IfeMichelle Gardin participating in Thursday evening’s forum.
What could a “village mentality” look like in New Haven?
Less white saviorism from nonprofits and college students swooping in to help, IfeMichelle Gardin posited. More community-generated programs rooted in neighbor-to-neighbor relationships.
Gardin, who runs the Elm City LIT Festival, voiced this vision at a panel on racism and activism hosted by the Urban League of Southern Connecticut on Thursday evening.
The panel, titled “Can We Talk About Race? Confronting Racism Through Advocacy,” also featured Tirzah Kemp, the director of community services and family engagement at the children’s wellness organization Clifford Beers, and Assistant Chief of Police Karl Jacobson. Virginia Spell, the director of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, moderated the discussion.
The event, held over Zoom, was the last installment of a four-part “community conversation” on racial justice that Spell hosted. Spell said she hopes to host more panels later on in the summer.
The panelists’ conversation took place amid the recent national resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately devastated Black Americans. The panelists frequently delved into the historical systems that produced these current events, linking police brutality and racial health disparities to racism in sectors like the non-profit world.
Tirzah Kemp.
Speaking as a longtime leader in the non-profit sector, Kemp noted that consistently over the past two decades, more than 80 percent of nonprofit organizations have been run by white leaders. White organizations receive more funding opportunities than Black organizations. Kemp has noticed that white bosses tend to hire their friends, she added, creating more exclusivity.
The nonprofit sector’s overwhelmingly white leadership can be detrimental particularly for organizations that aim to help Black communities. Kemp observed that white non-profit leaders often have a patronizing “we serve you” mentality toward Black clients, framing themselves as a heroic force.
In reality, nonprofits’ interactions with community members should be a mutual exchange, Kemp said. “It should be the community serving us as a nonprofit, and then us putting resources back into the community.”
In New Haven, part of this white savior dynamic manifests in a narrow notion of who possesses “expertise” on issues facing Black communities, Spell noted.
Virginia Spell.
“We lead by degrees, especially in a university town like New Haven,” Spell said. Academic knowledge is considered more of an asset than life experience, she said. “We have grandmothers and mothers who had daycares and were doing early childhood education way before it became popular, but that lived experience isn’t valued.”
Gardin specifically called attention to Yale’s position as a historically white university with much influence over social services in New Haven, a majority Black and Brown city. Even as Yale students are warned to remain within campus bounds and keep their distance from the rest of New Haven, she said, they have a habit of starting up temporary projects to “help” New Haven without consulting community members.
“You’re only here for two years. You’re in and out. Then what’s left of it?” Gardin said. “White people that want to come into this community to help us: please first listen.”
As an assistant chief with the New Haven Police Department, Jacobson spoke of a need to bring community members into the process of training police officers and developing policies.
Karl Jacobson.
In order to build mutual trust between community members and the police, Jacobson said, officers have to learn from city residents and build a stake in New Haven. And in turn, residents should have more of a voice in policing practices. He said he wants the police academy to feature more ordinary residents as speakers, for instance.
“You’re the experts and we haven’t been listening,” he said to his fellow panelists.
Beyond making room for Black voices within existing institutions, Gardin expressed a need for a fundamental shift in the kinds of systems that seek to aid Black communities. She called for “a village mentality of doing things for us, by us.”
“Engage your neighbors,” she said. “If there’s a house down the street that you see struggling, maybe it’s a mom with kids, show her a resource.”
“For us, by us,” Gardin repeated throughout the evening. “We gotta work within our community, within our pride, knowing more about us and how we got here and our resilience. We have to build ourselves up from within.”
Speaking as a longtime leader in the non-profit sector, Kemp noted that consistently over the past two decades, more than 80 percent of nonprofit organizations have been run by white leaders. White organizations receive more funding opportunities than Black organizations.The nonprofit sector's overwhelmingly white leadership can be detrimental particularly for organizations that aim to help Black communities. Kemp observed that white non-profit leaders often have a patronizing "we serve you" mentality toward Black clients, framing themselves as a heroic force.In reality, nonprofits' interactions with community members should be a mutual exchange, Kemp said. "It should be the community serving us as a nonprofit, and then us putting resources back into the community."
Marcus Garvey gave black people the answer for this problem.But Knee-Grows did not listen.
The professional Negro leader feels that it is too much work for them to settle down, and build up a civilization of their own. They feel that it is easier to seize onto the civilization of the white man---MARCUS GARVEY (from the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey)
If white people were dependent on others, they would not be as successful as they are today. If Japan were dependent on other countries, she would not be as successful as she is today. As long as the Negro is dependent on other groups, he will remain the lowest down-----MARCUS GARVEY
Black people should not look to whites for charity forever. What we lack is self help and self reliance. We are always wanting somebody to do something for us. As a race we are too envious, malicious and superficial, and because of this we keep ourselves back------MARCUS GARVEY (from his lecture at Collegiate Hall in Kingston Jamaica , given in 1915)
Part One.