Switching to speaker view is great right now, y'all.

hi all, glad to see you today! 🦄✊🏻💙

I am excited to be here.

I am walking at Wheeler Park and will be off screen.

Ase.

Given everything we’ve experienced in 2020, How must we transform the democratic process to center racial justice now and into the future?

Ballot completion groups?

A judge saying that our polling locations can permit guns..... they said it was that the declaration wasn't "procedurally correct" but you can allow voters to be intimidated with Open Carry??

In only two states, Maine and Vermont, all prisoners are eligible to vote. However, some prisoners in Mississippi, Alaska and Alabama can vote while incarcerated, depending on their convictions. - The Marshall Project

Mississippi Freedom Winter is a partnership between a national network of university faculty and students and organizers in Mississippi to address the pressing humanitarian crises of incarceration and immigrant detention in our state. In August 2019, Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 680 people in central Mississippi, the largest raid in United States history. Just four months later, a wave of deaths inside the state’s prisons (over fifty and counting) initiated renewed calls to decarcerate and close the state’s most notorious prison— Mississippi State Penitentiary, a former plantation known as Parchman Farm.

The Study and Struggle program is the first phase of an ongoing project to organize against incarceration and criminalization in Mississippi through four months of political education and community building. www.studyandstruggle.com

I repeat it - Peter Drucker said it first!

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker. To be clear he didn't mean that strategy was unimportant – rather that a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organizational success.

Native people living on reservations - without a "fixed" address - are kept from voting in states that require a physical address. So Native councils have mobilized to generate addresses under their governance/sovereignty …. and some of these states have pushed back legally, saying that those aren't valid addresses because they don't receive mail there, etc. Gads!!

YES - the pretence that democracy is just voting is repressive

"This feels wrong, but I don't know why it's setup this way." - very common exp of marginalized folx

Like the debates, Maria?!

"I want a process that's joyful" --Maria (imagine that)

Transforming results by changing beliefs and behaviors <-- culture shift

Even locally the process is draining. Council meetings that last into the wee hours of the morning…

^^facts....and then people wonder why impacted folx 'don't show up

^^^^Right!?

Yes! Please share link.

art =culture (which eats strategy for breakfast) :)

Great example! The country depends on more norms (culture) than laws. So many of the antics over the last four years seem illegal, but they are not.

We the People MI's work with artists - https://www.wethepeoplemi.org/peoplesart

I appreciate the hope and “abundance” mindset of that perspective, Eric. Hard to muster these days, so it is a good reminder.

Frederick Douglas said: ""Thus, for instance, the American Government and the American Constitution are spoken of in a manner which would naturally lead the hearer to believe that one is identical with the other; when the truth is, they are distinct in character as is a ship and a compass. The one may point right and the other steer wrong. A chart is one thing, the course of the vessel is another."

The majority of supreme court justices being confirmed by presidents that did not win the popular vote is sticking with me.

I agree, Leseliey! And they are LIFETIME appointments so it is rigid … now very conservative. Ruth Bader Ginsberg wasn't honored ….

voting should be the cherry on top of a delicious democracy-cake

Seeing it work is vital! Which is why it’s so important for people get engaged at the local level where victories are more immediate and visible

As an early childhood professional, Desirae is speaking my language - just doing something and trying it out and then figuring out WHY did that work?!

Engagement locally/regionally is extremely important. Having Ann Arbor City Council meetings running from 7pm-3am (!!) where the public commentary is at the start and end of a meeting. There needs to be access to able to voice and be aware. We must demand better process even locally.

ughh ann arbor city council is the worst

^^^^^^^^Praveena

A lot of the threads you all are discussing are making me think about power. A lot of transforming democracy is about reframing how we (“the people” AND elected officials) think about power - who has it, how is it made/shared/used

If you make the schools in the poorest areas the best resourced then white parents will want them integrated

Absolutely - thank you for naming all of that, Yodit!

