Prospect to MLK - What's in a Name Change?

Councilman Jermain Reed has asked that Prospect Avenue be renamed Martin Luther King Ave. Many cities have either done this on a permanent or an honorary basis for a major thoroughfare that runs through their African-American neighborhood. It is designed as a sign of respect and honor for MLK and to generate a sense of identity and pride for the neighborhood.  Outsiders typically refer to the MLK designation as code for a neighborhood that whites want to avoid. The white disdain should not be a reason to avoid the honoring of Dr. King.

Councilman Reed's motives are being questioned in the blogosphere - this is apparently the pet project of his mentor, Alvin Brooks. Mr. Reed is carrying the water and that is a fine and noble tribute to his mentor. We can't fault him for that.

Mr. Reed, however, has decided to blow this name change up into a fantasy silver bullet - he claims it will be the start of a transformation on Prospect and will be a source of peace. I find that very hard to believe. A name change is not a silver bullet, though it may provide a more positive imaging for the local neighbors. Don't count me as one of them, though. I live 1/2 block from Prospect. I think I can speak to its problems, potential, and why a name change is not enough.

The most recent changes that I am familiar with on Prospect are the Shops at Linwood and Prospect, the Prospect Corridor Plan, the Bluford Library remodel, and the new Walgreens at Linwood.  These changes have done more for Prospect than any name change ever will. They represent investment, community, and a purpose. Sadly, they are not championed by our current or former representatives as part of a strategy. Mr. Reed says he will go door-to-door on Prospect to get the name change and seek revitalization! Why? What will that do unless you have some steps to take? If you need some, I'm here to help.

Plan for Prospect Corridor (from someone who lives and works there - Viable Third Community)

1. Prospect is used as the travel lane for East Patrol - nightly there are cops in high speed mode racing up and down with sirens blaring, followed by the ghetto bird. Change the police practice.

2. Prospect is the number 2 bus route on the KCATA (I believe that was the case if not currently the case). It has no MAX, it has no streetcar. Get a MAX on Prospect and get some decent bus shelters and street scape put in as has been done on Troost.

3. Support targeted business and community commercial support at the Shops of Linwood and Prospect. Keep business local, profits, local, and investment will reap rewards. We need a social enterprise business center and incubator and we need a fresh/whole foods outlet (farmer market, co-op retail, and sustained support for nutrition). We need sustainable community development that includes green building, green jobs, and a chance for ownership by local folks to invest their sweat, life, and hope into business success. We have the density and the income for a range of businesses in this area. Get strategic and don't accept the nonsense peddled by people who do not understand the intricacies of community economic development. The Glover Plan will not work here unless you are ready to subsidize it's construction and operation for at least 20 years. If so, then build it.

4. Support community enterprises, not social services and non-profits. There is a huge difference and people need to learn and implement this. The Emmanual Community Center is wonderful! But it could be a social enterprise and not just a non-profit. Help these organizations learn to become self-supporting, not just dependent on charity and subsidy.

5. Expand the Bluford Library with a computer center in the Linwood Shops on the West side of Prospect. Computers are the #1 resource for people in the area and the Bluford library is woefully understocked.

6. Put a zoning overlay onto all of Prospect Corridor for mixed use and height. Be mindful of the Sante Fe Historic area and use that as a branding advantage on that part of Prospect. Fill in the vacant land with housing and stores and subsidize them as needed. If we can pay for the Block Building downtown, we can pay for some decent construction on Prospect. Organize a corner store initiative to incentivize these stores to carry fresh foods (as has been done very successfully in Philadelphia) and to upgrade their appearance and operations.

7. Make a CID on Prospect and get the trash picked up. That's a no-brainer.

There you go. You just got some free expertise. This is my plan for Prospect. Contact Viable Third Community if you want to get going on this. I'm already on it!  www.viablethird.com 

