Category: Racial Equity

Heather Taylor – #FiveYearsLater #STL2039

Community stories marking the five-year milestone after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson uprising. Residents reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

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Ned – #FiveYearsLater #STL2039

Community stories marking the five-year milestone after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson uprising. Residents reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

Tags Justice for AllYouth at the Center
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Lisa – #FiveYearsLater #STL2039

Community stories marking the five-year milestone after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson uprising. Community members reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

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Terrance – #FiveYearsLater #STL2039

Community stories marking the five-year milestone after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson uprising. Residents reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

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Ebony – #FiveYearsLater #STL2039

Community stories marking the five-year milestone after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson uprising. Residents reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

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Vetta and Riisa – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Increasing Access to CareHealthRacial EquityOpportunity to ThriveYouth at the Center
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Rudy and Mary – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Justice for AllInfrastructureStrengthening Anti-Bias and Cultural CompetencyAligning Resources to Foster Innovation and Build CapacityBuilding a Racial Equity Infrastructure
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John and Jamala – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Building a Racial Equity InfrastructureRestoring Civilian-Law Enforcement Relations Through Community PolicingPolice ReformRacial EquityJustice for All
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Amelia and Maria – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Racial Equity FundSupporting Career ReadinessFinancial EmpowermentRacial EquityOpportunity to ThriveYouth at the CenterYouth
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Erica and Serena – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Opportunity to ThriveRacial EquityHealthIncreasing Access to CareSTL2039
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David and Rachel – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Strengthening Anti-Bias and Cultural CompetencyRacial EquityOpportunity to ThriveSTL2039Youth at the Center
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Stacey and Bob – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Opportunity to ThriveRacial EquityIncreasing Access to CareSTL2039
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Tishaura and Ellen – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Opportunity to ThriveBuilding a Racial Equity InfrastructureFinancial EmpowermentRacial EquityYouth at the Center
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Val and Greg – #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Opportunity to ThriveRacial EquityEducationSTL2039
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Areli and Felipe — #STL2039

This is part of the #STL2039 Action Plan storytelling series in partnership with Humans of St. Louis. Areli Reyes:  I’m a DACA student and really passionate about seeing change for Brown and Black bodies out here because there are so many injustices that we’re facing. I went to a college fair and met somebody from…

Tags Youth at the CenterEducationEnhancing College Access and AffordabilityLatinx
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Stephanie and Neal — #STL2039

Sharing the visions of St. Louis residents for a future St. Louis—in 2039—where Racial Equity is the reality and what they’re doing to achieve it today. #STL2039

Tags Opportunity to ThriveRacial EquityHousingSTL2039
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Jessica

My nine-to-five is with the Social Innovation STL. I am a Community Organizer, so everything I do is based around that. Some of the ways I am connected with Forward Through Ferguson is through my job with the Social Innovation District, but it really started before that as a Community Organizer. The Social Innovation District…

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Julia

My last name is German for “bridge.” I’ve been in St. Louis for almost seven years. I went to SLU because my dad did, then stuck around because St. Louis is my playground and has become my home. My story really goes back to third grade DEAR Time, Drop Everything And Read. Mrs. Smith was…

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Blake

I was in my last year of law school when Mike Brown was killed on August 9th. I had just left home on my way back to school. I was already looking at public interest opportunities and social and racial justice opportunities. It’s fair to say that before that happened, I probably was not coming…

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Faybra

I show up every day and I fight my hardest to contribute. There aren’t any Montessori schools in St. Louis I know of that have a director or an administrator who does community engaging, outreach coordinating, social justice, and Racial Equity. Before I took this position, I was a Montessori teacher for a school in…

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Paul

I came to St. Louis six and a half years ago to go to the Brown School and didn’t know anyone in St. Louis ahead of time, but I’d always enjoyed it when I visited from Iowa. I came here to study community development. To me, it didn’t make any sense to go school in…

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Brittini

Have you ever done a service core type thing? You volunteer, you become poor for a year, and then you get placed at different sites. I was placed at our sister organization called VOICE Buffalo. That’s where my work was supposed to be centered. Why organizing? I’m from Chicago and I have probably been engaged…

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Claire

Given the work that U.S. Bank Community Development Corporation does, our investments we make in communities every day, and a lot of them in communities of color, there was a realization that we have a unique responsibility to be more actively engaged in equity work. It’s not to be a White institution that comes in…

