shout out to Calling In

Dr. Loretta Ross is a reproductive justice activist and scholar, and a MacArthur Grant fellow among many other accolades. Her most recent book is focused on the practice of 'calling in', particularly as a response to Cancel Culture. In her book, she defines "Calling in is a 'call out' done with radical love". There is a whole course that she offers on how to implement these practices in our daily lives and in restorative justice work. So please do check it out!

I bring her up because in the wake of the downtown shooting there was a repulsive amount of racist comments on message boards, news reporting, etc. that were incredibly harmful and traumatizing, especially for our Black community. Myself, along with other elected officials and community leaders quickly denounced this response and issued statement after statement calling on our community to stop and to hold each other close in the wake of such an already traumatic event. What I failed to do was recognize my own part in continuing the harm, by re-posting a particularly egregious act that entailed bags filled with rocks and an incredibly racist flyer that was being left on the lawns of Black residents and their families. By re-posting this, we (our community) failed to hold at the center of this response, the victims of the shooting and the Black community that just kept seeing this racist message on every social media thread.

I regret my part in this re-traumatization, and offer a deep apology to the members of our Black and POC community that were harmed by this act. Moving forward, I will definitely take a beat and ask myself to center the real trauma and those that are being harmed, and then make sure that I am helping or reducing harm to the best of my ability. But none of this would have been brought to light if it weren't for the actions of some of the people I admire most in our community.

LaTasha DeLoach, is the executive director of the Iowa City Senior Center, and has long been someone I have admired for the way she lives her values and imbues her organization with true inclusivity and anti-racist policies and practices. She reports to the Board of Supervisors annually to tell us and the public how they have spent their public funds, and I am always blown away at the programs, policies, and practices ICSC undertakes. They are a true gem and safe harbor for so many. After the shooting and subsequent racist comments and the re-posting of the racist flyer in a baggy, Latasha posted a very powerful Call In to our community that asked us to very gently and definitively check ourselves:

"Here's what I want to say, and I'm trying to say it with love: stop being the pawn when you're a queen. You were played. The whole town was played. That flyer wasn't a crisis- it was bait. And we took it. We took it so completely that for a full week, the loudest conversation in the this community was about a piece of paper, while the actual conditions that shorten Black lives in this city kept right on humming in the background." Please read the full post on her Facebook page (LaTasha DeLo).

Thank you, LaTasha. For your honesty and your Call Out done with radical love. Many people and leaders cannot dip this deep into the well of truth and deliver water that we are all so desperately in need of. I aspire to be the leader we all deserve and I am so grateful to be in community with you.

There are many other Black leaders that also responded in ways that held the community, the victims and survivors, and their friends, and families at the forefront. May we continue to chip away at the oppression that ties us all down.

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

And now, we are in the last month of the campaign. Yup. THE LAST MONTH. My life can't wait for me to return to it, lol!

So instead of Three WITH V. I am writing to ask each of you to help me, so it will now be Three FOR V!

1. We are doorknocking every Saturday and Sunday (except Mother's Day) from 1-3pm and are starting at Deluxe Bakery on S. Summit St. From there we will get everyone set up with lists and materials and sunscreen, and send you forth into the neighborhoods!

2. Saturdays we are going to be at the Iowa City Farmers Market at the Chauncey Swan parking deck downtown and we would love to see you there!

3. I am SO EXCITED to announce a joint fundraiser with my amazing colleague Supervisor Mandi Remington who is running in District 5! Next Friday, May 15th from 6:30-9pm we will be at the Willow Creek Theater with a slew of fun bands and spoken word artists!!

   Please join us for a night of fun and camaraderie!!

   Maraming Salamat!