Shoulder Responsibility for Urban Ills - Yes We Can, Yes We Must

The KCMSD - Kansas City Missouri School District has just lost its accreditation from the state. This was not a surprise, but it is tragic, considering that it lost it 11 years ago as well. A month ago the latest and greatest urban school superintendent walked out the door for the greener pastures of Detroit. Better salary, more power, and no messy loss of accreditation to have to live with. Apparently, the average tenure for an urban school super is about 18-30 months. Some speculate they move along so quickly because the local district gets frustrated with their lack of progress and fires them. I have no doubt this does happen. But in the case of the supposedly elite superintendents, I think they leave when the going gets tough.  They are well trained in the art of organizational management and it works well for them if they are allowed to run the district as an autocrat. But public schools are just that - PUBLIC - and accountable to voters, citizens, corporate and civic leaders, organizations, businesses, and anyone else who wants to ride herd on the performance of the district. Most urban superintendents I've seen are pathetic at public engagement, parent engagement, compromise, and communication. If they could just run the schools in their little bubble, they would be happy and successful, maybe. But they can't and they blame it on the board, blame it on parents, blame it on the community that they are "uncomfortable" and must leave, or they can't satisfy anyone and are asked to leave. No one is managing expectations. No one is framing the progress. And no one is keeping the superintendent in check and instead allows them to bring in whatever new program they represent, bring in whatever consultant group they are associated with, and like a snake oil salesman - promise results that never come.

The KCMSD Board of Directors gave the last superintendent a great deal of leeway and supported him in near unanimity and without much question. He left anyway. The board is being blamed for a district that slides farther away from full accreditation. The teachers are being blamed for ineffective teaching as evidenced by sliding test scores. The parents are being blamed for not being good role models and for not adequately instilling the virtues of school attendance into their children. Much of the finger pointing is coming from the civic leaders - most of whom do not live in the district, let alone send their children there, and from suburban people who routinely thank God they are not in the District. What have they done to help the situation besides stand as Pontus Pilate and absolve themselves of all responsibility?

Urban problems are vexing. We all know this. But as airick leonard west has pointed out in his comments on today's decision , the improvement of the school district is similar to the improvement of urban neighborhoods. They are linked, they are difficult to turn around, and they require a long haul process of engagement and attention - not a quick fix or a silver bullet. Everyone - and that means everyone from Henry Bloch down to the convenience store clerk at the BP Station across from Central High School - must be involved in promoting the success of our scholars in the KCMSD. Read airick's post for his take on how to be involved and have an impact. Read the joint op-ed by Mayor James and Superintendent Green in the Star. The City is prepared to step up. Mayor James talked on Saturday about a 3 year reading program city wide (across all 14 school districts) to get kids up to grade level before third grade.  A nascent alliance of urban youth groups called Heartfelt Change is planning to provide services and attention through an out of school suspension program, so that kids who get kicked to the curb for fighting and worse, will have a place to keep up, get help, and address their issues instead of just hanging out on the streets.

We all have to take a role and shoulder responsibility for the success of our District. That means getting real with the scholars - mentoring, supporting, bringing time and talent to schools, donating, cheering, coaching, and doing whatever is necessary to bring these scholars to success.

Yes we can. Yes we must.

Chamber's Big 5 - Urban Neighborhoods - I have the solution

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has released their Big 5 Goals for the metro - to which the Chamber will devote member energy and resources. Here is the one of most interest to me...


The Urban Core Neighborhood Initiative - Co-Champions: Terry Dunn, President & CEO, JE Dunn Construction Group, & Brent Stewart, United Way of Greater Kansas City

You can’t have a hole in the regional doughnut. And as former Chamber Chair John Bluford (Truman Medical Centers) said during the Big 5 discussions, “Poverty is the number one negative factor in determining the health and health mortality of the general population.”

Jackson County’s poverty rate is high when using the official formula – 15.4 percent of the population. That number is higher still for what most experts consider a more accurate measurement of poverty (200 percent of the federal poverty level). Use that measurement, and Jackson County’s poverty rate is 34.2 percent.

Dunn and Stewart are already meeting with key leadership, organizations and foundations, and hope to have a strategic plan within the next 90 to 120 days. Violence is one critical area of focus, along with education and economic development.


I actually applaud the Chamber's recognition of the need to improve urban neighborhoods. It's finally recognition that they can't just leave for the suburbs and expect their business climate downtown to thrive. So now they are going to fix what they made wrong by leaving KC in the first place, taking their investment, jobs, property tax, and retail dollars with them.

I have an easy solution that does not require a 90-120 day planning period (which is what this Chamber task force is doing right now). My solution will guarantee results that existing residents cannot achieve. My solution will never be implemented because it requires too much sacrifice by the fixers.