The downside of democracy is the well-being of the minority depends on the majority recognizing its humanity.

Power is tied to a culture of whiteness and the ruling class

thank you for this conversation so powerful.

We (BIPOC folx) can show up to every election and still not have the power to make change.

And to cede it

#classsolidarity is in dissarray

Going back to Desirae's point about reworking when things when they don't work out - adapting and pivoting when needed. Was that outcome of overfunding white schools known in BvB? It's a problem to remain rigid when culture is changing.

before the election we push BIPOC vote as if we won't vote ... after the election we talk about the BIPOC turn out BUT never discuss the white turn out.

power to decide what's true, power to decide what's possible, power to make things happen

Yes, Quiana. I don't hear from the majority of these folx until the year of the election. Miss me, please

bipoc folks vote the narrative that we dont serves to support other false narratives

Yes, yes, Leseliey

That's power too: the ability to tell people 'who' they are, and have them believe you

^^^ “and have them believe you” Wow. Yes.

And if every mainstream message characterizes you as a victim, a slave, underprivileged, subservient, marginalized....yada yada...

Of course you'd begin to believe its true.

^^^^^^ yes

I had a teacher complete a college recommendation.. she never shared with me.. I got a hold of it. she said I was never gonna be successful in college. she wrote that to a scholarship fund but never told me that.

Invisible & disappeared too Judy

Truth!!!

Power IN THE people, not TO THE people.

it was devastating on so many levels. white women white teachers are educational gatekeepers and the abuse of power is rampant

quiana i'm so sorry that happened to you

I realize how much growing up in a chocolate city shaped my identity. It wasn't until I got to A2 that I felt othered.

^^^ THis

quiana - terrible!!!

white teachers are huge gatekeepers of black optional

potential not optional

^ #A2soSmug

Yes, so true!

Attack systems not people: Not every white teacher of every resident in A2 (words matter) but the culture of A2 is othering

*or

that's fair yodit.

it's a system.

2020 Slogan: You're on mute.

worth more unpacking and digging into

I want that slogan on a shirt

Shit, Eric. That's basically my title and I didn't even know it.

^^^^^lol

Ricjh people get admin to help them!

"Social Justice Tutor" <--need this shirt too

:D

What would a mediocre white boy do?!

Hot damn we done started a tshirt business.

WWAMWBD?!

#fundthemovement

Quiana, it’s awful that happened to you, and you’re right about the gatekeepers and the harm that white teachers/white women can do. And I also agree with Yodit’s point about systems.

OMGood! We have a similar slogan but ours is "Have the confidence of a mediocre white man." Yes!

i see a gift pack for all centering justice panelists…

Yes, Lisa.

thank you all for your contributions and insights.

"Hope is a discipline" - love this. Thank you Maria.

Mariame Kabe is TRUTH.

Will y'all please take a moment to offer feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CJDemocracy

Can I have the video link?

Yes, thanks to all our panelists and for sharing your important insights and for those on the thread, as well.

Thanks everyone.

Really appreciated today's conversation. Thank you, NEW and to our panelists. This was brain food!

A pleasure! Thank you for having me and stay well everyone!

Thank you for a powerful conversation!

Maria's name?

THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you all!

Thank you! Great presentation and conversation!

A heartfelt thank you!

Thank you!

Will y'all please take a moment to offer feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CJDemocracy

Please do take a moment to share your feedback on today’s session: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CJDemocracy

thank you for joining us

Thank you all so very much for sharing your knowledge and perspective.

Thank you all.

Thank you all!

Thank you so much - this was great, as always!!

Thank you all!

www.new.org/donate

Thank you everyone!

I need to hop for another meeting. Thank you everyone. <3

sorry I gotta hop too my email is maria@wethepeoplemi.org if you're interested in getting involved

Thank you, maria!!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CJDemocracy!

Thanks NEW and Eric, Desirae, and Maria!

Thanks all! So grateful for this space and this community.

November 18

Thank you!!!