Tags Racial Equity
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De

There is an extreme danger in making gross assumptions about the people who are on the ground, the people who are organizing, and the people who are taking a stance in this movement. A lot of people say that this is a leaderless movement, but I say the opposite. It’s a very leader-full movement because…

Tags Racial EquityInfrastructure
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Christy

How do I live in a way that effects change in as many areas as possible? How must I be aware of institutional barriers going up? In what ways must I be very intentional and purposeful? I’m really conscious of being a White woman, knowing I could very easily show up someplace and be like,…

Tags Racial Equity
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Amber

When I went back to school for my Master’s degree, I began working part-time at The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis as an education policy intern with five other students. During the second year of the internship program, we all had our umbrella issues we focused on as a group – mostly access for undocumented…

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Paul

I attend a lot of national conferences to speak about the work of community development credit unions and Prosperity Connection. Whether I’m in St. Louis, or talking to people from other parts of the country, I always start by saying, “My name is Paul Woodruff. I’m from St. Louis, and St. Louis is a great…

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Nelson

Staying here long-term wasn’t in my plans, but St. Louis has that way of keeping you here once you move here. Having lived here for many years, I notice how divided the community is. The tensions that are existing, the segregation, the separation between downtown and the county – all these different divides are just…

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Perri

One of the things that officers don’t like is when parents use police as a threat to small kids: “If you don’t behave, I’m going to call the police.” Please don’t do that. Don’t make us the bad guy. Some of us do a good enough job with that on our own. Some kids in…

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Justin

I’m from the West End, or as I like to say, “The forgotten West Side.” I found out about Forward Through Ferguson through I’m going to call it the male initiative to bring in African American males. I think it was either through an email or a tweet I received. I looked at it, clicked…

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Phillip

It was cool to see there was this very intentional call for both educators and Black men to show up. It also dovetailed with some conversations I was having with other friends about, “What are we going to do? We have this problematic national administration and I can’t spend my time feeling frustrated about that….

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April

I work at the School District of Clayton at Wydown Middle School and teach 6th and 7th grade. For a long time, I taught history and now I teach literacy. On Tuesdays, I sponsor a club called Social Justice League. I’ve been doing it for maybe four years. It branched out of a seminar I…

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David

The question equity raises is, “Do we give everyone the same thing, or realize that because of our history, policy, biases, and culture, do we have to invest in giving everyone the best opportunity to lead happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives?”

Tags Racial Equity
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Rasheen

I was born and raised in St. Louis. Even when I travel out of town, I still miss home. Even with all the issues that have transpired over the years, with all the problems, I’m still happy to call it my home because I know it’s going to get better. During Ferguson, being out there…

Tags Youth at the Center
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Carmen

Indulging in the luxury of throwing up my arms, I moved to San Diego to be with my partner and left St. Louis vowing not to return. Nine years later, Ferguson happened. I watched in astonishment as brilliant and courageous young protesters moved the tectonic plate I thought could not be moved. This could not…

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Zack

My parents were involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. I grew up believing I understood and was on the right side of things. But Crossroads Anti-Bias Anti-Racism workshop opened my eyes differently and in such a way that I couldn’t close them anymore. It just changed my way of viewing the rest…

Tags Building a Racial Equity InfrastructureRacial Equity
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Adelaide

Little kids have this project called Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley travels around the country with you and then tells about his adventures. We drove to Florida on spring break. When we came back, my daughter and her classmates put their Flat Stanley’s on the window outside the classroom to the hallway, and made these speech…

Tags Racial EquityCreating and Supporting Spaces to Practice - Learn - Connect - or Engage in Dialogue - Dismantle Racism - and Deconstruct Unconscious Bias
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Rebeccah

When I was 20, I was frustrated about having to spend so much of my time helping people understand the impact of racism on folks who were not White. It just felt like such a chore to have to spend my energy saying, “Hey, you realize the world is topsy-turvy, and the privilege and value…

Tags Racial EquityCreating and Supporting Spaces to Practice - Learn - Connect - or Engage in Dialogue - Dismantle Racism - and Deconstruct Unconscious Bias
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“What can I do? How can I do it?”

