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The Future Is Equal: A Call For Action & Advocacy

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On International Women’s Day, Rachel Scott Everett and Altimese Nichole point out the importance of acting to create the racial and gender equity we need more of in the world — a movement in which Girls For A Change are at the forefront.

What does leadership look like in our country? What does it look like in our community?

Local nonprofit Girls For A Change knows, and they want what their name states: change. A change in perception. A change in the narrative. A change in who can be a leader. 

Angela Patton, CEO of Girls For A Change, created the youth development organization with the aim of “preparing Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls.”

Why Black girls? 

A recent article in The New York Times reported that Black girls are arguably the most at-risk student group in the United States. Studies found that their actions and appearance are viewed more suspiciously than their white peers. As a result, their behaviors are judged more harshly and they are often subjected to disproportionate discipline.

“There are not many spaces where Black girls are free to express their individuality and develop their gifts and talents,” states Samantha McCoy, CEO of MissionKey Communications, LLC. “Organizations like Girls For A Change provide this opportunity.”

McCoy is one of three Black female entrepreneurs investing in Girls For A Change through multiple scholarship opportunities initiated by Altimese Curry, Founder of The Ezer Agency, a communications agency helping businesses, entrepreneurs and small business owners amplify their voice.

After experiencing the financial challenges of higher education after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, Curry made the decision to help other young Black girls like herself. Last summer, she worked with Patton to launch the scholarships at Girls For A Change, which are part of the organization’s Girl Ambassador Program (GAP). GAP is designed to equip Black girls and other girls of color in high school with the tools and skills needed to help them secure professional careers.

“Girls for a Change is a safe haven for young Black girls and their dreams,” says Curry. “It’s a foundation that nurtures the ideas and hearts of one of America’s most vulnerable… young Black girls. It also gives them the confidence to live boldly in the face of adversity while honoring the feelings they have in the process.”

Angela Patton, CEO of Girls For A Change, speaks to girls during a special session at Common House (2020). Photo by Jay Paul, courtesy of Girls For A Change.

Candice Nicole, CEO of Candice Nicole Public Relations, agrees. As another Black business owner supporting Girls For A Change, she believes that “every organization can be intentional about partnering with those working to develop, encourage, and mentor women in leadership.”

In addition to Girls For A Change, McCoy mentions platforms like Her Agenda, Walker’s Legacy, Black Career Women’s Network, and ColorComm as just a few examples of entities who have made it their mission to identify and develop high-achieving Black women.

“As girls of color, moving through the world and most spaces is a very different experience for us in comparison to others,” says Mia Brabham, author of Note to Self, who is also investing in Girls For A Change. 

“We are constantly wondering if we’re being judged for the color of our skin, we have to try harder to get further, and we juggle microaggressions [unintentional discrimination] and other obstacles – whether financially, mentally, and even physically – along the way.”

Brabham adds that Girls For A Change is helpful because it gives Black girls the opportunity to be in a space where they can learn to love themselves and be themselves. 

“That’s special and very important because we know that when a girl has confidence, she can go anywhere and do anything.”

Yet Black women alone helping Black girls can only go so far. 

For the systemic change that needs to be made, it must extend beyond them. All women, especially Black women and women of color, need advocacy. And it must come from the very leaders they’re aspiring to become.

In the United States, Black History Month is celebrated in February and Women’s History Month in March, which may leave you wondering, what happens the rest of the year? Activist artist group Guerrilla Girls has a response: “Discrimination.” 

Statistics back up the statement. According to Catalyst, a global nonprofit working to accelerate women in leadership, the U.S. currently ranks behind Africa, Europe, and Latin America in the percentage of women in senior management. Male CEOs outnumber their female counterparts nearly 13 to 1. Women also face barriers advancing to their first management roles with race deepening the disparity. In 2019, white women held almost a third of all management positions, while women of color held much smaller shares: Latinas (4.3 percent), Black women (4.0 percent), Asian women (2.5 percent).

Nehemiah Jordan and Eva Jones try on their Girls For A Change face shields, created by Richmond artist Hamilton Glass, at the GFAC End of Summer Garden Party (August 2020). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

How do we make a change? 

We decided to reach out to current leaders in our community for insight. Last year, Virginia Business released the inaugural edition of the Virginia 500: The 2020 Power List. The comprehensive guide includes the top 500 business leaders holding the most power and influence in the commonwealth. Unsurprisingly, the list is comprised of mostly white men. 

As a precursor to the list, the media company makes the following statement on their website: 

“Virginia Business is purposefully conscious of the need to highlight the achievements of women and ethnically diverse communities in all our listings. Still, despite the increasing diversity of Virginia’s business community, leadership and power tends to stay a step behind the changing demographics of the commonwealth. The C-suite unfortunately lags somewhat in the diversity of top leadership positions. The good news is that Virginia Business will be here to continue to document such changes.”

But here’s the thing: change cannot be documented unless actual change is made.

Again, how do we make a change? 

For this story, we attempted to connect with many of the Virginia 500 leaders based in Richmond, requesting their thoughts on women in leadership, specifically Black women and women of color. We received only eight responses, and from those responses, two individuals took the opportunity to share their thoughts. 

Michael Bor, CEO of CarLotz, was one of them. 

“Diversity is critical at all levels of an organization for so many reasons,” states Bor, who co-founded the high growth start-up. 

