Tag Archives: race

‘Walking While Black’ rally to bring ‘woods, irons, wedges and putters’ to Cal Anderson

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William Wingate and his golf club never completed his walk across Capitol Hill last summer in an incident that has sparked an SPD investigation and relegated an East Precinct officer to desk duty. This week, protesters are being asked to bring golf clubs to Cal Anderson Park next Saturday to complete Wingate’s walk in a rally designed to draw attention to “law enforcement’s racism against black males.”

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 12.58.43 PMThe Walking While Black event is planned to begin at 2 PM next Saturday, February 7th:

“Walking While Black”
Always Dangerous Until Proven Otherwise

On Saturday, February 7th at 2:00p.m., you are invited to bring your Woods, Irons, Wedges and Putters and join us at Cal Anderson Park Shelterhouse, 1635 11th Avenue, for “Walking While Black” Always Dangerous Until Proven Otherwise

WE WALK to finish the interrupted walk of a 69 year old Black Veteran/Civil Servant who on July 9, 2014, grabbed his putter and set out on a brilliant summer day. A day that would forever change both he and this city we call home.

A full statement on the rally is here.

Seattle Police have not announced a timetable for a report from commander Capt. Pierre Davis about Officer Cynthia Whitlach’s actions in arresting Wingate, her social media activity, and the East Precinct brass decisions not to more seriously discipline the officer for her actions. The Stranger reports that the FBI has been asked to assist in a wider SPD investigation around the officer’s actions.

What’s a better name for the Chop Suey?

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8445101719_f5b8f866a2With a new life and overhauled venue in the works, it might be a good time to do something about the name. Artist Andy Panda thinks so. Panda has posted an open letter asking the new owners of the Chop Suey to do away with the venue’s name.

“As a Chinese person, seeing fake Chinese decor in a club that is not owned by Chinese people makes my heart sink,” Panda writes. “No one should have to see their own race caricatured in a venue that hosts so many great touring bands.” Continue reading →

‘SPD returns man’s golf club’ — Police video shows disturbing 2014 arrest at 12/Pike

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SPD's report on the situation puts on a happier face: "SPD Commanders first became aware of the incident in October 2014 after receiving an inquiry from former Washington State Representative Dawn Mason in which she raised questions as to the necessity of the arrest and charges. The 69-year-old man had already accepted a plea offer in this case. Dawn Mason worked with Chief Kathleen O’Toole and Deputy Chief Carmen Best to broker an organized discussion between residents and police about this case specifically as well as the relationship between the department and the community in general."
SPD’s report on the July 2014 incident puts on a happier face: “SPD Commanders first became aware of the incident in October 2014 after receiving an inquiry from former Washington State Representative Dawn Mason in which she raised questions as to the necessity of the arrest and charges. The 69-year-old man had already accepted a plea offer in this case.
Dawn Mason worked with Chief Kathleen O’Toole and Deputy Chief Carmen Best to broker an organized discussion between residents and police about this case specifically as well as the relationship between the department and the community in general.”

Tuesday, in advance of “a media outlet” reporting on video released “as a result of a public disclosure request,” SPD posted this update its Blotter blog with a line you don’t see every day in police announcements: “Deputy Chief Best personally met with the man, returned his golf club, and offered an apology for his arrest.”

Wednesday, The Stranger’s Ansel Herz reported on this video of Officer Cynthia Whitlach’s July 2014 arrest at 12th and Pike of William Wingate, a black, 70-year-old veteran who happens to take very long walks while carrying a golf club as a kind of multi-purpose walking stick:

On the video, Officer Whitlach can be heard insisting that the recording would show Wingate swinging his golf club at her and hitting a stop sign with it. According to the SPD, there exists no video to back up this claim. (SPD did not make Whitlach available for comment.)

“The allegation that he swung at the police car,” said city council member Bruce Harrell, who subsequently got involved in the case, “wasn’t corroborated by any other facts and was not caught on any video. What was caught on video was him minding his own business with the golf club at his side.”

Whitlach, standing behind her car, shouts at Wingate to drop his golf club 17 times, and claims that “it is a weapon.”

“You just swung that golf club at me,” Whitlach yells.

“No, I did not!” exclaims Wingate.

“Right back there,” Whitlach says back. “It was on audio and video tape.”