My solution - have chamber members move into the urban core. I don't mean as gentrify-ing interlopers or as gated subdivision fortress dwellers. I mean, move into the urban core and work daily to solve this problem. Live the urban core every day and work to make it better. Share in the sacrifice and give generously from your own self to generate a sustainable community.  Stand side by side with the thousands of good citizens that are here trying to make their neighborhoods, blocks, and the urban core a quality place to live. 


My solution will be rejected, but I am putting it out there as a real one. I know it is real because I do it, every day.  

The Help - Conflict for an Ally

I've just seen the movie, The Help. I felt compelled to comment on it and raise some issues that are difficult for me to grasp in complete clarity.

If you have not seen the movie but plan to, don't read any further because I will be revealing plot points.

I am conflicted after watching the movie. It pulls at my white heartstrings and makes me feel sorry for the black maids who get trampled upon by the evil white women of Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. It makes me cheer when the most evil of the white women gets her comeuppance.

But it also tried to make me feel that the Cicely Tyson character died of a broken heart because she had been brutishly thrown out of the white home in which she lived for 30 years. That was the “tell” in the movie for me that it was over-reaching. The movie kept sliding after that, trying to get me to see the whole struggle as a black-white, zero-sum game. Down with the evil white women, up with the courageous black maids. While those emotions ring true, it left no room for the more subtle points.

Cicely Tyson's character is thrown out because her daughter acted uppity in front of the DCR ladies, otherwise known as the upper class KKK. When our white protagonist, the ever-ernest Skeeter, discovers this and that the maid has since died, weeping can be heard in the theater. I don't know if they were white or black tears, but the tears are because we are buying into the fact that the maid died of a broken heart after being fired – forever separated from the white children she lovingly raised and the household she served. I did not weep. In fact, it made me mad. The maid had been kicked in the teeth after years of loyal service, in a job that was one of the few available to her and she bore that burden. She probably did come to love the children and had loyal, familiar feelings for the family. But let's not lose sight of how that came to be and what it represents. I felt like the movie went for the easy stuff and neglected the more difficult points.

The character, Abiline, is the only character that speaks truth to power at the very end of the movie. She realizes that now that she too has been dismissed by her white employer, she is in fact free to become what she wants to become.

Our protagonist, Skeeter the white writer, leaves Jackson for NYC to pursue her own career based on the success of her book of stories as told by black maids. As the credits rolled, I thought what would have happened if she had instead moved across the tracks and lived on the other side of town? Instead, she used the book as her stepping stone out of Mississippi and on to better things. In fact, the two main black maid characters implore her to do just that, even though Skeeter wants to stay behind to protect them. But we can watch her fly with a clear conscience because the black women have set her free. None of this sits well with me and I am conflicted greatly when putting this all into today's situations.

Through this movie I am questioning what makes an ally valuable. Was Skeeter an ally because she provided a vehicle to tell the maids' stories – yes. Because in Mississippi 1964, there was no other vehicle. What about today? I think what the conflict is showing me is that I cannot be presumptive and be supportive at the same time. I cannot castigate other white people in the name of black people and be authentic. I cannot assume that I have a complete, close, or authentic understanding of what it is to be other than white in our country, regardless of where I live or the experiences I have had. I know more and have a better understanding than most white people. I give myself that. But living here, experiencing what I experience, and empathizing as I do does not mean that I can speak on behalf of, in lieu of, or as a proxy for anyone but a white person, which is what I am. But as an ally, I have an obligation to speak from my authentic self and speak to other white persons about what we are doing, what harm we are causing, and what changes we must make in ourselves.

I don't need to be the great white translator for whites who won't ever listen to blacks, under any circumstance. And I feel like that is what I have been trying to do. Those intransigent white people won't listen to me either, but the other white allies or want-to-be allies can cheer me on. Just as the audience cheered on Skeeter today. Without Skeeter, this story never gets told. Without Skeeter, nothing changes. Without Skeeter, the black maids will never do more than have to hold their tongues and take the crap their white employer gives them. But that was Mississippi 1960s. What about today?