“We have found that having a more diverse workforce helps us to ensure our critical decisions are not blinded, or adversely guided by, subconscious biases that are not representative of the broader population. Our ability to solicit diverse perspectives on key issues ensures that the outcome is the right one for our stakeholders, teams, guests, clients, and investors.”

Bor also believes that diversity at the senior leadership level sends an important message, not just to the internal team, but to the outside world. It visibly shows that opportunities exist for everyone at their organization – regardless of gender, race, or other factors like sexual orientation and physical ability.

“This ensures that we are able to recruit and retain the best talent in the market and show them a clear path to leadership, which helps us accomplish our mission.”

Bor gets it. Not only is diversity in leadership the right thing to do – it’s good for business. He should know: for the third consecutive year, CarLotz made The Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s most successful private companies. 

Girl Ambassadors learning digital skills at Richmond coworking space 804 RVA (2018). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

Paige Clay, Senior Partner with asset management firm Mercer, was the other local leader willing to share her insight.

“We need to continually focus on creating a diverse workforce with a culture of inclusivity and belonging,” states Clay. “To realize our full commitment to diversity and inclusion, we need to amplify our focus on gender, race, and ethnicity. Our commitment at Mercer is to create a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate, always consistent with recruiting, retaining, and promoting the best qualified talent.”

According to Mercer’s research, only 15-20 percent of the S&P 500 companies have included Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) metrics in their executive incentive plans. Mercer believes those strategically working to develop an inclusive and equitable workforce for women, particularly women of color, must hardwire their organization. The company has published an article addressing the “Say/Do” gap, which outlines critical steps companies can take to transform words into meaningful actions. As stated in the article, “Companies have the power to make this time different. We must use it.”

Specifically, leaders of companies have the power to make a change. 

People like Bor and Clay are showing that true leadership means proactively speaking out, advocating for diverse leaders, and putting in the effort to ensure it becomes a reality.

Last summer, we witnessed a national reckoning against systemic racism after the killing of George Floyd and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter. While the protests instigated long overdue conversations on racial injustice in this country, they also revealed that we’ve only begun to earnestly address topics like implicit bias, discrimination, and inequity. 

Companies across the country began taking a hard look at their organizational structures, including here in Richmond, former Capital of the Confederacy. Many released statements declaring support for BLM, as well as a commitment to creating a more racially diverse workforce. But many companies have not followed through, or worse, have remained silent. 

It’s in that silence that we’re coming to terms with what many have always known: that racism is a defining characteristic of America. 

So too, is sexism. 

If the 2016 election taught us anything, it’s that an incompetent, chauvinistic white man with no political qualifications can still come out on top over a vastly more qualified woman with decades of relevant leadership experience. Complicating matters is that a majority of white women helped make it happen.

Microsoft instructor Carol works with Girl Ambassador participants Jayla Banks and Eva Jones on their Microsoft certifications (2019). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

In 2017, the rise of the #MeToo Movement brought awareness to the rampant sexual harassment taking place in our society – everywhere from Hollywood and Corporate America to our communities and our homes. It also shed a light on the blatant pay gap between men and women in the workforce. For Black women and women of color, the disparity is even greater, as they experience both gender and racial discrimination.

Time and time again, history has shown us a consistent narrative that’s hard to ignore: a devaluation of women. 

What’s more troubling is that the devaluation is not just perpetuated by men. Many women choose to ignore, or don’t believe, that gender inequality exists. In some cases, they have relegated themselves, whether consciously or subconsciously, to second-class citizenship. This mindset may not be through any fault of their own, but rather, a byproduct of conditioning over years of living in a patriarchal society. 

The term “patriarchy” is often associated with radical feminism, but its prevalence is actually quite mainstream, particularly in the United States. The definition is straightforward: “a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property.” (Wikipedia)

A quick glance at the distribution of political power and wealth in our country, as well as right here in Virginia, shows it disproportionately favors men, specifically rich white men. While the current federal government reflects more diversity than years past, in general, the U.S. is woefully behind with women in leadership.

Like race, there is an inherent bias with gender. 

But while racism tends to arise outside the inner circle of Black people and people of color, sexism can occur, and often does, among a woman’s own community, colleagues – even friends and family. 

The devaluation of women has become so normalized, it doesn’t even seem to phase most people that the U.S. remains one of just 28 countries worldwide that does not recognize women as equal under the law (World Economic Forum). This is a shameful truth that should anger, sadden, and humiliate all Americans – women and men alike. 

Girl Ambassador participants take part in the Creative Industry Tour in New York City, learning about the wide range of jobs in design (Summer 2018). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

Again, how do we make a change? 

We reached out to additional community leaders to get their thoughts. Despite including men, all responses we received were from women or nonbinary people.

“You simply cannot instigate meaningful, measurable change if there’s zero quantitative accountability. That’s not how business works,” says Dr. Tiffany Jana, Founder & CEO of TMI Consulting, Inc. and author of multiple books, most recently, Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions.

“Folks need to let go of the polarizing political connotations and recognize that if your commitment to women in leadership and gender pay equity is sincere, then you must set quantitative goals.”

Jana suggests that companies decide on a specific percentage to increase women’s leadership opportunities, then set a designated date. The date provides an initial destination to work towards diligently and intentionally, while also holding the company accountable to its goals.

