Building Better Communities, vol: Fund the people and Defund the Police

[Quincy McCall]

Thread borne out of the inquiry of BIG LEEMELONE and the momentum of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protest.

Not where we should go from here, but what we're currently doing to reform the social corruption that brought us to this moment. There are several parts to an equitable answer for our communities (specifically speaking of low income communities and communities largely constructed of BIPOC) and around the US community leaders everywhere are coming up with unique approaches to ameliorate their local issues-- I want to use this space to share/hear about what's going on, on the ground where you live, and what we can all collectively do better.


As has been the case in prior uprisings, the need to organize and be preemptive is paramount so everybody, who can, needs to be involved with some type of local org and doing what they can support; where are folks usually volunteering their time? And if you're strapped for time and resources, find out ways to lend your voice to an organization.

And for dialogue, the call to defund the police comes from the central idea that reform is futile when the foundation of the institution we're calling to up-heave is oppressive and it's the clarion call to us all that we need to center our politics so that reform can be functional; social justice for black males can't be talked about without justice for Black women; social justice for women can't be talked about without trans/gay justice; economic justice can't be mongered without first calling to the homeless and sex workers and so on.

Also a good place to talk about the services needed and how we could go about providing them for ourselves, and means of communicating locally about the things that we need that only government can be lobbied to provide. We have all these small non-profits in our areas as well: some working together for the first time-- now is the time to normalize crowdfunding for community services, campaign contributions for worthy candidates, lobbying local gov, food insecurity, rent relief, etc.

These types of threads usually last a short while before discussion dies out and it devolves into a place to either leave memes or ignore, if discussion occurs at all, so contribute however you feel necessary if you think this is a worthwhile topic, especially while people are still putting boots on the ground-- post links, vids, inquiries, questions, whatever

 

[Quincy McCall]

Okay, so this isn't a thing lol don't have time to update this on the daily, so I'll just post a few things I've personally been trying to implement locally and anyone interested could read or let it die in the wind/thread

Transit Justice:

Teamed up with a number of local media outlets and organizations to talk about the importance of transit justice and how it affects the growing inequalities in our neighborhoods, and how we can come together Fto make it a quotidian campaign on the ground and be forcibly heard

Some articles for anyone without first-hand knowledge of the affects of inadequate public transit on poor communities:

To Fight Racism, Transit Has a Key Role

Black Lives Matter protests are showing how city leaders and transit agencies must reprioritize infrastructure investments, a public transit official argues.

www.bloomberg.com

Food Insecurity:

Can't quite honestly make a large dent in the amount of food insecurity that permeates my neighborhood these days but by making the response to this issue more inclusive and implementing different forms of urban tacticalism to address it, I think we can make a huge difference in how this problem is perceived and addressed- at least locally. Trying to build community fridges and cupboards across the city, joining a nationwide movement that's gaining recognition during the time of covid, and go from there



Education Reform:

Can't changed much inside the school systems without a thorough and costly battle that will require much time and money that we frankly don't have. Taking a measured approach at least ameliorating the culture of afterschool rearing that is usually targeted around either tutoring or character building by opening up open-spaces in the neighborhood where kids can just express themselves and focus on things that cater to them specifically without retribution. Centered by a community library that's community funded and an art station led by me and other art mentors in the area. Art might seem non-germane to the topic of education, but I'm of the believers that see black art as black liberation and I beleive that should be the starting point towards true education and educational rearing.

Something like this

I've

got more to write, but not the time. If anyone reads this even.

 

[FThe45th]

Facts. A lite more needs to be implemented. But this is if anything the byproduct of the chaos

 

[Quincy McCall]

To finish the previous post...

Two things that I wish were possible in my area, of which I'd be hopeful to be a part of in the future

Community owned property:

Seen this awhile ago and thought it was pretty cool, and something I'd aspire to



Another thing that they've posted on their page of which I was thinking about implementing locally, where a small org can pool in resources and feasibly show where resources are being used. Something smaller even like $4 a month where anyone who wants to get involved with grassroots stuff




Mental health services:

Something that I'll undoubtedly get involved in sometime or another. A large portion of the organizers in my area are therapist or know therapists, so getting their help in starting a peercounseling program for demographic-related groups should be relatively easy-- it's just finding the time and devoted volunteers. group messaging and in-person peercounseling once a week seems like a wild experiment, but probably a worthwhile one

Something like, but not exactly:

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

To finish the previous post...

Two things that I wish were possible in my area, of which I'd be hopeful to be a part of in the future

Community owned property:

Seen this awhile ago and thought it was pretty cool, and something I'd aspire to



Another thing that they've posted on their page of which I was thinking about implementing locally, where a small org can pool in resources and feasibly show where resources are being used. Something smaller even like $4 a month where anyone who wants to get involved with grassroots stuff

This is something like what I've been working on with some of my partners. My boy had the idea that we could collect rent and invest it on behalf of the tenants and give them a yearly return. This way your rental becomes an asset instead of a liability.

