The Modern World

11

CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO

Tucker deeply studied the City of Milwaukee’s budget in 2018, met with legislators and dissected allocations. She sought to grasp how and why half of the city’s spending funds policing, leaving other needs underfunded. In 2019, Tucker co-led the “Liberate MKE” campaign in which 1,100 people were interviewed about what they wanted to see in the city’s budget to address targeted needs. She said, “True democracy requires providing accessible spaces and tools” for people to participate in processes in which they often are left out and changing policy “to positively affect people’s lives… It’s about being listened to and respected.” We can all assess policies and practices wherever we work, live, study, shop and gather—to evaluate whether they support antiracism or racism—and then commit to taking some action. As James Baldwin wrote in 1962, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

12

RESPECT KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

People who identify as white need to remember that efforts countering centuries of racism have been ongoing for generations by people facing its impacts. Antiracist work must be informed by relevant study, listening to people of color and inclusive representation within all levels of organizations. John W. Daniels Jr., a longtime Milwaukee civic leader and chairman emeritus of Quarles & Brady (where he was hired in 1974 as the firm’s first African American attorney), told the Profiles in Diversity Journal: “Inclusion isn’t just a virtue, it’s the face of reality, business and otherwise. Daniels pointed to “data in just about every business sector demonstrating the benefit of inclusion. For those who are able to see, understand and act on this, it offers yet another competitive advantage… It does, however, require an absolute commitment from the very top of the organization as well as a commitment to accountability.”