“Likewise, if your company lacks gender pay equity, decide how much less women are worth than men for the same job – and adjust accordingly. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? Well, that’s exactly what every company that pays women, transgender, and nonbinary people (of color) less than their male (white) counterparts in similar positions is communicating. It’s measurable, so fix it. Failure to correct these inequities by 2021 reads as intentional because restitution is not rocket science – it’s will.”

Kati Hornung is Co-Founder and Director of VoteEqualityUS (formerly VAratifyERA), a nonpartisan grassroots effort promoting equality for all Americans. Last year, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights). It’s the closest the United States has ever been to joining the 168 countries that already include gender equality in their constitutions.

“Women’s leadership is important because women’s voices must be present in decision making,” states Hornung. “Social science has proven diverse viewpoints make for better decisions, and it is important for inclusion to be the norm and not the exception.”

Liza Mickens, Co-Founder and Director of Interns of VoteEqualityUS, says that the recent rise of women in politics has been incredibly inspiring to her generation and women of color.

“This level of representation has been nearly a decade in the making since women first got the right to vote, and there is still more to accomplish,” says Mickens. “To this day, my great, great-grandmother, Maggie Walker, has been the only African American woman to make it on a statewide ballot in Virginia. This year, Virginia has the opportunity to make U.S. history by electing the first Black female Governor.”

Girl Ambassador participants learn how the team at Fashion Snoops uses data to predict design trends during the Creative Industry Tour in New York City (Summer 2018). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

And with the recent election of Kamala Harris, our nation has its first female, first Black, and first Asian-American, vice president. 

“That being said, this is not the time to rest,” says Diane Beirne, Executive Director of The Woman’s Club. “There is so much more work to be done promoting women to leadership positions – especially among Black women and women of color.” In May 2021, Marlene Jones will become the first Black president of the club, which is designed to enhance the cultural and intellectual lives of its members.

“When it comes to women of color,” says Jones, “we seek intentionally committed folks desiring to shift their mindsets and behaviors to treat us with equity and inclusion. We can handle the rest.”

The Honorable Viola O. Baskerville adds that while there’s been an increase in Black women and women of color serving as elected officials and in leadership roles, “there must be an ongoing commitment to make sure there are more women in the pipeline ready to assume such roles.” 

As a Virginia lawyer and politician who formerly served in the Virginia House of Delegates, Baskerville believes leadership roles must not only be normalized in the political arena, but in all facets of the workforce, including policy-making boards and corporate boards.

“Companies can ask women what would make a difference in their lives so that they can achieve leadership positions, and then those companies should act upon those responses. Words without action are meaningless.”

Exactly. Action is how we make change. Advocacy is how we ensure it lasts.

Just like the long overdue racial reckoning, the time has come for girls, women, and all people to truly be equal in this country. That means all people – regardless of gender, race, age, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability – as well as transgender and nonbinary people.

But the responsibility must not fall solely on girls and women. Everyone has a role to play in creating a more just and equitable world – especially men in leadership positions whose action and advocacy can have direct, immediate results. And that change can start now, right here in our community, by supporting girls in organizations like Girls For A Change.

“If you are an expert in a certain field or have a skill to share, we are always looking for professionals to provide workshops for the Girl Ambassador Program,” says CEO Angela Patton. 

“Start a scholarship of your own in partnership with Girls For A Change or donate to one that already exists. Donate to help a girl in the program get her dorm ready, or pay for books or supplies, gift cards to Lyft so she can get around, or food delivery services so she can eat. Think about those simple things that college students need. Removing some of the stress helps them take care of their wellness to ensure their basic needs are covered. Little things can make a big difference.” 

Girl Ambassadors Iyanna Hardin, Nadia Frasier, and Asani Ka-Re work on their presentations at a co-working space in Los Angeles (February 2020). Photo courtesy of Girls For A Change.

Ca’Miyah King is a participant in the Girl Ambassador Program and understands that organizations like Girls For A Change matter. “They make the difference. Children in communities need mentors like Sister Angela for that push to go forward in their journey to success.” 

In addition to mentorship, Girl Ambassador Jayla Banks says that perceptions towards women, and women in leadership, must change. 

“One way our society can promote gender equality is by giving a space for women and women of color to represent themselves, speak on their ideas, and remove the bias that women can’t lead,” she says.“We don’t see many women and women of color in leadership roles, so as young girls grow up, they automatically think that they’re not capable of being a leader. Having women in leadership roles today will enrich and prepare the upcoming generation.”

Iyanna Hardin is also a participant in the Girl Ambassador Program. Her parents, Malikah and Timothy Hardin, have seen firsthand how the experience has boosted her confidence.

“Because we live in a society where Black girls are devalued and mistreated,” says Iyanna’s mother, “I believe that programs like Girls For A Change help girls of color see their tremendous value and self worth… there is nothing they cannot accomplish.”

To someone who has never had to experience the complex challenges of gender and racial inequity, Iyanna has a request: empathy.

“Put yourself in the position of those who are facing these issues,” she says. “I didn’t ask to be here. I didn’t ask to be Black. But I love being who I am. I love being Black. I love my curly hair. I love everything about me… Imagine waking up into a life and you’re simply hated on because of your color. Put yourself in our position and recognize how much it hurts us… how much it affects us as a people in our society.”

All three girls spoke of the importance of representation – seeing women, especially Black women and women of color, on shows they watch, in magazines they read, in murals they pass, and yes, as leaders in our country and community.

