held last night by the League of Women Voters entitled:

    I Too Am Davis

     

     

    2. I Too Am Davis

      Too?  Was there some doubt that somebody was Davis?  Doesn’t that imply that somebody is Davis already, to the exclusion of someone else who isn’t Davis?  Who is making these judgements?  Non-anti-racists I’m guessing 😐

      1. Too, I take it, means I who you do not see or have not indicated that you see.  It is a call to consider that someone should be included who feels ignored or excluded and doesn’t sound like they are excluding anyone who already feels comfortably part of Davis.

      2. Yes, people who are from marginalized groups often feel excluded from the communities that they live in.

        In addition, a lot of people of color get asked the question, where are you from? As though they are from another country.

      3. Too, I take it, means I who you do not see or have not indicated that you see.

        “You talkin’ to me?   You talkin’ to me?”  — Robert De Niro, “Taxi Driver”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp6KExqs_3o
        [Trigger Warning: contains adult language and simulated violence – which may be difficult for some viewers who have never seen an R-rated movie or came out of such a movie psychologically damaged]

  4. “We don’t also need a pyramid in Central Park to observe a mortuary cult.”

    What is a mortuary cult?

    “Fortunately, we don’t need anti-racism workshops, just like we don’t need workshops to help people stop desecrating the host. Given the approval of this grant, the need for cultivating an anti-racism bureaucracy seems equally absent.”

    Desecrating what host?

    I’m honestly not understanding what this rhetoric is articulating.

    1. I’m honestly not understanding what this rhetoric is articulating.

      One who cannot read their letter-to-the-public and ask, ‘Will people understand what I am saying?’ (unless that is the point, as it often is with me) – deserves not to be understood.

  5. Criticism of Solidarity Space Illustrates Continued Need for Anti-Racism in Our Community

    Nevermind the hilariously nonsensical letter.  Isn’t the main criticism not of the space itself, but of the $50K ?

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