From Cliff Cawthon, SAFE In Seattle
Two nights ago in Africatown|Central District, Black community members watched as armed police swarmed the business complex on 23rd and Union. This complex also houses Black Dot, a black-owned epicenter for tech and entrepreneurship. The sight of the Seattle Police Department violently ransacking an historically black neighborhood’s community space marks a return to the tragically traumatic behavior happening in communities of blackness across the country.
One week earlier, a community hub and an epicenter of black organizing was targeted by Seattle Police Department for closure. They forcibly removed long-time activist, resident and elder of Africatown|Central District, Omari Tahir-Garrett and, in doing so, condemned not only a space but a home.
Now, private developers, the police, and their supporters in city government are targeting Black Dot and other businesses for erasure from Midtown Center. Even in so-called “Progressive Seattle,” what we’d witnessed two nights ago was nothing new for many folks in the community.
Historically, these demonstrations of excessive force have been used to repress and attack efforts to reclaim black land, build assets through ownership, and promote self-determination. This behavior will not be accepted. We, the Seattle Black community, have a right to exist and thrive in black space. Those who claim to care about Black Lives and solutions in Seattle cannot allow this to continue.
Over the last 130 years, the Black community has been restricted to this area of Seattle by restrictive racial covenants, as well as subjected to regionalized poverty, and divestment of resources and opportunities from its community. In typical fashion, the trend has turned towards displacement and gentrification. Continued inaccessibility to economic assets, culture, opportunity and basic means of survival for our families is an inevitable result of this trend.
Living in Seattle has become unrealistic for far too many families that live, grow and work in the city. The Central District’s black population has been pushed southward and has gone from over 70 percent in 1965, to 15 percent in 2014. By buying out the economic core of the Central District and replacing it with unaffordable condos, invasive marijuana shops, and other predatory developments, private developers have made 23rd and Union into a glaring example of gentrification.
The Bangasser family, which own the lot that Black Dot stands on, are actively attempting to intimidate community members to give up the property. This decision not only ignores but exacerbates the sustained negative racial impact on this community. When confronted with this reality, the Bangassers declared that things in the area needs to be “more vanilla.”
It is time to change the narrative. The atrocities of this city’s displacement is destabilizing this community’s future. Last Saturday, over 100 people marched to Madrona to directly respond to this crisis and defend the Umoja Peace Center site, the Black Dot incubator space, and support community ownership and inclusive development of the Midtown site. The community has banded together in defense of the Midtown Center to say,
“No more to these harmful practices which make Black Lives and the Black community disposable to the highest bidder!”
Black Dot hosted a press conference and rally at which longtime residents of Africatown|Central District spoke about the importance of culturally relevant spaces: spaces where folks can connect, network, share resources, and cultivate artistic identities for their community. They testified about the importance of Umoja Peace Center and Black Dot to a greater vision: Black Seattle 2035, the solution to displacement and a platform for self-determined development.
We’ve recently been tipped off that Black Dot might be raided by SPD at any time. We want to keep a consistent presence of people here to prevent forcible removal by police. Come join us for a 24/7 co-work party, and learn about the struggle and opportunity for the community to create equitable and inclusive development in this historically Black neighborhood of Seattle. Bring your work, your body, mind, and spirit. Food, snacks, and water are appreciated.
#WeWantIn #BlackCommunitiesMatter #HandsOffBlackDot #CoWorkForACause
FAQ
What is Black Dot?
Black Dot is an award winning, nationally recognized organization developed in 2015 as an incubator space for community entrepreneurship. Knowing that the Black community needed to be able to secure and manage its own economic vehicles to provide for the community, Black Dot was acquired and used for business development initiatives. Even with all its contributions to the community at 23rd and Union, Black Dot itself has been under attack during the month of March.
What is the history of the Midtown Block?
The Midtown Block has been the home of Black businesses and entrepreneurship for over 100 years. It has been an epicenter for Black community and cultural significance in Seattle for generations. The primary holders of the property are the Bangasser family, and over the last 30 years they have had an explicit understanding that this land should be properly transferred over to the Black community for ownership and control. Through this understanding, Tom Bangasser, the primary manager of the property for the last 50 years, had been working closely with the Black tenants and members of the community in the Central District to make sure this transfer would be done equitably and reasonably once the Black community was able to acquire the funds to purchase the land at a competitive market rate price. Tom Bangasser understood that the Midtown Block belongs to the community. It is critical to note that Africatown land trust has acquired the funds for the transfer of the Midtown block to Black ownership.