Wingate ended up in jail and charged with unlawful use of a weapon for the incident on the same block as East Precinct’s 12th and Pine headquarters. According to muni court records, he agreed to a conditional continuance. In September, a judge dismissed the case at the “satisfactory completion” of the agreement. Continue reading →

#blacklivesmatter: As the Central District blanches, a house speaks

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Inye Wokoma inside his mother’s former house (Image: Casey Jaywork)

On New Year’s Eve, Inye Wokoma joined three of his brothers to tour the gutted skeleton of a house on Marion. “This was our mother’s house,” he later told friends, “owned by our grandparents, and the center of our childhood and young adult lives.” Strapped for cash, the family recently decided to sell the house and reinvest the proceeds into adjacent rental properties.

The house’s story is a microcosm of the Central District, the historically black and increasingly white series of neighborhoods between downtown and Lake Washington. “The black vitality of the Central Area was mighty and strong” during the post-WWII decades, says longtime resident Vivian Phillips. From 1940 to 1960, the black population of Seattle grew by more than 600%. Phillips describes the CD of that time as a bastion of black business, black community, and black activism.

But in recent decades that outpost of what some call “the African diaspora” has been eroding. In 1990, the CD’s black residents outnumbered whites by nearly three-to-one, writes Seattle University’s Henry McGee, Jr. By the turn of the millennium, whites had become the majority. “You can call it displacement, you can call it an exodus,” says Wokoma. “The community I grew up with no longer exists… People basically dispersed and found places where they could afford to live.” Places, that is, outside Seattle. Continue reading →

Mount Zion to host #BlackLivesMatter Pecha Kucha

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Organizers say the “overwhelming response” to the event has prompted a move to a larger venue for Thursday’s Pecha Kucha Seattle vol. 58: #BlackLivesMatter.

The move is good one for Capitol Hill-area neighbors — Mount Zion at the corner of E Madison and Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney Ave will host Thursday night’s forum. Pecha Kucha events typically feature 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each in a format designed for concise and lively presentations.

Thursday night’s presentation will examine Seattle’s response to the issues of race and social justice raised by Ferguson and incidents like Eric Garner’s death. A wave of rallies and protests beginning in late November started on and crossed Capitol Hill and have continued into winter.

Monday marks the 29th anniversary of the first official observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the country.

Poster_BlackLivesMatter_B_v03“Bring your family, your friends, your co-workers to this historic venue in celebration of Martin Luther King’s lasting legacy,” the organizers ask, “and show Seattle that yes, #BlackLivesMatter_SEA”

Pecha Kucha Seattle vol. 58: #BlackLivesMatter – Examining American Identity in the 21st Century, will be held on Thursday, January 15 from 5:30-9pm at the Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. The event will bring together voices from across our community to illuminate the landscape of activism shaping our regional and national conversation around race and to provide tools and resources to inspire change. The evening will be emceed by the poet, artist and activist Barbara Earl Thomas.

PRESENTERS INCLUDE: 

  • Elmer Dixon – President of Executive Diversity Services & Co-Founder of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party
  • Tracy Rector – Executive Director/Co-Founder, Longhouse Media
  • Robin DiAngelo – Director of Equity & Inclusion at Seattle Senior Services
  • Darlene Flynn – Policy and Development Lead, City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights
  • Tim Lennon – Events Coordinator, Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
  • Daveda Russell – Illumination & Manifestation Strategist, Nyawela Consulting
  • Luzviminda Carpenter – On-Call Counselor , YouthCare Seattle
  • Evan Flory-Barnes – Bassist | Composer
  • Naomi Ishisaka – Seattle Journalist
  • Ijeoma Oluo – Writer, Blogger
  • Christopher Shaw – Ceramicist, Artist, Engineer

 

Capitol Hill’s NWFF hosts ‘community discussion about the macing of Raymond Wilford’

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The “Hands up, don’t shoot” protest over police violence and the slaying of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has spread across the nation, around the world, and onto Capitol Hill. Thursday night, an incident that echoes with the themes of violence in the name of public safety, race, and the power and the role of media in protest will be the subject of a forum at Capitol Hill’s Northwest Film Forum.

Earlier this month, Seattle freelance photographer and frequent CHS contributor Alex Garland captured pictures and video of a disturbing incident outside the Westlake mall in which private security targeted a black man with pepper spray after a fracas broke out at a protest against violence in Gaza.

Garland will be on hand along with a panel for Thursday’s forum described as “a community discussion about what happened at Westlake, and what we can do as a community beyond recognizing events like these as unjust.”

More details on Thursday night’s free event are below. Continue reading →