Community leaders ruminate after the violence, do black citizens have the same privilege to concealed carry as others? The robot deployed by Dallas police last week.
Burdened, tired, motivated: Community leaders reflect on a week of racial tension and bloodshed
It was a weekend of unrest for communities of color across the country as many continue to process last week's deeply troubling tragedies in Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, and Dallas.
To get a better sense of how African Americans in the three cities are feeling as a new week begins, Take Two spoke to three community leaders on the ground who have been organizing and protesting for justice and reconciliation.
- Rev. James Armstrong III, pastor and community leader in Dallas, Texas
- Brittany Lynch, artist, and activist, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Eugene Collins, community organizer in Baton Rouge, Lousiana
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.)
Highlights
If you could choose one word to describe how you are feeling this Monday morning, what would it be?
Eugene Collins: With some of the things going on in our city, I've heard this again and again — just tired. The case of Mr. Sterling — the vicious murder of Mr. Sterling — has brought the issues around police reform in this city to national news, but this is nothing new to our city. The relationship between African Americans and police officers has been there for a number of years, and our leaders have not done an effective enough job addressing it. This is not a big surprise. One thing I said on my radio show about six months ago is that, hey, we're one incident away from having this city tore-up. Folks are tired of the way that they're being treated by officers in their community — with the lack of respect.
Friday night I was out with some other leaders and organizers in our community. To see officers laughing at protestors — just a lack of respect — has definitely added to that anger.
Brittany Lynch: I would have to say motivated — ready to do the work. If we don't hold our state-sanctioned police, legislature, etcetera accountable, the death is going to continue to happen, and that's not something I'm willing to do, so I'm motivated to start working towards accountability.
This weekend, I held two different radio shows — I'm a radio host here in the twin cities, so we had several hours that we just held space on the air for the community to call in to share their thoughts. Because I'm a DJ, there were lots of artists that got together to start creating healing spaces and public art gatherings that expressed outrage.
As you see it, how do things like visual art and music help in a situation as unique and powerful as this one?
Brittany Lynch: I think something that folks have to realize is that the revolution is going to look different for everyone. Not everyone is going to find themselves in the streets protesting — that's not everyone's role. That doesn't mean you can't participate. And so, art gives other people an opportunity to express themselves and to participate in a way that makes sense for them, and that's according to their skillset. Art also has a unique way of connecting with people and carrying a message that folks wouldn't ordinarily hear.
Pastor Armstrong, how can police improve their relations, and what role do younger people play in that?
You know, Chief Brown has implemented a community policing program that — I think — can be a model for other cities on how the community and the police should interact.
I was speaking with a youth from my community the other day, and he explained to me a situation that happened between him and a police officer. The day after the shooting, he went into a local grocery store, and he was met by a white police officer. He described the feeling as awkward. The police officer walked up to him and asked,"Are you okay?" And he didn't know what to say. He was speechless. Immediately after, the officer said, "No, really, are you okay?" And he said that he couldn't help but start crying, and they embraced. And the officer told him, "We're gonna get through this."
I believe that — for Dallas — the sentiment is that the police are caring, and we're just hurting together.
Press the blue play button above to hear the entire conversation.
Balancing being black with the right to bear arms
The fatal shootings of two black men last week renewed protests over the use of deadly force by police, and renewed charges of racism within law enforcement.
Complicating all this is the fact that Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were both carrying guns when they were confronted by law enforcement officials.
The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but many activists believe that Sterling and Castile's guns left them more vulnerable to deadly force — even if they were within their rights to carry those guns.
To help us take a closer look at the history of being black and the right to bear arms, we' spoke with The Atlantic's David A. Graham, the author of "The Second Amendments Second Class Citizens."
Interview Highlights
On how the right to bear arms has affected black citizens
This is a really a long historical current. If you look back at some of the earliest ideas of a personal to bear arms rather than a militia, you see that it involves Black Americans. After the Civil War a lot of black men in the south wanted to carry guns as protection against night riders and other marauders. And officials in places like South Carolina revoked that right and decreed blacks could not carry guns. The federal government stepped in on that case to insist that they could. And so you see a history like this that goes on. It runs from the 1860's up to the 1960's when, for example, Malcolm X talked about the need to carry a gun for personal protection and you had the Black Panthers actually visiting the California capitol carrying arms openly as a demostration of their right.
Also joining the program is Kenn Blanchard, the host of the podcast "Black Man with a Gun"
On why he became a gun fan
It started as a child. I grew up in a time when all my heroes had firearms, from the secret agents to the westers. And it was normal... Think about "A Christmas Story" about 'that's gonna put your eye out!' That was a big thing to get your Daisy Red Rider BB Gun. That was my era.
On when his gun enthusiasm divided him from other black people
It didn't hit me until I was an adult trying to start a business as a firearms instructor back in 1986. I had been trained by the best in the world. I went through the military; I'd gone through the federal government; I had been tutored by some specialty schools; I thought I was going to be the guy who helps the community out; who stops the violence from innocent people and stops the accidents in the home with children. I went to a couple of gun stores ad held up my shingle as a firearms instructor and my community were like 'Why are you promoting this gun stuff? Don't you know guns kill black people?' And I thought, 'Wow! Where have you guys been?' But I was the one who wasn't aware of the cultural bias in my own community.
What Black Lives Matter wants to accomplish in LA right now
Demonstrations were held across the country this weekend to protest the fatal police shootings of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Here in Southern California, hundreds of Black Lives Matter activists temporarily blocked traffic on the 405 Freeway and shut down a major intersection in Inglewood.
Melina Abdullah is an organizer and original member of Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles. She said the purpose of the movement has changed since its inception almost three years ago after the acquittal of George Zimmerman.
She explained the group would like to see LAPD Chief Charlie Beck no longer in power, and see a shift in the use of city resources from policing to community building.
"While some outside of Black Lives Matter are calling for reforms that might modestly shift the way we're policed, we're calling for a fundamental transformation, a reimagining and redefining of public safety," she said.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
Can adults who've grown up taking ADHD meds function without them?
More than 10 percent of school-aged children across the U.S. have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Many will be prescribed stimulant drugs like Ritalin or Adderall to help them focus. But what happens to kids with ADHD when they become adults, after years on prescription stimulants?
Journalist Madeleine Thomas's new piece in Pacific Standard magazine examines the issue with adults in their 20s and 30s who've been on ADHD meds for more than a decade.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
LA journalist reflects on growing up as a TM kid in 'Greetings from Utopia Park'
These days, the practice of meditation is everywhere. It's the the subject of TED Talks, it's taught in kindergarten classrooms, and apps to help you meditate abound.
But how did this ancient Eastern practice become so popular here in the West? Many credit an Indian guru named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought Transcendental Meditation, or TM, to the U.S. in the 1960s.
Maharishi quickly won over followers throughout the country, but the most devoted of them wound up in Fairfield, Iowa.
That's where L.A.-based journalist Claire Hoffman spent much of her childhood. Her life there and her struggles with faith in Maharishi and meditation is the subject of her new book, "Greetings From Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood."
She joined host Alex Cohen to share more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-oNU1tTx0
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.