Here's some of their networks

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Motivated Purpose Network | Home

Motivated Purpose Network

motivatedpurposenetwork.com

I don't know what's up with the first link but it's @minorityuprising_

 

[cosmiccoffee9]

this I like.

actually linking up with a good friend of mine down here, among other things he´s created a rewards program for his new soul food restaurant (yup) that rewards frequent customers with shares of group stock holdings.

it´s interesting, we actually have quite the little community blooming forth in 2020.

 

[Quincy McCall]

Meant to update title yesterday, bt things have been crazy

two things that I've been working on as of late:

Wage unions:

As an artist I know that there are many ways to be cheated and exploited out of compensation for work, especially by the city, so we were thinking of starting an initiative for this problem around the central idea of artists working for and supporting other artist. To make sure that ppl aren't cheated or exploited on any level, have all of the professional class and inexperienced artist work on uniform terms for hire and collaboration.

Union would both help artist get fair pay and create more work. One of the biggest expenses to up and coming artists is finding the time to work while taking care of yourself; so having assistance in any manner is big, and we're going to commodify this need by having artist who want to get work in their field to work as assistants by paying them decent hourly wages/ w transportation by way of contract.

Want to start with painters, but expand to artists of all types of fields, in every entreprenurial sense and create a legitimate labor force. Cities owe and profit a great deal from their artist, and it's time we stood and made them pay us like they owe us.

No great amount of examples of this to show, but Wagency has a great platform for some of the things that I am mentioning here: https://wageforwork.com/wagency

Homeless awareness:

This is probably not something a great amount of ppl will be interested in based on politic leanings, likely, but even though it is a fact that there will always be homeless among us, harm reduction should be the goal for all of us.

I don't work with a good amount of homeless people but I know some people that do, and Homeless awareness for us is the first step to getting them their voices back into the larger conversations about representation and public health. We've all seen vids like these from time to time, but they've never been prevalent enough to make an impact. With the rise of social interventions via social media it's a good time to get individual stories out there so that 'homeless people' ceases to be a homologous gust of wind and become actual people with real issues.

Ex.:

Also want to bring to the forefront more convos about drug use and mental health by advocating for institutions like 'safe injection sites' to start.

 

[feeninlikejodeci]

This is something like what I've been working on with some of my partners. My boy had the idea that we could collect rent and invest it on behalf of the tenants and give them a yearly return. This way your rental becomes an asset instead of a liability.

Problem I see is, most low income people have limited future time orientation and can't see past the next week, let alone a month. And then their environment...there gonna have naysayers in their ear trying to convince them they are being conned.

The only demographic I could foresee this working on is the "Hipster" crowd...

 

[Mark Antony]

Great title update.

 

[cosmiccoffee9]

Meant to update title yesterday, bt things have been crazy

two things that I've been working on as of late:

Wage unions:

As an artist I know that there are many ways to be cheated and exploited out of compensation for work, especially by the city, so we were thinking of starting an initiative for this problem around the central idea of artists working for and supporting other artist. To make sure that ppl aren't cheated or exploited on any level, have all of the professional class and inexperienced artist work on uniform terms for hire and collaboration.

Union would both help artist get fair pay and create more work. One of the biggest expenses to up and coming artists is finding the time to work while taking care of yourself; so having assistance in any manner is big, and we're going to commodify this need by having artist who want to get work in their field to work as assistants by paying them decent hourly wages/ w transportation by way of contract.

Want to start with painters, but expand to artists of all types of fields, in every entreprenurial sense and create a legitimate labor force. Cities owe and profit a great deal from their artist, and it's time we stood and made them pay us like they owe us.

No great amount of examples of this to show, but Wagency has a great platform for some of the things that I am mentioning here: https://wageforwork.com/wagency

Homeless awareness:

This is probably not something a great amount of ppl will be interested in based on politic leanings, likely, but even though it is a fact that there will always be homeless among us, harm reduction should be the goal for all of us.

I don't work with a good amount of homeless people but I know some people that do, and Homeless awareness for us is the first step to getting them their voices back into the larger conversations about representation and public health. We've all seen vids like these from time to time, but they've never been prevalent enough to make an impact. With the rise of social interventions via social media it's a good time to get individual stories out there so that 'homeless people' ceases to be a homologous gust of wind and become actual people with real issues.

Ex.:

Also want to bring to the forefront more convos about drug use and mental health by advocating for institutions like 'safe injection sites' to start.

don´t be too quick to dismiss the viability of redirecting resources to the homeless...yeah, it´s a bit of a hard sell to a committed capitalist, but I think framed as a public health issue it could get to that visceral level.

I always think of this video when I think of the unintended consequences of neglecting housing issues:



nobody thought they had to care, then the public transit system became a group home during a pandemic.

...basically, you have to make it clear to people that other people having an issue could be THEIR ***.