Laura H. is a “boomerang” who shares re-plant status with many others in St. Louis. But the timing of her return – the day Michael Brown, Jr., was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson – along with its role in how she’s making sense of her place in STL as a white Jewish mother, offers…

Tags Racial Equity
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What Makes This Different

Angela B. talks about her hopes for — and expectations of — the body that carries Forward Through Ferguson’s calls to action from recommendation to actual change. The last  full/public meeting happens Monday, December 7th, before the Commission sunsets on December 31, 2015. Angela, who’s been following the Commission’s work, has appreciated its attention to including and…

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Yvonne

I went to Home Depot and asked the employee in the painting department to give me a color of my skin. She said, “A color of your skin? I’m sorry. We don’t do that here.” I said, “No, no. You don’t understand. I’m doing research. It’s not meant to be a joke.” So, she called…

Tags Racial Equity
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Starsky

There are a lot of more usual suspects who could have co-chaired the Commission. It probably made a whole lot better sense to appoint somebody else. But God gave me an opportunity to translate what was going on in the street at the time into the Commission’s work and attempt to do so effectively to…

Tags Racial Equity
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Mustafah

Movements often center around single identities, even though its participants may come from a wide-swath of backgrounds and traditions. Finding the interconnections between various struggles can be a powerful tool for improving conditions for all people, inclusive of a variety of identities.

Tags Racial EquityReligion
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Buthaina

The assumption is always that I’m Mexican or Indian. I get a lot of “Holas.” I can’t be mad. A lot of Mexicans think I’m Mexican. The first interaction is usually, “Are you from Mexico?” “No, I’m from Yemen.” “Where’s that?” “It’s in the Middle East.” People are curious. A lot of times, the next…

Tags Racial Equity
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Charles

One of the bigger challenges that everyone in our region has to overcome, and to possibly become a prototype for other cities, is to get over our segregation mentality. So we can talk about everyone having equity, a better school, a place to go to the grocery store, but we still think in that segregationist mentality.

Tags Racial EquityTransportation
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Travis

It is a great place for social innovation and social entrepreneurship, but at the same time, two things that really hold St. Louis back are our fear of failure and our inability to handle negative things. Ferguson really showed us this.

Tags Racial EquityFinancial EmpowermentInfrastructure
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Rose

I can’t do anything about the past. But, for me, the action is the now. So, I’m personally committed to not living the life that I did. I’m personally committed to moving the dial on what I consider to be the root cause of all this, and that’s racism.

Tags Racial EquityEducation
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Bethany

I would say to those frustrated 20-somethings that the best way to get to age 40 is a day at a time. In the frustration and the pain of that day, find one way to say ‘yes’ on purpose. The day-to-day doesn’t have to be about the strain. Just make it through the day. Say…

Tags Youth at the CenterRacial Equity
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Felicia

We’re at a critical time to make a decision about who and what we are. I was bitter for a long time around this work — nobody listening, not doing the right thing, and continuing the abuses. And I have learned — because it’s been uncovered, because the scab was ripped off, because the blood…

Tags Youth at the CenterRacial Equity
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Tahaira

Just because I’m not easily identifiable, just because I don’t wear a headscarf, doesn’t mean that I’m not proud of my identity or who I am. We are part of this community, too.

Tags ReligionImmigrantCommunityRacial Equity
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Summary of Terms

Better Business Bureau Organization that sets standards for marketplace trust and calls out substandard marketplace behavior of businesses and charities. Source: Better Business Bureau, https://www.bbb.org/stlouis/get-to-know-us/vision-mission-and-values/ Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in the 50 states, District of…

Tags Racial EquitySummary of Terms
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“Oh, You’re Here Too?”

Ferguson forced me to have a lot of conversations with my family about ideas of anti-blackness that we grew up with, and ideas about why people are poor in America.

Tags Racial Equity
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Fostering Racial Equity

Racial equity is an overarching theme underpinning the work of the Commission and the calls to action it proposes. Racial disparities extend to employment, education, housing, transportation, and the application of justice. Those topics are addressed throughout these pages. What is found below is a big-picture sense of racial disparity in the area. The expert…

Tags Developing an Analysis of Individual - Cultural - Institutional - Structural and Internalized Racism
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Preston and Sharon

Our youth present our greatest opportunity to impact positive and lasting change. Addressing our endeavors to the whole child through education, health, encouragement, support, and opportunities will fundamentally change their lives now and their futures forever.

Tags Justice for AllYouth at the CenterRacial EquityEducationReforming School-Based Discipline
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