Currently, there are only 5 members of the Bangasser family with shared ownership of the property left in the firm. Several of the siblings voted to remove Tom from management position and instead chose to put Hugh Bangasser, of the K & L Gates firm, as the primary manager of the property. Hugh took over the firm in 2015 with the intention of reneging on the previously mentioned agreement and developing the Midtown Center complex which houses Black Dot at 23rd and E. Union. The motives of Hugh Bangasser have been near polar opposite from Tom Bangasser. Hugh has not been interested in working with the community or giving the community a voice at the table on decisions for how their community will be developed. Since the transfer of the management roles, tenants have faced unjust and unlawful harassment, along with forced displacement.
Quotes from the Movement
“Black ownership is about the ability for the Black community to determine the future for its people. It is about social, economic, and political power for the community.” -Senait Brown
“As a Black unit this is what we do, when times get hard, we back each other up. Family sticks together, in the Black community we know how to point out the resources, and we sacrifice to help our loved ones. Too much is at stake if we lose this spot at 23rd and Union.” -Brittany Dixon-Taylor
No doubt 23rd and Union is historically important to the the black community. But I’m confused, why do does one group of people have rights to this block more than another?
History alone should tell you this country has never operated that way.
Many of the points made in this post are true, the black race has gotten the Major shaft in this country and Seattle Specifically. But it really has nothing to do with what is happening at 23rd and Union. The sellers want to cash out and make a profit as much as they can, as its a valuable piece of property. It’s just a natural process in the migration of society. People can’t afford to live in Ballard, Capitol hill, Madison Valley etc, so they move to the CD. Don’t take it so personal brother, it’s just the way it is. If you have a sense of proof of true racism happening, you should come forward with something more than your opinion.
In regards to that swat raid, one of the dudes arrested in that swat raid has been involved in multiple felonies over the last 10 years, many gun related crimes. I can only imagine the things he has done and not gotten caught for. Supporting a dude like that and aligning his needs with BlackDot is a shame.
I’ll come out and say it, I’m all for the erasure from Midtown Center, I just hope we can find a way to save Earls, that place is awesome.
I see it as a form of well-deserved reparations. Our history here…forcing people to live in those redlined areas, confining them spatially and economically, then years later, acting as though we live in a post-racial society, developing without thought to history and peoples (nevermind that there’s still racial discrimination in housing rentals and sales)…. I feel that if we are indeed a city that aligns itself with social and racial justice, carving a space for the CD is one of them. Gotta walk the walk.
So in this reparations-paying hypothetical future you’ve painted, does the city take the next logical step and actually subsidize the drug dealers who continue to deal out of “community” spaces or just stop “violently ransacking” those spaces when they’re occupied by gun-toting felons?
Editors should note below the headline that this is a guest op-ed and not a regular news item.
Hey, CHS — this is a great suggestion. You run lots of “opinion pieces” for political factions whose voices you obviously think should be heard. It would be helpful to your readers if you more prominently designated these as guest voices.
Otherwise, I really does look like you support the views expressed in the posting? Or maybe you do support these views? If so, that would also be helpful for your readers to know.
Sorry you missed the Capitol Hill Community Post label and this at top of page:
Thanks for reading!
Neighborhoods as forced cultural museums is a bad idea, especially when, in the case 23rd and Union, a central component is an illegal taking of private property. But wait, what about Ballard? Ballard definitely plays up its Nordic roots, but that wasn’t done by force nor are there any Swedes only restrictions (or even incentives) on who can own a business or live at 22nd and Market.
Unjust covenants of the past shouldn’t be redressed by laws of retaliation or, as this article hints at, vigilante justice 2.0.
Ballard plays up its roots through its community organizations, councils, whatever they are called….so yeah, it’s done by “force” it’s just not controversial.
You forgot the part about the police being there to arrest a suspect linked to multiple shootings in the area.
Indignation is cheap. Owning property is risky. Is the writer seriously suggesting that a person or family who owns property in a particular neighborhood has a moral or legal obligation to defer to self-proclaimed activists and provide free rent or perhaps in their views, turning over the property itself to someone who happens to be black. Were this the case, I imagine there are any number of black individuals who would get in line for this free property. This is beyond crazy and not worth the article or my comment for that matter, but I had a few moments of time on my hands. Also I agree that this article is an opinion piece and not news.
