Reflections From Rita Shimmin’s First Session with the Neighborhood Group Council (NGC)
[November 18, 2020]
Notes taken and compiled by Don Hubbard
After a round of introductions that included some detail about our lives, Rita shared a 7-minute video of Kimberly Jones delivering an intense, emotion-charged description of the current status of black-white relations. It was an unrehearsed expression of pain and anger captured by a documentarian who happened to be in Atlanta collecting footage to use as background material related to the murder of George Floyd. He knew of Ms. Jones’ capacity for expressing herself and her breadth of knowledge of the circumstances. He asked her to give him something.
Ms. Jones first sorted the people on the street into three groups: protesters, rioters and looters, She focused on the looters, demanding to know why onlookers talk about what they are doing and not why they are doing it. She felt the why was more important because it derived from a broken contract. Black Americans were promised a share in the benefits of society it they played along with the expectations of White Americans. That contract has been broken over and over again, often in brutal terms. It should be no surprise to the onlookers that there would be tragic repercussions for such a history of bad faith.
Next Ms. Jones used a metaphor of playing monopoly as an illustration of the economic inequity between white and black Americans. Imagine playing monopoly for 400 years in which you do not have any money or any pieces and you march around the board aiding and abetting those who do. Then, for the next 50 years, you do have money and a piece to play, but if you are successful, they come and burn your assets and your money. She pointed to the Tulsa and Rosewood massacres as historical examples.
These points are impactful enough, but Ms. Jones’ delivery provided a raw power to the message. She was fluent, emotional, focused and in command. She stared the camera down.
We were stunned. Some of us cried. The message was not new content, but the truth of it had never been more clear.
As a follow up, Rita asked us to imagine that Ms. Jones comes to the NGC as the Coordinator of a Neighborhood Group. Rita asks, “How would the group react?” Rita brought the reality of Ms. Jones right into our midst. For the next little while we offered what we thought would happen. Then we broke into small groups and continued the discussion without a prompt.
The strategy that Rita used to bring a raw truth of racial inequity to our everyday functioning was wise and effective, but the most appreciated element of the session was her demeanor. She was gracious and non-judgmental. “There are no right answers or wrong answers” We felt that we could be ourselves and respond forthrightly.
The first session was a rich, provocative experience that drew us into an aspect of American society that we could know only from a distance. And then, that aspect was brought into the realm of our daily life, which is close at hand and we know quite well. We are looking forward to successive sessions, but we are wondering how the broader Village can become engaged.