My fear is that there are very ernest young white people who will see this film and want to be a modern day Skeeter – championing the cause, opening a door, giving voice to the voiceless! Huzzah! And it just doesn't ring true. It's taking a short cut in this day and age. I see it in the young families that move to the East Side to “lead the way with love in their hearts.” They are missionaries who come with new ideas, technology, and a can-do spirit to help uplift the downtrodden by their example. They will build community where they see none and then invite the community to join them. I fear at times I am one of them. And I suddenly feel completely fraudulent. This may be my geographic community, but it is not my community of people. No matter how much affinity I have, I cannot speak from a point of view of actually being someone other than a white woman, because I am not. But I can speak from a point of view of humanity – that is something we all share.

So what am I to do with all my great ideas and interests to build opportunities in this community? Do I give up being right about what I know and what I believe I can do? If I know that lighting a match to gasoline will cause an explosion, I have an obligation to say that is so, in order to prevent someone from getting killed. But if I have a strategy that I think will work, do I have any real sense that is true, if my perspective is not authentic? No, I don't. I can offer it up as an option, but I cannot promote it on behalf of people who are not me, and I am not them. This is what it means to work in community.

Am I unnecessarily walking on egg-shells? Can we get beyond race-based strategies and leadership? If the city is broken, then we need the best solutions to fix it, regardless of who brings it forward. But how do I know it is the “best” if my judgment is affected by my own privilege? I cannot erase my privilege. I can recognize it, I can refuse it, and I can raise awareness of it in hopes of dampening its presence, reducing its power, and eliminating its position. But I alone cannot erase it – it's there.

I recognized very early in my career that it doesn't matter how much empathy, affinity, or love I carry with me – that because of the color of my skin I could be a victim, a privileged person, or absent from the issue. A bullet does not know my politics. A privilege does not get erased because of my politics. And my absence from the entire conflict is something only I as a white person can choose. I recognized that the only way I could make any personal progress on these fronts was to be in intentional community. It is the only way I could observe, learn, and participate first-hand in the world of social injustice and racism. It is the only way I can make a difference based on MY race. That is the subtlety that the movie misses completely.

It is authentic for me because I listen, learn, observe, and adjust my own attitudes – not just speak for the non-white people in my community. And I must be hyper-vigilant of what adjustments my attitude needs. I cannot be Skeeter, the great white hope. I cannot be the Doctor with all the answers. I cannot be the defiant white woman who pioneers a place in the urban core.

I have to be the privileged person whose attitude is always kept in check by the authenticity of my neighbors. It is my responsibility to recognize that. 

Kansas City's August "surprise"

August is the month everyone takes vacation or at least checks out of real work to enjoy the fleeting days of summer before going back to school and getting back into the routine. In politics the August "surprise" is usually some dramatic event that requires political attention when in fact, politicos are elsewhere. Congress is on a hiatus right now.

Here in KC, the August surprise is not really a surprise, but local politicos are standing around like it is. Teens have mobbed The Plaza late at night and caused disturbances. This weekend, shots were fired, several teens were hit (no life threatening injuries or deaths), and the Mayor who was there to observe or lend support or something, got shoved to the ground by his security detail when the gunfire happened.

Now the city council, scarred residents, and the Mayor are considering curfews, which is the solution Mayor Nutter is using in Philadelphia to thwart teen flash mobs that are assaulting people in that city's downtown.  Apparently the social science literature indicates that curfews don't have any impact on crime or juvenile behavior as a long term strategy ( See TKC Monday, August 15 or here for details).

Of course the curfew would have to be city wide and that does not sit well with other retail areas where kids have not yet become violent and may never become violent. Of course, most kids have nothing to do to amuse themselves and apparently there are parents that are unable, unwilling, or uninterested in keeping their kids at home at 11:00 at night. Some of the kids at The Plaza were 15 and under. And not all the kids are from KCMO. Some are from Raytown and other cities.

Kids have no where to go
1. no movie theaters on the east side
2. no community centers or other public spaces are open at night on the weekend Greg Klice center closes at 5 on Saturday and is not open on Sunday. Same with the Brush Creek Center. The Linwood YMCA is open until 1pm on Saturday, closed Sunday. The Cleaver Y on Troost is open to 7pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday. The 2 Boys & Girls Clubs locations on the east side are not open on the weekends.
3. The skating rink is north of the river.
4. There is a bowling alley in Raytown, one in the Power & Light District, and one near Ward Parkway.
5. Public library branches closed on Saturday nights and open Sunday afternoons - it's where the computers are - which is what kids like.

I am sure there are probably a few teen places in KC/Raytown for Saturday night activities - but there are a lot of kids.

