Close
CW: Domestic and Anti-Black terrorism
The other day, a dear friend of mine was walking in the Rainier Beach area in Seattle, Washington (self-proclaimed bastion of progressives & liberalism) when they ran across this noose hanging from a tree in a visibly public area. For those of you who don’t know, South Seattle (where Rainier Beach is located) is just about the only area left where communities of color have not been erased by gentrification.
This symbol of Anti-Black domestic terrorism left in one of Seattle’s few remaining diverse neighborhoods sent chills through my friend. Their first impulse was to run. Their second was to take a picture as evidence, fearing no one would believe them, and attempt to gaslight their experience. When they shared the photo with me, it made my blood run cold, and every hair on my arms stood up. It did its job. It made them, me, and anyone who looks like us feel unsafe and unwelcome in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Seattle (and Washington State).
But how is this possible in deep, blue progressive, and liberal Seattle? Complacency. Taking comfort in “not being racist” while racism still runs rampant. Niceness. Passive-aggressive racism. Blaming the South for racism while being ignorant of Seattle’s own racist roots. For example, Have you heard of the Coon Chicken Inn (CCI)? There were locations in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City, Utah. According to Catherine Roth’s The Coon Chicken Inn, North Seattle’s Beacon of Bigotry, in The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project: “It is interesting to note that the CCI opened its doors in the midst of the Great Depression, yet the restaurant not only endured throughout the Depression’s worst years—it thrived. Whites did not seem to find the Coon logo problematic in the least. Indeed, while overt hostility toward African-Americans was not uncommon, the dominant attitude of white Seattleites toward evidence of racism and campaigns for equality was simply apathy.”
Or how about the Ku Klux Klan’s significant presence in Seattle, Washington, during the twenties? Washington State was a part of the second of three campaigns to increase the KKK’s foothold in America. According to Trevor Griffey’s special section on The Ku Klux Klan In Washington State in The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project: “The Washington State KKK during the 1920s was founded by organizers from Oregon, which had one of the strongest Klan chapters in the country at the time. The State Klan organized a series of massive public rallies in 1923 and 1924 that ranged from 20,000 to 70,000 people.”
Or how about the virulent and violent history of segregation in Seattle, Washington? This “progressive city” kept People of Color “in their place” through restrictive covenants and deeds, the real estate and mortgage industries, and violence when whites deemed these communities too successful, too threatening, or just too much. James Gregory’s work, Seattle’s Race and Segregation Story in Maps between 1920 – 2020 with The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, offers an interactive map to see “King County residential distributions for many ethnic and racial populations decade by decade.” According to Segregated Seattle, another comprehensive resource from the Project, “People of color were excluded from most jobs, most neighborhoods and schools, and many stores, restaurants, hotels, and other commercial establishments, even hospitals. As in other western states, the system of severe racial discrimination in Seattle targeted not just African Americans but also Native Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, people of Mexican ancestry, and also, at times, Jews.”
And none of this was taught in my Washington State History class– or at any time during my K – 12 journey, nor did I learn about it in my undergrad or graduate work. This is the problem with failing to teach, share, and fully acknowledge our shared US history. It keeps us ignorant and unaware of the legacies and outcomes we are forced to navigate based on our racialized identities and lived experiences. It reinforces the false narrative of living in a “Meritocracy” and living the “American Dream.” That some folx are deserving while others “just did not work hard enough” or that current events (such as nooses hanging from trees) are “one-offs” or “isolated incidents.” Moreover, it gives a false sense of security and superiority that racism and discrimination don’t occur in Seattle, Washington State, or even the Pacific Northwest… only in those other places. If you have not already, I invite you to visit The University of Washington’s Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project and learn more about the area’s history and how it shapes the present.
And today, we are at a crossroads or inflection point in US history. Seattle is simply a microcosm of the nation. “Anti-wokeness,” attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Anti-racism work, escalating state-sanctioned violence against Black bodies– whether it be the police or overzealous white folx shooting innocent, unarmed Black people and children. It should not take protests, petitions, Ben Crump, Black Twitter, and/or the NAACP to demand Prosecuting Attorneys, District Attorneys, and Attorney Generals do their jobs and provide Black people equal protection under the law. Existing while Black in the United States is constantly vacillating between rage, grief, and anxiety. It is exhausting, and it is killing us. And for Black women, the weathering phenomena is so bad that we have been excluded from critical medical studies because we skew the results. We. are. tired. We did not create this system, we don’t benefit from it, and it is crushing us.
Therefore, I am calling on white folx. The nice white folx who have the signs in their yards, y’know the ones: “Black Lives Matter, No Human Is Illegal, Love Is Love, Science Is Real, Water Is Life” etc. Your signs are not enough. Your vote is not enough. Your outrage posts and black square profile pics on social media are not enough. I am also calling on white-adjacent folx of color to get uncomfortable because Anti-Black racism lives in your communities too. White-adjacency is a complicated existence of experiencing race-based exclusion and discrimination while also having the privilege of benefiting from anti-Black racism and limiting Black progress.
Anti-racism requires action, not perfection. It requires sitting with discomfort (which is NOT the same as being unsafe, so stop). It requires calling in family, friends, and colleagues for hard conversations. It requires rejecting individualism and centering a collectivist mindset. It requires using privilege and leveraging social capital to disrupt bias and dismantle systems of oppression. It requires cultural humility and learning from mistakes instead of tone-policing the messenger. It requires being led by and amplifying voices of Black people. It requires engaging in advocacy and risk-taking “even if you’re not Black.”
As for the noose, it has been reported as a hate crime. But Seattleites, will history repeat itself in the present day? Will the “dominant attitude of white Seattleites toward evidence of racism and campaigns for equality [be] simply apathy?” Or will we collectively rise up against racism? Because progressive Seattleites, the math ain’t mathing.
This is a marathon and not a sprint, and I invite you on this journey