“People don’t doubt what Black girls and women can do. It’s that they don’t want to accept it,” states Iyanna. “But look at what we’ve done. We have been the minds and the power behind great things. We are scientists, mathematicians, coders, entrepreneurs, doctors. We can do so much. And you’ve seen it.”

“But there are people who believe that if we’re in these positions, we’re looked at as inferior, or as competition. It does not have to be that way. We can be in this position, and you can be in your position, and we can win together.”

And that’s just it. The beauty of equality is that everyone wins. If we treat one another with dignity and respect, take action to create equitable opportunities, and always advocate for equality, then we won’t need a month or a day to celebrate our progress. 

With diversity in leadership, we’ll be living our progress every day. 

If interested in learning more about scholarship opportunities through Girls For A Change or supporting girls enrolled in the Girl Ambassador Program, contact Altimese Curry at [email protected].

Written by Rachel Scott Everett and Altimese Nichole. Top Photo: A mural celebrating Black girls in Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia, conceived by girls at Girls For A Change and executed in partnership with Richmond muralists Hamilton Glass and Austin “Auz” Miles. Photo by EVERGIB / Brian Gibson.

Special thanks to Ashley Ray for assisting with photography assets.

The Great Gatsby

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Activist, rapper, mustache-haver — Goad Gatsby is a lot of things. At the end of the day, he just wants to make the world a better, more chill place — and maybe inspire others while he’s at it.

When Kristopher Goad’s friends wanted to get him signed up for Facebook in the mid-2000s, none of them knew his full name. He was known only by his last name within the group, so they signed him up using the name Goad Gatsby.

“And then everybody just decided that my name was Goad Gatsby at that point,” said Goad.

Since then, he has become well-known within Richmond not only as a hip-hop performer with a highly recognizable “disco mustache,” but also as a longtime adversary of the Virginia Flaggers and their public displays of the Confederate battle flag on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. More recently, he’s also gotten some attention as a documenter of the protests in Richmond this summer and the police’s response.

In 2015, Goad was featured in a documentary series by The Atlantic called Battle Flag, about people’s opinions of the modern use of the Confederate flag.

At that point, Goad had been blasting hip hop music next to the Flaggers while they stood in front of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on weekends for about a year, and was the subject of a considerable amount of vitriol from the group.

“They thought I was a carpetbagger until they found out that I really was just a scalawag,” said Goad.

The Flaggers began to lose momentum in 2015, when they stopped announcing their appearance schedule publicly after two members were arrested on kidnapping charges. Carlos Lesters and Megan Everett of Florida kidnapped Everett’s two-year-old daughter in 2014 in order to prevent the child’s father from vaccinating her or enrolling her in public school.

These days, the Flaggers make it out to Arthur Ashe every once in a while, much less often than their onetime near-weekly basis. But there’s a whole new right-wing movement in Richmond now. Based on his knowledge of who the Flaggers were and who is affilliated with the Trump Train vehicular caravan that rolled through the city in October, Goad doesn’t believe there’s much overlap between the two groups.

Beginning when protests began in the streets of Richmond in late May over the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing issue of police violence, Goad was on the front lines. He did his best to document the response from the police and the city government, as he saw it, on social media. This brought him a whole new wave of attention, for better and for worse.

Goad was arrested several times during the summer, including once in September when he was charged with obstructing the free passage of others. At the time of the arrest, the police alleged the incident he was being charged for happened two weeks earlier during a demonstration in front of the Richmond jail, in which 11 people were arrested. Goad says he wasn’t even there at the jail on that day.

When he was arrested, he was taken to the Third Precinct Police Station, where they took his phone while he was attempting to get in contact with his lawyer. Goad never saw a warrant for his arrest; instead, a city attorney informed his lawyer that the warrant was sealed. He never got his phone back.

Since then, he has kept a lower profile, and the protests have declined. However, he is still keeping tabs on right-wing activity in the city. When he considers the ongoing unrest that occurred across Richmond throughout the summer, it’s his impression that the city created a self-perpetuating cycle of violence by retaliating against protesters instead of addressing the problems that inspired the protests. This, in turn, created more problems and further fueled the unrest.

Photo via Goad Gatsby/Twitter

One issue he sees as important to the way everything played out is the fact that police were brought in from precincts across the city, as well as other localities, as reinforcements during protests. Many of those that operated in this capacity had prior reputations for aggressive behavior.

“People were telling me about some of these officers’ past interactions, and it seemed like they were getting some of the worst officers to deal with protesters,” Goad said. “Instead of getting police that are experts in de-escalation, they were getting experts in doing no-knock raids in the projects.”

Goad believes the police have a particular inclination to go after journalists and people who film protests. That’s because the more specific information gets out, the harder it is for police and city officials to justify their actions.

“If somebody is saying ‘The police are bad because they’re doing something I don’t like,’ that’s something they can just brush off. But if somebody’s being like ‘The police fired less-lethal rounds at people before there was any type of confrontation, here is some footage to go along with that,’ then the police go ‘Oh no, this isn’t good. They’re building a case against us in the court of public opinion,’” said Goad. “I wish I could build a case against Richmond police in City Hall, or the court of law, but unfortunately I don’t have that ability.”

For now, he’s sticking with the internet, where he continues to fight misinformation and lack of knowledge. He believes that making people aware of what’s really going on is the best way to convince them to take action.

