As of this past November, the Race and Ethnic Equity Commission is history. Established after the police murder of George Floyd and the police shooting Jacob Blake, the Kenosha County executive is now calling for the Commission to end its work.
And what is that work that so occupied most of the Race and Ethnic Equity Commission's time? Well, it depends on whom you talk to.
Sometime in October, I heard that the Commission began addressing "conservative" issues. That's what it's labeled by the local media. Conservative. To be more precise, the Commission turned toward right-wing issues. In other words, the Race and Ethnic Equity Commission gave voice not to the lived experiences of black, indigenous, Latinx and other people of color. Why confront the racial injustice and racial discrimination, the exclusion of black people in particular, unless vetted to be accepting of white victimhood as a given? No, the Commission revealed its DNA: it began championing right-wing causes.
At the last of three meetings, I attended this past summer, the vice chair, a former policeman, announced that racism didn't exist in Kenosha. After all, what image stood before the majority of those Commissions, and many of the city's white residents, if not that of the black criminal. Who destroyed downtown Kenosha, if not crime-prone black people!
The only black woman on the Commission refuted the vice chair's claim. She was interrupted and told she was out of order.
Silenced!
No racism in Kenosha of course not!
With the city declared free of the violence of racism, an idyllic haven for its placating residents, the Commission moved on to other issues. Oh, surprise controlling women's bodies and drumming up support for anti-abortion causes! Well, yeah!
Some of us weren't fooled by the intentions of white liberals, particularly those among the Kenosha County Board and elsewhere. We have read and studied the history in those banned books, and we know all too well that historically anyone like an Ella Baker or a Bayard Rustin on their Commission wouldn't be allowed. In the next few months, these same folks will break their necks to see the film Rustin in the theaters. But it's another thing, in this day and age, to have someone like Rustin in charge of a Race and Ethnic Equity Commission. Unless he agreed to be at peace (and that is equivalent to being dead!) with the maintenance of an anti-democracy structuring of humanity in Kenosha it's not happening.
At that last Commission session, I turned to the executive head of Congregations United to Save Humanity (CUSH) executive head and announced that this was it for me. A waste of time! I imagined white supremacists and conscious or unconscious supporters in Kenosha breathing a sigh of relief.
Long live a safe and stress-free Kenosha!
I spent the next following months of this past summer meeting with the executive head of CUSH, exchanging emails, and writing up a proposal to work on anti-black issues with the Kenosha Public Library... until I withdrew from the project. I could see the "whites only" signs clear enough. Given my experiences in Kenosha, I would have been surprised if these anti-black sessions actually happened.
And now, a month or so later, the Kenosha County Executive ordered a cease and desist to the work of the Race and Ethnic Equity Commission.
"The current state of the Racial and Ethnic Equity Commission doesn't align with or fulfill the mission set out by the County Board," stated the Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman. "The recent events have further demonstrated how the commission's actions have deep impact in our community... Therefore, I am rescinding all the County Executive appointees to the commission effective immediately."
But the Race and Ethnic Equity Commission did its job, didn't it? White supremacy hasn't been disbanded.
Did the Kenosha County Board really expect to address the problem of racism in Kenosha? Did the majority of white residents in Kenosha expect to call a halt to their own lives, lives that benefit from an unfair and unequal distribution of opportunity and wealth? Do whites in Kenosha really think they are free of the history of enslavement of Africans and their descendants and the extermination of millions of indigenous people? Free from the legacy faced by those black descendants and survivors of displacement and neglect?
Did the Kenosha County Board expect white residents of Kenosha to listen to blacks, indigenous, Latinx, and others of color? Did the Kenosha County expect Kenosha to abolish once and for all white supremacy and become a democratic model of a town?
Or is it only now that some realize that Kenosha is an American town and is fast approaching a collision with fascism?
No matter the good intent of the white liberals that collision won't end well for blacks, indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color. But eventually, it won't end well for white liberals.
I'm reminded of philosopher Jason Stanley referring to the words of the late writer Toni Morrison in a 1995 speech in which she addressed this growing interest by forces that seek "fascist solutions to national problems". Here in Kenosha, there are local forces aligned with those who seek to sweep away the problem of race and ethnic equity by replacing it with fascist solutions. It seems to be a common conscious or unconscious solution.
It's no wonder, if you are black, that the word racism can't be mentioned between you and your physician, or you or your employer. Particularly if you are dealing with high blood pressure or heart problems, or complications surrounding your cancer. Diabetes. The word racism can't be offered as a root cause of harassment by white neighbors, or harassment of one's children at school. Racism is never the reason a white or black store guard has been trained to keep an eye on your movements throughout a store.
And in your car. Or simply walking.,,
It's no wonder blacks are stressed out most of the time. Ask us about racism in Kenosha. We dare you.