Why do parents allow their kids out late at night?
Some parents are working, some don't parent well and can't control their kids, some don't have any help and take time off from parenting, some have given up. When you are poor and live in a constant state of depression, you cope. Sometimes parenting is not part of that coping. Not an excuse, just an explanation.

Single parent households are tough to maintain - ask any single parent rich or poor. Add violence in your neighborhood, despair in your neighborhood (and don't buy this - we were poor but didn't know it crap - poor people know they are poor), and a lack of role models that model anything other than what is being acted, and you have a recipe for disaster. Not an excuse, just an explanation.

Generational poverty does occur and it is a modeled behavior. Not all poor people model this, but some do. Their kids see a parent that never has a steady job or a way out and they learn to live likewise. Some kids don't and model other behaviors. It may depend on who is in their life, how many outside influences they pay attention to, and what they see for themselves - based on what glimpse they have seen. Not an excuse, just an explanation.

What can anyone who is not a parent of a flash mob kid do to turn this situation around? 
1. if you know a flash mob kid - get in their life and model some good behavior
2. if you don't know a flash mob kid - get in the life of an at risk kid and model some good behavior
3. if you don't want to be up close and personal with a kid who is not your own, then donate or volunteer with organizations that are willing to be up close and personal.
4. advocate that the city, corporations, and Highwood Properties contribute to weekend open hours for city centers, libraries, YMCA, and Boys & Girls Clubs or other locations that can serve kids. You have to have more than one place open though or you will be swamped with kids. There are a lot of kids.
5. Why aren't churches open on Saturday nights for games and dances?

I know that people want to control and repress as a first impulse - just like we throw everyone who touched drugs into jail. How's that working for us? Yeah. Same thing with a curfew. You think kids will go home? No. They will attempt to flaunt the curfew and will hang out elsewhere, probably on the east side and then the powerful folk will say - well see, it worked, they are off The Plaza.  Control is waaaaay more expensive than support.

Over 100 homicides on the east side. How's that working for us? We reap what we sow. And don't give me that crap about report criminals to the police. When you have to fear for your own safety, let's see you snitch.

There are rag-tag community groups, well-funded community groups, and prominent community groups that try to make a difference in their east side neighborhoods. 23rd Street PAC is having a family activity next weekend. Voices of the People has a weekly Friday night gathering at 38th and Chestnut. Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council has activities at their building regularly at 37th and Woodland. Every Wednesday afternoon the Front Porch Alliance has Teen Talk at Michigan and Linwood. High Aspirations meets weekly at Bluford Library and elsewhere with young men.

There are positive things going on, but it is not enough. We need more. We need the city to embrace these kids and say your problems are my problems, your issues are my issues, your success is my success, your failure is my failure. Pretty simple. 

Adding Mobile SNAP to Urban Fresh Food Access

This piece just got picked up over at Sustainable Cities Collective! Here's the link: 
http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/robynet/27580/adding-mobile-snap-urban-fresh-food-access

Urban Food Desert

I've written a new Storify piece and this one is on Urban Food Deserts. This is a new buzz trend around urban areas, but it has a lot of layers if you look at it as more than the absence or presence of food. Take a look at http://storify.com/robynet/urban-food-deserts-liability-or-opportunity or click on the title above to read it.

Girl dies from stray bullet - KCMO. We need a market solution

She was 11. She was enjoying fireworks in a fenced backyard with adult supervision. She died from a gunshot wound that came from someone shooting off a gun for fun. The stray bullet found her.

Bullets find a destination - a tree, a house, the ground, a person. They don't just fall to the ground. When you fire a gun with a bullet in it, the bullet will hit something. In this case it was an 11 year old girl who had nothing to do with the bullet. But she became its destination.

My neighborhood pal, DeShawn, also fell victim to an unintentional bullet that found him 3 years ago. He was 14 or 15. Last week a 24 year old man was sitting in Sanford Brown park 2 blocks from my house and was killed by a bullet that seems to have been fired without intention of hitting him. He was sitting in the park talking to his father.