“A lot of people are either willing to help but don’t know what to do, or they’ve never seen the type of information that would make them act,” said Goad.

Top Photo via Goad Gatsby/Twitter

A Musical Message That’s Long Overdue

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Dust’s multi-genre collaboration mixes Afrobeat, hip hop, and digital experimentation to create a musical message of progress toward civil rights and away from institutional racism.

As social issues and civil rights have become more prevalent in the city, many local artists and musicians have shifted the focus of their work in order to address those issues. Others, though, have already been addressing these issues for years and are now approaching the subject matter with even more vigor.

Such is the case with Spirit Drummer and Radio B, two Richmond artists who recently released Overdue in collaboration with musician and producer Dust.

Dust, whose real name is Chris Farmer, is most known for being the drummer of the pioneering early 90s math rock band Breadwinner. Farmer later took an interest in drum and bass music, which resulted in him beginning to create hip-hop and Afrobeat-inspired instrumentals. Farmer is also a former member of Hotel X, a world music/jazz ensemble based in Richmond that Spirit Drummer has also played in.

Farmer first met Spirit Drummer years ago through Richmond’s pickup soccer scene, but he has only come to know Radio B through the making of the Overdue EP. After making the instrumental for “Back to Today,” the track Radio B is featured on, Farmer considered several Richmond rappers before deciding he would be the best fit.

“I was looking for great flow, great lyrics, great presence. I was just looking for a great rapper,” Farmer said.

“Back to Today” deals with institutional racism and the killing of Black people at the hands of police, two subjects Radio B is no stranger to addressing. According to him, the events of 2020 have made it harder to look away from those issues, but they’ve been on his radar since the beginning of his rap career.

“I’m a very introspective artist, I’m affected by whatever is going on around me, whether it be personally or otherwise,” said Radio B. “It’s always bleeding into my work, what’s going on as a whole.”

The track’s instrumental uses a 5/4 time signature. On his 2018 release Jesus Never Wore a Suit, Radio B raps over some non-standard rhythms. To him, it usually makes little difference.

“Whatever it is, if I chose to write to it, it spoke to me somehow, and my approach to writing is not as conceptual as it might sound like it is. It’s more so a conversation between me and the music,” Radio B said. “The challenge was figuring out what the delivery was gonna be, because it’s not a standard rap instrumental; it doesn’t have a rhythm that you can easily get in the pocket of. Fortunately, I have a bit of a history in spoken word, so I took a more spoken-word approach to crafting the verse.”

Radio B. Photo via Facebook.

“Ish/No More” is the name of the track Spirit Drummer is featured on. It shares a similar theme with “Back to Today,” and speaks out against the violence and hate that has become so ingrained in our society. Preaching the message of love and compassion instead of hate is by no means a new development for Spirit Drummer.

Originally from Cameroon, Spirit Drummer is a Catholic minister who grew up playing drums in his parents’ spiritualist church, which took aspects from numerous traditions of faith, and first came to America with a missionary group. When he first met Farmer, he was impressed by his knowledge and interest in Afrobeat.

“To finally have the privilege not just to hear music together but also to attempt to play together, and to then feel the heart of the type of music he liked to play, that was awesome,” Spirit Drummer said. “Because that’s what Afrobeat is really about — the origin of Afrobeat is doing what’s right with insistence.”

Spirit Drummer. Photo via Facebook.

The trio says they have not planned a follow-up to the project. In fact, none of them tend to think about future musical endeavors very far in advance — though they are interested.

“This thing just hit, so we just gotta see what plays out, but I would definitely be down,” Farmer said.

Top Photo: Chris Farmer, aka Dust. Photo via Bandcamp.

Op-Ed: Kenya Gibson’s Substantive Racial Justice Leadership Is a Threat to the Powerful

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Richmond Third District School Board candidate Kenya Gibson has come under fire in the run-up to her election campaign. To Richmond community organizers Monique Drake and Brionna Nomi, the critiques are misleading and disingenuous.

At a time when people in Richmond and across the country are awakening to issues of systemic racism and racial injustice, leaders of color are standing up to represent the voices of their communities and serve as bold, undiluted agents of change. However, progressive Black leaders who dare to address and eradicate historic inequities face blowback from moneyed interests who seek to maintain their power, status and privilege. Kenya Gibson, who serves as the Third District School Board Member in Richmond, is one such leader.

Kenya Gibson is the most consistent and stalwart progressive elected official Richmond City has to offer. During her tenure, Kenya and supporting board members successfully fought for  the construction of three new schools without closing or consolidating existing schools. Kenya has secured more free speech protections for teachers and fought to improve teacher retention, a longstanding problem within the city. Kenya successfully sought to protect funding for Richmond Public Schools and helped to defeat the costly $1.5 billion real estate tax-funded Dominion Coliseum redevelopment plan. She pushed the School Board to adopt good governance policies that promote transparency, engagement, and a needs based budget. 

Yet despite Kenya Gibson’s substantive record – or, arguably, because of it — a group of parents, many aligned with the policies and initiatives of Mayor Stoney, are positioning themselves as “integrationists” and challenging Kenya. The “integrationists” accuse Kenya, a consistent progressive champion in her community and a woman raised by a white mother and a Black father, of supporting the Confederacy, opposing LGBTQ rights, and opposing school integration. This effort is a strategy devised by political interests on behalf of the elite establishment.  

