Time to Listen and Act on Blackout Tuesday

Today we pause our regularly scheduled programming to join our community in reflecting on what’s happening in South Florida and beyond in the wake of George Floyd’s senseless murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

In Miami and Fort Lauderdale, many who took part in this weekend’s peaceful protests belong to a multiracial alliance demanding reform for an unjust system. On #BlackoutTuesday, the next step is to listen and learn. To do so, we’ve turned to respected people and organizations, especially within our food community, for guidance and direction in helping us make sense of a complex issue.

Barack Obama on returning to "normal"

Ever eloquent and pragmatic, Barack Obama reminds us that it’s natural for us to long for getting back to normal in the midst of a pandemic and economic crisis. “But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’ – whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park.”

Obama’s call to action is to be better. Here are some practical ways to heed that advice:

    •   Food justice is racial justice. People of color are harder hit by inequities in our food and healthcare systems. Civil Eats has gathered a good list of resources and groups to support here.
    •   Follow local groups. Urban Greenworks is an outstanding advocate for public health through food programs in inner-city neighborhoods. Urban Oasis Project is working with a number of groups supporting food justice in the community.
    •   Support black-owned businesses. Writer Zachary Fagenson has assembled a spreadsheet of local businesses here. 
    •   Listen to black voices in our food community. Some of those include Artisan Bryan, Sean Russell of SoFloVegans. John Lewis of Bad Ass Vegan.
    •   Slow Food USA's is looking for responses to their Slow Food Equity Inclusion and Justice Manifesto.
    •   Relentlessly hold your elected officials accountable for their actions, or lack thereof.
            •  State of Florida
            •  Miami-Dade County
            •  Broward County
            •  Monroe County 
    •    Vote. And make sure everyone you know votes, too. 

What are you personally willing to do?

Today’s editorial in The Miami Herald offers a blunt list of ways to check yourself. Among those:

• “If black looters are the biggest problem you see, watch video of the white ones, so you’re fully informed.

• “If even peaceful black demonstrations rattle you, then you should really be frightened by the left-wing anarchists and white supremacists — including those in police uniforms — who have hijacked legitimate protests against police violence.

• "If you are more outraged over lost property than lost lives, check your heart."

When is the time to act?

Right this minute.

In his speech “The Other America,” delivered in 1967 at Stanford University (you can watch it here), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., says the notion that time will solve the problem of racial injustice is false:

“I think there is an answer to that myth. And it is that time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I'm absolutely convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme rightists in our nation, have often used time much more effectively than the forces of good will. And it may well be that we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words of the bad people and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, ‘wait on time.’

“Somewhere we must come to see that social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated Individuals. And without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. And so we must help time, and we must realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”

If you are called to donate, to volunteer, to serve, to listen to a friend, a neighbor, a stranger, to use your own gifts, the time is ripe.