 

[Mister Meaner]

I’ll add some cents later.
A+ thread

 

[Quincy McCall]

Lobbyism:

Trying to get this in as an adjunct to existing summer school programs that we've been having the past few yrs at the community centers; most of these kids understand activism as a form of protest, I think if we capitalize now- while most of them have seen the very raw and emotional side of injustice this past summer- that we can get them to expand their understanding of activism beyond reactionary tactics and the helplessness within it. Want to open the idea of lobbyism beyond the negative connotations of lobbyists, and the narrow definition of the job itself, to something palatable to all citizens and a tool that we can't leave on the table while pushing for equal footing.

There's a state senator who's told me that he wouldn't mind taking some time out and speaking on what the jobs and roles of lobbyists are and demonstrating how to make a bill-- which is a large part of the program.

There's only one prominent summer school program in my area and it teaches some elementary aspects of financial literacy, and another remote one tied to a boys mentorship group that teaches media literacy on the weekends during the summer, and I want to tie those two together with this one to make one compressed class that teaches the basis of these things and how they are related and effect their daily lives, their futures, along with people below them on the socioeconomic ladder

My specific program would be knowledge along the lines of(but likely more detailed into the actual job):



Virtual content club:

Mostly for my mentee's/teachers-- something I do with that mentorship group I was speaking about above: we exchange positive content that we find online every month and talk about it(mostly videos, some articles). Like a book club, but no books or long essays like a school mandated book club. Media literacy is a big thing with those guys, so at the very least it would affect some of the things the kids might be watching online via algorithm/help them learn to seek more productive means with their internet devices.

It's a small thing, but sharing of resources on this level can be heuristically rewarding.

My most recent contribution to that(in-line with most of the stuff we post):

 

[Mark Antony]

Lobbies and PACs are definitely the next important stage after voting.

 

[Mark Antony]

Politics and economics go hand in hand. You can own but all it takes is a law to sweep that away. I pray all the folks investing in land are aware of the local laws and more preferably have a stake in it.

 

[Quincy McCall]

Politics and economics go hand in hand. You can own but all it takes is a law to sweep that away. I pray all the folks investing in land are aware of the local laws and more preferably have a stake in it.

That's a terrifying story. It's always terrifying to think about how much we own that could be taken away by either austerity, insolvency or legal muddle that you would never know is relevant until it's too late. That kind of insecurity doesn't leave you, especially when your state percieves you as a conspiracy

 

[Mark Antony]

Crazy how much we had already that was taken from us. Seen countless white folks wear Hilton head like a badge of honor, had no idea it was predominantly black at some point.

 

[KHUFU]

Good stuff here.

 

[Quincy McCall]

Youth Employment:

This is admittedly a slippery slope, as real commodification could prove to be troublesome in our current economic system, but in the short-term it could address some serious issues surrounding stability for our youth. Ageism is one of the greatest conductors of racism and economic inequality (imo), as we collectively justify teaching and allowing prejudicial behavior based on a sense that kids can't 'understand' or comprehend it. On the same scale, financial instability among colored children is overlooked as an aspect of just being a child-- and handwaved as something that isn't critical to their livelihoods.

Like most kids who didn't have much, I was out trying to get the things I need by any means by the age of 10. If it wasn't for boxing and almost-illegal afterschool jobs, I would have found myself in a lot more trouble-- no doubt. Kids carry the burden of economic insecurity before we care to notice that they do, and beside the very few teen jobs that we have for 15+ yr olds, there isn't much stopping them from going out and getting there's.

I've been bringing in a small group of kids these past few weeks with my 'artist union' that I've been propping up, but been reaching out to other non-profits and local business's this past week to get more job creators on board-- so we'll see what happens. We probably can't make enough jobs to service thousands of kids whom would seek employment if it were available, but can create an environment where those problems are addressed and with some willpower make dozens-to-hundreds of jobs available for those looking. Also want to make those jobs different in nature than the regular 'summer employment programs' that are usually just hubs for police legitimacy that pay very poorly like these(Although these would be examples of decent jobs if it weren't for the former facts):



Spotlight:

Just a spotlight for a group I recently reached out to, on help for how to address another art-related issue.

They do some decent work out in the Chi, and exemplify the spirit of art revitilization, so ups to those brothers:



Community-based media:

Finally got the community Library and Pantry started a few days ago and I had an idea to make cards that were full of nutritional facts detailed with dope art designs to hand out to participants of the pantry, and also the idea to start a small newsletter to help occupy the library-- although I realize that the funds probably won't be there to make a successful paper.

After watching this short on Emory Douglas yesterday, I realized why there's a need for us to have our own media-- with a good amount of us taking in the good with the bad that is hidden in our social media spheres: we don't trust national media, so we're without a common platform to discuss important issues. Central fact-checked media on a local level would be a wonderful advancement, if successful. The integration of art to speak to the voiceless is already a big part of my non-profits mission so I'll probably take the initiative on this someday

 

[Quincy McCall]

I'm not sure about the efficacy of this, but this program and at least the ingenuity behind this idea(especially for folks on probation, like the person in the article) is what we should aspire to. Not sure I have the infrastructure for something like this where I live but def gonna try on some level; I don't know anything about coding or any software companies that would pay amateur coders but I'm sure there's someone out here that does.