J ournalism for P eople B uilding a B etter W orld
Rebellions Work Toward a Cure: Cities Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis How to Return Wealth and Build Black Power What #DefundPolice Can Do for Public Safety
F all 2020
Black Lives THE
20+ Black writers, ISSUE artists, and activists imagine what’s possible now
US $6.50 Canada $6.50
53
7
25274 87100 1
Issue 95 YesMagazine.org
“I had to visit the site where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio. I recall passing by the empty parking lot where a makeshift memorial marks where the blood soaked the ground. While still driving around in Cleveland, I happened to pass by this father and son lost inside of a moment that, in time, might lose its significance. Black folks are not allowed the time to harvest these occasions and ruminate over them. We walk up hill after hill, balancing out everyday indulgences.”—Photographer Ruddy Roye
BPHOTO BYyesRUDDY ! fallROYE 2020
::
yesmagazine . org
FROM THE EDITORS
The Black Lives Issue M a y w e n e v e r f o r g e t M a y 2 5 , 2 0 2 0 , when we witnessed a public lynching as a Minneapolis police officer took the life of George Floyd. The video of Floyd’s last eight minutes and 46 seconds alive—pleading for his life— went viral, and the outrage against police violence went global. That haunting image will forever be with us. And it changed everything. Floyd was neither the first, nor last. He was not even the first to have been killed by police on camera with millions of witnesses, in full view, unjust, and horrific. Yet, Floyd’s death has been a tipping point, an opening. As this issue goes to press, we’re entering the 10th week of sustained protest in this reenergized movement for Black lives—across the country and around the world. Tens of millions of people have taken to the streets of nearly 550 cities to declare that “Black Lives Matter.” They are calling for the defunding of police departments, and in some cases for abolishing them altogether. They are demanding justice for others who’ve been killed by police: Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade. We say their names. Countless names. A few things are different about the fires in our bellies this time. First, the global pandemic has seized everyone’s attention, making visible the interconnectedness between us all. And it’s made us all available to physically, mentally, and emotionally respond to the injustices in our world. Second, the demands are not just for police accountability in the killing of Floyd, Taylor, Brooks, and McDade, but also for an end to anti-Black violence and White supremacy entirely. And third, the people unapologetically making those demands are from all racial and ethnic backgrounds—including White people of all ages coming to terms with their own race privilege and challenging racism where they live, work, and play. Ultimately people everywhere want change, real change—systemic, transformative, burn-it-down-and-start-over change—to finally make it so that Black lives really matter. And that’s where YES! solutions journalism comes in: What do we mean when we say Black Lives Matter? What does that look like? To answer that, YES! and Colorlines, a daily news site that centers race and racial justice, collaborated on this issue to let Black voices tell us. Our theme content features Black journalists, historians, policymakers, researchers, artists, and photographers who imagine a world in which public safety does not require racist and violent policing, where there are no racial inequities in health care, and the debts owed by this nation for Black labor are paid. We thank the three co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, who had the courage to speak their truth—a collective truth—to provide the opportunity for this moment in history. Black Lives Matter is reportedly the largest movement in U.S. history. Let’s make it more than a movement. Let’s make it a reality.
Zenobia Jeffries Warfield YES! executive editor
Angela Bronner Helm Colorlines senior editorial director
Peace,
+ Produced in partnership with Colorlines, a daily news site.
yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
1
INDIGENOUS FOODWAYS
Valerie Segrest
Traditional medicine
HAZELNUTS NOT JUST YOUR NUTELLA Latin name—Corylus avellana, Corylus maxima Common names—Hazelnut, Cobnut, Filbert, Spanish Nut, Pontic Nut, Lombardy Nut
T
he creamy, buttery, crunchy, sweet hazelnut inspires our earthborn senses. Charred shells found in ancient middens from Scotland to the Pacific Northwest, dated at 9,000 years old, share a story of our collective ancestors
cultivating and consuming hazelnuts since the Stone Age. They nourished the ancestors for thousands of years, providing protein and healthy fats in rough winters; tiny packages dense with minerals and vitamins.
Text and photos by Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot), a nutrition educator who specializes in local and traditional foods. She is regional director for Native Food and Knowledge Systems for the Native American Agriculture Fund.
12
yes! fall
2020 ::
y e s ma g a z i n e . o r g
Much of the world knows hazelnuts as the second ingredient to chocolate in the 800 million pounds of Nutella consumed each year. For Indigenous communities, they are more than snack food, they are medicine. Traditional preparations include pounding and soaking the hazelnuts to treat an upset stomach. Soothe a cough and other cold symptoms by mixing powdered hazelnuts in honey. Topically, apply hazelnut oil to lighten dark spots on the skin and use small amounts on the scalp to encourage hair growth. Hazelnut has astringent and antibacterial properties that are used to soothe eczema outbreaks.
Once pollinated, the tiny scarlet flower begins to transform into a hazelnut.