Perhaps the writer should go after those black individuals who dared to sell their homes and properties to non-blacks, and demand reparations from these considerable profits.
The family has a deal on the table to sell the property for $23.5 million and no other offers on the table. They should take the deal.
Exactly.
Oh please. What a bunch of swill.
Redlining has been illegal for as long as I’ve been alive (I’m 52). That ship has sailed. I’m not saying that institutionalized racism isn’t still a thing – it very much is – but the “black community” has much bigger fights to fight than a tacky 60’s strip mall in an over-priced neighborhood.
And if there really was such a sense of community, black homeowners wouldn’t have been selling their properties off at record rates for the last twenty years (Not that I blame them – where else in the country can you make a 700% profit off a piece of land, regardless of the house that’s on it?)
The “Elder” cited in the article is a kook, who was squatting in a house he didn’t own, that hasn’t had utilities for more than a year.
Black Dot, if it stays within the law, has no reason to dread a police raid – just as The Seattle Medium, has existed for decades without (to my knowledge, at least) a police raid.
The Bangasser Family, for the sake of the neighborhood (as opposed to some nebulous “community”), needs to get off the pot and unload this property to the highest bidder ASAP. You’ve done your time in the CD, Bangasser family, you’ve earned your place out of the spotlight.
End this stupid non-controversy. Drama can be fun, but no one takes soap operas seriously.
Omari wasn’t squatting on the property. He was living on the property in exchange for keeping up the place. Which he did pretty well, Hugh Bengasser, a partner at K&L Gates, and some of his siblings paid people to leave trash there.
21% of the ownership of the property want to sell to Black Dot to create affordable housing and a community space. Black Dot has teamed up with an investment group and they have $23.5 million to buy it. The Bengasser family should just take the deal.
The Africatown people are the absolute masters of unsubstantiated accusations – from Eisenbergs’s “Thugs” to the “paid litterers” from K&L Gates (whatever that is). They just make stuff up and if anyone questions them, they call the questioners racist.
That is why the only people who take them seriously are themselves. Making things up is for kids. They’re not kids.
And if Omari was “taking care” of the Peace House, he did a rotten job of it. No electricity and no water for about a year. He’s retired from the school district, and presumably has a pension, yet he can’t even pay the power utility bills? What kind of caretaker is that?
The fact that the first sentence provide no context that the police where there to arrest the suspect in a shooting there two days prior petty much sets the tone and gives you an idea of how incredibly biased and selective the remainder will be. It’s like some alt-right piece flipped to the left.
That being said, the mission of black dot is a very worthy one… but you ain’t gonna be doing it there unless you lease space after the new building goes up.
Here a seemingly obvious train of thought: How about Tom Bangasser gives black dot all the proceeds he will get from the sale of MidTown so black dot can purchase a building in the CD, have some VC seed $ to manage, and actually have some control of their destiny. I will gladly donate money to that, but I have no interest in supporting people that desire to place themselves in a completely unwinnable situation, have demands that are not based in any semblance of reality, then cry victim.
Just raise some money, get a loan, and buy the old C&C burger place (or anywhere), then get on with the work of black dot.
Another thought, does the associated community of activist involved in this ever try to support anything that doesn’t have a Garrett involved? You never hear a single breath of any of the other businesses at MidTown except black dot, Omari’s Umoja Peace Center & Dump, and of course Earl’s. Seems like you are more for the Garretts than the community.
Could it be that the majority of black people in the Puget Sound area no longer want to live in the Central District? I used to work in Kent, and all my African American coworkers sold their homes in the CD to get away from the crime that has plagued the neighborhood for the last few decades. Most bought new homes in new suburban subdivisions, and had money leftover to save. The other thing was the quality of Seattle Schools. I could be wrong, but I think I read that blacks with the highest average income in King County was not in Seattle, but in Renton. I happen to be an ethnic minority, but all my family members either live on the Eastside, or if they can’t afford it, South King County. This was by choice, not because of discrimination. This especially true for family members who have children.
In all of the efforts to preserve African American heritage in the central district, no one has ever mentioned the organizations that are already working to do that: Northwest African American Museum, Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Institute (which has several different programs), Washington Hall (home of several organizations). It would seem there has got to be better representatives already working in the Central District.