Certainly, there are some good faith actors who differ with Kenya’s policy choices. However, these individuals are not the driving force behind the campaign against her.  

In the era of Black Lives Matter, BIPOC communities — using their voices and with a sense of agency — articulate a vision of racial justice that combats systems and policies of oppression. Black Richmonders such as Kenya have a conception of racial justice that includes removing Confederate monuments and names, but they don’t allow the conversation to stop there. Kenya has spoken out against new prisons and argued for the removal of police from schools. She has pushed for an understanding of racial justice that moneyed interests and wealthy donors don’t like. Kenya has pushed for progressive taxation — raising taxes on the wealthy with an eye towards promoting high-quality fully funded schools, secure housing, robust transportation, and other public services. 

A people of color-centered justice movement has been hijacked and misappropriated by some white liberals who wish to center themselves and their own needs without authentically engaging with Black communities. Often it is those with privilege who have access to resources and power in our society who benefit most from a more superficial understanding of racism. Non-profits reliant on funding from the wealthy can often reproduce a superficial understanding. Who benefits when racial justice is not about policy and systems, but rather about symbols or individuals engaged in self-help? Often, it’s professional-class white liberals who then get to feel good about themselves while ultimately leaving the power structure intact. In the end, their actions work against the very values they claim to champion.

Many of those engaged in this attempt to smear Kenya are supporters of Mayor Stoney and the Navy Hill Development/Dominion Coliseum proposal that Kenya helped defeat. Mayor Stoney has contributed to and endorsed Kenya’s opponent. Others are white parents newer to the district, who don’t seem to fully grapple with the contradiction of demands that the school system be responsive to their racial justice analysis in the absence of a well-funded broader inclusive process, where all parents are engaged. It’s a context where the form of racial justice can lose the content. 

Examining the specific accusations made against Kenya reveals how deliberately misleading her detractors have been. 

Cindy Menz-Erb, an ally of Mayor Stoney who lost to Kenya in a 2017 special election, wrote an email to an exclusive group of Third District parents making outlandish and categorically false assertions. The same assertions later appeared on a flyer for the suspicious and newly formed “Northside Parents Collective.” We know that these items would be disturbing if true, so they’re worth debunking.

For starters, Kenya’s detractors have accused her of being pro-Confederate because she was the lone vote against the renaming of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary — named for a Confederate general — in honor of Barack Obama. The context behind Kenya’s vote is that she wanted more time to consider renaming the school after local Richmond leaders, such as civil rights attorney Oliver Hill, or Albert Norrell, who was one of the first Black principals in Richmond. Kenya’s position echoed that of longtime community members who spoke out against the renaming process.

Image via Support Richmond Public Schools Facebook Group

Critics also accused Kenya of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment for opposing a revised student dress code, which was more equitable for gender nonconforming students, within the Student Code of Responsible Ethics (SCORE). Kenya in fact supported the changes to the dress code for LGBTQ+ students, but voted against the SCORE document because it failed to address disciplinary procedures that, in practice, criminalize normal childhood behavior.

Further, Kenya is accused of being an integration foe because she opposed pairing, a severely flawed model for school integration. As part of Richmond’s rezoning process, Superintendent Jason Kamras and some school board members pushed the idea of school pairing as a strategy for creating a more diverse student body. Under pairing, a school district takes a majority-white school and a majority-Black school, both of which serve Kindergarten through 5th grade, and pools the students. One of the schools is then assigned to the K-2 students in the pool, and the other school to grades 3-5. 

The pairing idea for Kenya’s Third District — actually a tripling — would have combined three K-5 schools: Linwood Holton Elementary, which has a 55 percent Black and 45 percent white student enrollment, and Barack Obama Elementary and Ginter Park Elementary, both of which are more than 90 percent Black. The plan would have turned Obama and Ginter Park into K-2 schools, and Holton into a 3-5 school. 

It is true that pairing had some support from parents legitimately interested in racial justice. That acknowledged, pairing is a model that is in conflict with what we know are best practices for education. Public education advocates have pushed for a community schools model precisely because it promotes parental involvement. Pairing would have made parental involvement more difficult for those families who don’t have access to transportation and who work jobs that don’t afford them flexibility — in other words, the burdens of pairing would have fallen heavily upon Black working-class families. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District is one of the only school districts in the country that has attempted pairing. The superintendent who pushed it there, Clayton Wilcox, was suspended and ultimately resigned over a pattern of racist and sexist remarks. Parents have spoken out about the effect of pairing disproportionately burdening working-class families 

Superintendent Kamras falsely characterized pairing as a method of integration and likened those who had concerns about pairing to racist Jim Crow segregationists. Ultimately, he was unable to convince any school board member to back a pairing effort in their own district, yet tried to put Kenya on the spot and force the plan in Northside. Community members saw Superintendent Kamras pushing a policy lacking a track record and characteristically short on details, such as costs and what transportation would look like. Also lacking was data on the long-term impact the transition of pairing would bring on already traumatized and stressed children. Worst of all, white parents were centered in the discussions on pairing, while Black parents were misled, delayed, or altogether kept out of the process.