Peel and roast Roasting enhances their sweet flavor, caramelizing and amplifying their aromatic compounds. Place the shelled nuts on a baking sheet. Roast at 300 degrees for up to 10 minutes, or toast them in a pan on low to medium heat until they show the slightest hint of brown. Quickly remove them from the heat, as they will continue to gently cook. Cool and store in a jar. Add to salads, oatmeal, or as a trailside snack.
Hazelnut milk Combine one cup of raw hazelnuts with two cups of water in a blender and mix for two minutes. Let the mixture sit overnight, about eight hours, and then strain the nut sludge from the liquid. You’ve created hazelnut milk, an elixir rich in magnesium, manganese, and vitamin E. Add a splash of maple syrup or vanilla and use as an alternative to milk. Or think of it as a hazelnut tea. Use the mush from this process in baked goods, pesto, smoothies, or even soups! Hazelnuts’ buttery flavor amplifies smoked salmon chowders and turns turnip or squash soup into dense protein-rich porridge.
Harvest in late summer Native varieties and introduced European species are successfully cultivated in the Pacific Northwest to this day. In fact, Oregon hazelnut farmers are the world’s third-largest producers. You can still find native varieties growing here and there. In spring, look for hazel trees’ incandescent pink female flowers. Once pollinated, the tiny scarlet flower begins to transform in to a hazelnut. Squirrels and birds excitedly signal to us when the harvest is ready, as they vigorously shake the hazel trees hungrily searching for clusters of these honeyed kernels. A mid- to late-summer treat, hazelnuts are best harvested from July to August, depending on elevation. Be sure to wear gloves because the outer sheath is armed with bristly hairs that easily irritate human fingers. Peel off the fuzzy husks to find the hazelnuts inside or store them in a burlap sack in a cool, dark place for several months until the sheath peels itself off.
A traditional Karuk basket made from hazel tree strips holds a mash of acorn and hazelnuts. y e s ma g a z i n e . o r g
::
yes! fall
2020
13
Rebellions Work We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
The Haitian Revolution forms world’s first Black republic
16
yes ! fall
2020 ::
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
yesmagazine . org
Women’s Suffrage Procession (though Black women assigned to the back)
Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
Jamon Jordan
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense marches with guns to the California State Capitol
ILLUSTRATION BY DANIA WRIGHT/YES! MAGAZINE PHOTO BY EZE AMOS/GETTY IMAGES
At the time of publication, there have been close to 70 days of ongoing national and global protests against police killings and anti-Black racism since the police killing of George Floyd on May 25. Yet, even with protesters in the streets daily, police killings of unarmed Black people have continued. Some folks have asked, “What does protest ever get us?” Many have said, “Rioting never solves anything.” And still others have declared, “Marching and protesting are outdated and don’t work, if they ever did.” But they do. Protest as an act of resistance to oppression is a staple of American culture, the very founding of the United States is connected to protest, which exists in myriad demonstrations. Here are the receipts.
Students lead global antiapartheid protests to divest from South Africa
Black Lives Matter and other antiracism protesters in Richmond, Virginia, July 25, 2020 (photo above)
THE BEGINNING In 1767, the British government passed the Townshend Acts, which placed high tariffs on many British imported goods. Almost immediately, in the British North American colony of Massachusetts, there were violent protests against the acts. Numerous riots broke out. From 1768-1770, there were constant protests and street battles between the American colonists and British soldiers culminating on March 5, 1770 when British soldiers fired on a crowd of 300, hitting 11 protesters, and killing five, including a Black man named Crispus Attucks. What came to be known as the Boston Massacre, and the later protest— the Boston Tea Party—are often cited yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
17
artis The Blkp ts of wan aper to cu t you t o t h thre e nexut e pa t g and es ... 26
yes ! fall
2020 ::
yesmagazine . org
... grab some wheat paste and make a statement. Creative director Wyatt Closs and artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh were searching for a way to be constructive in the uprisings leading up to Juneteenth. The resulting collaboration, Blkpaper.com, harnesses “the voices, expressions, and depictions of rage and hope by Black artists, photographers, and graphic designers.” The website hosts poster artwork—the kind you see on boarded up windows, or the kind you put on a sign and take to a demonstration—all with messaging in support of Black lives. Artists such as Fazlalizadeh, Sheila Pree Bright, and Mer Young want people to use their work to engage and take action, Closs explained. The website tells people how: “Download. Print. Post.” There are instructions on how to make wheat paste, and plans are in the works for a nationwide wheat-pasting event August 22-23. “We want to be a dynamic tool for organizing. Art helps propel protest—and progress,” Closs said.
yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
27
What #DefundPolice Can Do For Public Safety Cities imagine taking away resources from racist, oppressive policing and putting it toward public safety and social services. Nicole Lewis
Brooklyn, New York. June 7, 2020: “I watched moments in this protest as young Black men and women walked up and down the streets of Brooklyn confronting columns of New York City police officers asking sometimes, and demanding in other times, a response to the questions: ‘Why do you hate me?’ ‘Why do you support injustices against us?’ Our ongoing relationship with police forces all over this country has been one marred with images of police dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets, batons, a tight two-handed grasp, a chokehold, a knee, and in some cases deaths. Normal does not exist.”—Photographer Ruddy Roye
30
yes ! fall
2020 ::
yesmagazine . org
PHOTO BY RUDDY ROYE
I
“Abolition is a presence, not an absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.” —Ruth Wilson Gilmore, prison abolitionist
In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the nation is no closer to eradicating the violence Black people have experienced at the hands of the police. National efforts to track use of force by police officers have come up short. But something has changed. Floyd’s death strengthened the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, founded in 2013 after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, for killing Trayvon Martin. The cofounders of BLM had grown tired of seeing Black people killed with impunity. Now, protesters across the country, and across the world, have taken up their message. They’re calling for a divestment from policing and an investment in programs and social services in Black and other marginalized communities that could reduce the need for the police. They’re calling for a new system of public safety. If Black lives really matter, they argue, leadership of the country would not take these deaths lightly. Instead, elected officials on every level would move swiftly, outfitting the nation’s top experts with the resources needed to ensure no more Black lives are unjustly taken. To be sure, making that vision a reality won’t be easy. There is a major tension at the heart of the push to defund the police, says John Rappaport, a University of Chicago law professor. During a conference call to discuss the recent protests, Rappaport says, many of his law students supported the protesters’ demands to recast policing in the United States. Reform doesn’t work, they argued, because of resistance from police unions and because politicians lack the political will to see the changes through. Rappaport says a professor on the call
yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
31
44
yes ! fall
2020 ::
yesmagazine . org
Toward a Cure: Cities Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis The designation allowed Milwaukee to identify and track COVID-19 cases by race ahead of other jurisdictions in the U.S. – even the federal government. Tamara E. Holmes
ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN ROBINSON/YES! MAGAZINE
yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
45
CULTURE SHIFT Powerful Ideas Emerging
Books + Films + Audio Humankind: A Hopeful History | 53 God and Race in the Heartland | 55 Notes on the Inequality of Grief | 58 Inspiration Nina Montenegro | 57 Small Works Microaggressions? How to Do Microinterventions | 60 The YES! Crossword Black Lives Matter | 64
52
yes ! fall
2020 ::
yesmagazine . org
BOOKS+FILMS+AUDIO
Illustrations by Fran Murphy
A Less Cynical Image of Humans Miles Schneiderman
WHEN DUTCH HISTORIAN RUTGER BREGMAN WAS WRITING HIS NEW BOOK, he probably didn’t think it would come out in the midst of a global pandemic, as well as a storm of anti-racist protests and violent police responses flooding city streets around the world. Perhaps it would have given him pause. In a world gripped by fear, anger, and divisiveness, it’s an interesting time to release Humankind: A Hopeful History (Little, Brown, 2020), a book championing the “radical” idea that most people are generally decent. Western philosophy is often seen as two ideas separated by a yawning chasm. On one side stands Thomas Hobbes, famed for his description of natural human life as “nasty, brutish, and short,” who believed that human nature is fundamentally bad and that our inherent flaws can only be overcome by submission to a ruling authority. On the other side, Jean-Jacques Rousseau maintained that humans are inherently good, and it was civilization that corrupted us, not the other way around. Thus far, there has been a clear frontrunner in this debate—while Rousseau’s work remains influential, it is Hobbes’ view of human nature that has served as the foundation of modern society. The idea that people must be corrected and controlled is the basis for the social contract upon which we build the laws, prisons, and police forces that make up our justice systems and the cutthroat capitalism that guides our economies. It is written throughout history and retold to each subsequent generation as a reminder: Never forget the horrors of which humanity is capable
if left to its own ends. In Humankind (which at one point was going to be titled Rousseau Was Right), Bregman sets out to puncture those stories. In one of his most dramatic reveals, excerpted in The Guardian, he refutes William Golding’s Lord of the Flies by tracking down a group of Tongan children who actually were stranded on an island. But the scope of his “hopeful history” is much broader than a single work of fiction. According to Bregman’s research, our success as a species is due to our being the cutest and friendliest of the hominids. The Indigenous people of Easter Island did not destroy themselves with deforestation and cannibalism. Kitty Genovese was not murdered in front of 38 witnesses who saw and did nothing, and the famed Stanford Prison Experiment is a hoax. Even the Nazis, Bregman says, fought to the bitter end, not for the sake of Hitler’s twisted ideology, but for friendship and camaraderie—and the majority of soldiers in any war are attempting to actively avoid killing anyone. Bregman’s radical idea, as it turns
yesmagazine . org
::
yes ! fall
2020
53
Over the years, YES! has been on the front line in covering the progress of movements for truth and reconciliation to address violence against African Americans. Fania Davis Restorative justice advocate and civil rights attorney
“While current calls for truth and reconciliation gesture toward the more capacious justice our times require, we need nationwide community-led processes—with government partnership, not government leadership—where we face the truths about our history, offer reparations, abolish structures that systematically brutalize Black people, and build anew.”
Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-Supported.