Guns are everywhere in KCMO. The police have been ineffective at managing weapons for years and now they are so prevalent, that there is no stopping them. Other cities have had cash for guns programs to get weapons off the street. But that type of thing just gets the tip of the iceberg. Weapons have a cache like no other object. It is power in your hand and I've seen the look in people's eyes when they hold that power. It's power that we don't ordinarily have at our disposal in our circumscribed existence. We are told what to like, sold stuff we don't need, fed junk food, left to fend for ourselves to find nonexistent jobs with poor salaries, for which many people will not be hired. We are forced out of our homes due to our own foreclosure or the foreclosure on the landlord. Our goods are put on the street because we have no where to put our accumulation of possessions as we urban couch surf with friends, relatives, or wherever we can find a spot of shelter. It is not surprising that guns provide a measure of control in an out of control existence that many people face day-to-day.

The random bullet trajectory phenomenon is becoming too common. Once a week I read about this in KCMO, in Camden, in KCK. I'm sure it is no different in every urban place in the country.  Meanwhile the police are helpless to stop this most insidious form of violence. There is little we can do to prevent these random firings. The shooters have little incentive to think before they shoot. It's all part of the randomness that they associate with what passes for "life." The police can't confiscate guns because we defend our right to have them. But having a gun won't protect you from the random bullet looking for a destination. Police will investigate and try to find the shooter and put them in jail, as they should do. But that won't bring back this little girl who was having fun in a fenced yard, supervised by adults, minding her own business.

A child was shot in Camden, NJ last week - caught in crossfire on the street. We can keep our children off the street to minimize their exposure. But random bullets find their way into houses too. I've read too often the story of someone sitting in their house and wounded or killed by a stray bullet that came to rest in their body as it sought its final destination.

Of course, the obvious solution to gunfire is to make bullets cost about $100 each. Use the market to force those with guns to think carefully about shooting before they do so because it costs them money. Heck, make bullets cost $500 or $1000 a piece. People who are adamant about self-protection can purchase those bullets like an insurance policy. Odds are they will never shoot a bullet anyway. We better get creative in understanding the social motives of the bullet and stop relying on ineffective criminal justice to protect us. Deterrents don't work because the odds of being caught are slim. Market forces could save innocent lives.

Camden High School Performance Indicator - Graduates

Thanks to Camden City School Board member, Sean Brown, for posting the most recent report on graduation rates from the City's high schools. Here is the link.

The most well-known schools are Camden and Wilson. There are 3 other high schools that are special curriculum schools but are in-district. The report does not include charter high schools such as LEAP Academy.

The facts are the graduation rates. The definitely graduating rate for Camden is 59% and Wilson is 51%.  There are several other categories of possible graduates that could raise the rates a bit. The 4 other schools have much, much higher rates and their school populations are much, much smaller than either Camden or Wilson.

What this data does not show us is the number of dropouts that contribute to the graduation rates. How many students dropped out to yield only 500+ students for graduation between the 2 main high schools? Those students are the casualties of a poorly performing school district.

The city of Camden cannot afford to have a poorly performing school district. Period. It's success should be included as one of the top 3 Economic Development goals of the city. Period. Charter schools are fine, as long as they produce. There is nothing magical about a charter school. If they produce great results, then they should be rewarded and replicated. If they do not produce results, they should not be rewarded and should not get special treatment. Performance is the ONLY thing that matters.

The Mayor of Camden now controls the entire school board through appointment. The Mayor MUST be held accountable for the performance of the school board and the board must be held accountable for the performance of the district. Unfortunately, voters only have access to accountability through the Mayor, since they no longer elect the board. The residents, however, can turn this to their advantage by actually holding the Mayor accountable.

Residents of Camden need to be packing the School Board meetings with demands for improvement. School Board members need to be soliciting resident involvement and through engagement, improve the schools. Let the district staff and superintendent focus on performance in each school building and hold them accountable. Does the board have annual performance criteria for the superintendent? If not, set them. These are not negotiable items in a contract, these are merely annual goals.

This is a Public Relations campaign and either Camden is going to fight for its future or it is not. I'm willing to bet on the good people of Camden and their desire to see their city do well and their children succeed as a component of that future. Let's see who steps up.