Here is a point we must emphasize: While integration must be understood as a tactic of achieving racial justice, integration itself is not necessarily a racial justice silver bullet. At the time of Brown v. Board of Education, integration was a tactic the NAACP used to intervene in the various components of white supremacist infrastructure. Their strategy was not based on the notion that the habits of poor Black people could only improve if they were exposed to the “middle-class” values of white people, or that diversity is a valuable pedagogical device. Rather, the NAACP understood the dynamics of white supremacist budget priorities that “separate but equal” school districts for white and Black students made it politically impossible for Black students to receive the necessary funding.

This should be instructive then in identifying the criteria to evaluate whether integration efforts are advancing racial justice and representing the transformation we need. Who does it place as the central protagonist? Does it reproduce existing power relations or transform them? Does it result in more overall funding for schools? Does it result in a gain in the resources being spent on students of color?

Kenya has stood up for parents, students, and teachers against an initiative she viewed as lacking in transparency, poorly thought through, and lacking consideration of the perspective of educators, as well as a significant representation of RPS parents. Kenya has extensively experienced and considered the role racism plays in schools, and remains a stalwart advocate of integration done well, led first and foremost by the communities integration is supposed to serve. Her commitment to racial justice is reflected in her endorsements by The Richmond Crusade for Voters, Justice and Reformation for Marcus-David Peters, Richmond For All, and others.

Kenya Gibson is what real social justice leadership looks like: substance over symbolism. She has won funding for students, supported community schools as a formula for success, defeated efforts that infringe on democratic governance, and made Black Lives Matter at Richmond Public Schools. Since Kenya’s positions are popular, adversaries attempt to challenge her with harmful statements and false accusations. We see through it, and we are confident voters in the Third District will as well. 

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect editorial policy.

Top Photo: Kenya Gibson speaking at a Justice & Reformation Fish Fry at Marcus-David Peters Circle. Photo by Kristin Reed.

Projecting A Clear Message

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In Chesterfield County, one couple with strong feelings about the current political climate have begun to express themselves through signs and projections on the front of their house.

A Chesterfield man named Tim Barry — no, not that one — has turned his home into a giant political projector screen.

From a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death to a declaration that “Breonna Taylor Deserved Better” to a projection of Biden’s infamous retort to Trump — “Will you shut up, man?” — Barry’s unashamed political messaging has drawn both support and disdain from his neighbors. 

Tim and Lauren Barry have been involved in politics for a long time, having both worked for political campaigns in the past. Tim now works in public relations for a professional organization. They live in their Chesterfield home with their two young daughters.

Barry says that the first night they projected an image, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had just passed away. 

“That was sort of the impetus to start the projections. We were talking about how upset we were about the justice passing, and the plans the Republicans were making to replace her, and we were upset,” Barry said. “We were angry about the way things were going. We knew we had to do something, and this was something we could do using our combined skills.”

Barry says that his wife, Lauren, is the person who creates the graphics that they project on the house. 

“My wife is a really talented graphics artist,” Barry said. “I do the messages, and she makes them look amazing.”

The projections are not the Barrys’ first political display, however. Earlier in the year, the couple became caught in a battle with the county over a sign in their yard. 

Tim and Lauren erected three large yellow letters in their yard after the killing of George Floyd in May. The letters — which spelled out “BLM” — have been a source of conflict between the Barrys and Chesterfield county officials. A zoning ordinance in the county prohibits residential signs from occupying over 14 square feet of space.

Most of their neighbors, however, have been supportive. The Barrys received a note from one local resident that read, “Goodness… Can I tell you how much this BLM sign means to me?” The note described the lettering as a “huge sign of hope.”

“Our feedback has been 95 percent positive,” said Barry. 

Another neighbor, speaking to Channel 8 News in Chesterfield, said she was surprised that the sign was so “in-your-face,” and said she wished that it said ALM — all lives matter. 

The letters are still securely fastened to Barry’s trees, and he has no intention of taking them down. The process to appeal the county’s decision may take several months, Barry said. 

Unlike the BLM letters in the yard, there are no county ordinances against the projector images. The Barrys start the projector at sundown, and take the image down before they go to bed around 10:30 P.M. Unless it’s raining, they project images every night. 

Tim Barry said that he is afraid of drawing too much attention to the house, in fear that someone who doesn’t like their message will retaliate. 

“I don’t want to go in and make it contentious,” Barry said. “We are genuinely afraid that someone might do something to us.”

However, the house is already gaining popularity. According to Barry, at one point the house had its own instagram page with around 2,500 followers.

Local and state politicians have supported Barry’s messaging behind the scenes as well. When the county first sent a letter to the Barrys, warning them to take down their BLM sign, Tim Barry reached out to state Senator Ghazala Hashimi to ask for support.

“She put us in touch with a senior person from the county,” said Barry. “I’ve kept her office updated on what we’re doing.”

When Barry wanted to put up a projection image in support of congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, he informed her office beforehand so they could give permission. Barry says that other politicians have commented on photos of the house on Facebook.

“People are definitely noticing it,” Barry said. “But no one has asked us to put them up there.”

There was one more thing we had to ask Barry about. Readers of RVA Mag may notice that he shares a name with local musician Tim Barry. Barry says that he’s familiar with the musician, and that he’s encountered people who were disappointed that he wasn’t the other one.

“One time I went and got my hair cut at the barbershop, and people thought it was going to be him,” Barry said. “When I walked in, they were disappointed.”