Mom and Racism

I grew up in a highly political, conservative, and yes, racist household. It had a profound affect on me, mainly to drive me in opposite directions. My mom was the gestalt of our home - tenacious in her beliefs, hard-headed in her actions, uncompromising in her world-view. This was a tough standard to emulate, but I am all that and more. But I never believed any of her beliefs, positions, or sentiments about the world. I learned over time, that her views were imbued in her by an equally tough father. My grandpa was the quintessential racist of Chicago. The N* word tripped off his tongue with ease and frequency. When my mom was around him, she followed his lead. He proudly carried a ball-peen hammer in his cars in case any N* tried to jump him. Of course that never happened, but in Chicago, old feisty white guys never took the chance, just in case. My mother often recounted that adage, because, well, you never know when a N* might jump you. In this family milieu I formed my basis for race relations.

My mom was a tenacious politico, stumping for Goldwater, Wallace, and was a loyal member of the John Birch Society. She believed that Martin Luther King was a communist and a threat to our country. I attended Birch meetings in our home and at other cell locations watching movies about how the negro people would burn our country to the ground. I was speechless, horrified, and dumbfounded that I found myself in this bizarre hot-bed of radical loony-toons. But what I gained from the experience was a fervent belief in integration, support for the minority position, and recognition that working for a cause was a good thing, because it gave you hope that your point of view would prevail. I learned that to believe and work with others towards a cause was as normal as sitting at the dinner table. I just chose different causes and positions.

My mom was equally active in local politics, stumping for candidates, handing out literature, talking up elections, working at the polls. I have no doubt this is where my love of politics began and my life-long fascination with local politics took root. Thanks, mom for this lesson as it afforded me a great career. But, as was her way, she delved into the radical fringe of the local. She started to hang out with Phyllis Schlafley - yes the one and only darling of conservative women. Of course this was long before she became famous. At that time, she and my mother engaged in a campaign against sex education in the schools and donned the acronym SOS - Save Our Schools. Of course this occurred at just the moment in my life when sex was a great curiosity to me. To have my mother hold protests against sex information was deeply confusing to me. Unfortunately, she also brought race into the issue - there should be no interracial anything, least of all in the realm of personal relationships, sex, marriage, etc. On that issue I took great exception, because I didn't understand what possible explanation could be rational to lead to this edict. My mom spoke in front of school boards, to reporters, handed out pamphlets, and stood firm in her position about SOS. I was mortified by the subject (mainly because she had not done much in terms of sharing the secrets of sex with me...), but mostly mortified that my mom would be out there saying students should be shielded. This was a time in the country when free love was the rage. But there she was campaigning and being steadfast. That was a lesson I gladly learned.

As my mom got older, she actually withdrew from politics. She loved Ronald Reagan (and Joe McCarthy) and felt that Reagan caved. She couldn't stand it and stopped reading the paper and watching the news. I'm sure the Communist Broadcast Corporation (CBS) and Walter Cronkite (whom we watched every evening) were glad to have her withdraw, lol. But I had learned a lesson early that reading and watching the news was an essential part of citizenship. I have never stopped doing that and though my mom quit on it, I have never felt that response. So thanks, Mom, for making me a good citizen.

In the last years of my mom's life she softened. She gathered her estranged family and embraced them. She met my BFF who is black, and embraced him. She said to me, color doesn't matter as long as the person makes you feel special and is good to you. I nearly fell off my chair. But it told me that all along, though she never showed it or allowed it to come out, there was compromise and learning inside her. I must have seen that in my subconscious, because I have always been that person, and I could not have learned it anywhere else unless there was a kernel of it in my mom. Her sharing that with me was a culmination of a journey for both of us.

So yes, I learned racism at my mother's knee. I learned how ugly it was and how damaging it was in terms of the energy and effort it took to maintain it. I never bought into it, but it took me many years to learn how much it affected me. It wasn't until I learned what white privilege meant that I fully understood how ingrained racism is, even in a liberal do-gooder who eschewed her racist family teachings.  Those teachings were still there and though I professed to refute them, they distinctly colored my view of how to overcome it. If I had never had such a blatant upbringing, I might never have come to realize the insidiousness of it. If I had a mother who was polite and whitewashed racism, I might never have known its power and that it even existed. For that, mom, I have to say thanks. Your tenacity, hard-headedness, and uncompromising views gave me a strong platform from which to live MY life with MY views and taught me lessons I didn't know I needed to learn until I learned them.

Examine your own family upbringing. What did your mother teach you about race and politics? What do you need to learn that you don't even know you need to learn? I urge you to explore it and grow, because our world depends on you to learn from your mother and build a just, safe, and healthy society.

Happy Mothers Day!