Photos courtesy Ed Holten and Tim Barry

Two Black LGBTQ Candidates Seek Richmond City Council Seats

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We sat down with City Council candidates Tavarris Spinks and Joseph S.H. Rogers to talk about their ties to Richmond, plans for their respective districts, and how they want to switch up Richmond’s representative voice.

Tavarris Spinks, 2nd District 

Tavarris Spinks, a noted participant and activist in Richmond politics, is a fifth-generation Richmonder and VCU alumnus with strong connections to the 2nd District community. He’s running to fill Councilwoman Kim Gray’s seat. 

Spinks’ childhood in a lower-income community in Richmond has informed his experience as an activist, and so has his journey to become a first-generation college graduate and a prominent member of Richmond’s political scene over the past 17 years.

“You know, I grew up in subsidized housing, like Section 8 subsidized housing,” Spinks said. “For the first several years of my life, I remember having a relatively happy childhood. My parents worked very hard to make sure that I didn’t want for anything, but they also had help from family because so much of my family lives here.”

His grandmother still lives in his old neighborhood, Spinks said, and is able to stay in her home despite rising housing costs due to subsidies for people over 65. But that experience isn’t universal, Spinks said.

“The 2nd District, in Jackson Ward, historic Jackson Ward, used to be a thriving African American enclave. But now, folks are being pushed out by political and economic forces,” he said. “Keeping those neighborhoods together, allowing people, especially black folks, to stay in their homes, is super important.”

His worldview shifted, Spinks said, when he first exited the world of his childhood during a field trip in eighth grade and saw the parts of Richmond that had wealth and well-maintained infrastructure. 

“Once you get older, you start to see the wider world. You know, it took me a while to realize, ‘Oh, we are actually quite poor compared to [other families],’” Spinks said. “We went to the VMFA and that was my first time going. And, you know, riding through Monument Avenue, and then seeing that this is still the same city.”

Attending VCU and living in the Fan gave Spinks a chance to observe the disparities in neighborhoods of Richmond in his everyday life. 

“Running in the 2nd district — this is my home. You know, it’s a great part of town,” he said. “I want to see it get better, and I want to see all of Richmond get better. City Council doesn’t just vote on issues that affect one district.”

Spinks is passionate about developing and maintaining the infrastructure of the city, specifically the accessibility of sidewalks and walkways around construction sites. He lived in the Fan for 12 years, and said he now knows “what it’s like to live in a part of town that has more access to transit services, better roads.” He sees how these issues specifically affect people in the 2nd District. But he said that even more wealthy parts of the city like the Fan and Scott’s Addition still need help with sidewalks. 

Spinks’ advocacy for accessible sidewalks stems from his familiarity with activists in the disability community, he said. He’s observed “folks who are using mobility devices, like wheelchairs, or walkers in the street, facing vehicle traffic.” His sensitivity to this issue comes from his experience thinking about the groups most impacted by the city’s decisions. 

“When I think about a policy I meet, the first thing I think about is, ‘Who tends to be vulnerable? And who can lose in this type of policy?’” Spinks said. “And going from there, I then think, ‘Okay, what are the solutions to the problem that we’re trying to solve?’” 

Photo via Tavarris Spinks/Facebook

This sensitivity extends to the issues he’s observed and lived as a Black and gay man, he said. “Just to be clear, I’m not saying that you need to be gay to understand gay issues or represent gay constituents,” Spinks said. “But, it helps.” 

Living with those two identities is “a lot, frankly, and it’s a lot to navigate,” he said.

Spinks said that while he loves his district’s open-mindedness, he’s also aware that “just 30 minutes” from where he now lives and is running for office, just “trying to exist … I’d have a very different story to tell” about living as a Black man and a member of the LGBTQ community.

“[That’s] one of the reasons why I am politically active, because of knowing how much of my liberty and freedom immediately has an effect in legislation at all levels,” Spinks said. “It made me certainly aware of ‘Who’s in power, how that power is being used, and who is it being used for? And who is it being used against?’”

That issue of which groups have power over minorities has even followed Spinks into his political work, he said. While out canvassing, he was stopped by police officers and asked what he was doing, with the suspicion that he was “up to something.”

“And I was ‘up to’ trying to get people to vote,” Spinks said. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had encounters with police, or interactions with police, that I think were unnecessary.”

Spinks is advocating for a “reimagining” of public safety and law enforcement, he said, and supports reforms that focus on the scope and budget of law enforcement. He said he believes  in returning to “core policing functions” and confronting “systemic dysfunction and racial bias within the department.” Spinks is also calling for the implementation of a citizen review board with subpoena power to oversee the Richmond Police Department. 

Often, Spinks said, law enforcement training doesn’t give officers the tools they need to handle many of the situations they’re asked to. 

“Let’s say we already lived in a place without police,” Spinks said. “And let’s imagine what it would look like for police to exist, and what their roles and functions would be, and their relationship with the people that they’re policing.”

Spinks is also reimagining what the City government’s transparency should look like, he said. He wants to “keep the government accountable and responsive to people.” Citizens shouldn’t have to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to learn about the inner workings of Richmond, Spinks said. Instead, he wants every file to be freely accessible on websites. 

“People need to know why something’s not working, where the money’s going,” he said. “You need to do that, because it’s trust. So much of the City government has lost the trust of the people.”

Spinks has seen much change during his lifetime in Richmond — but he calls it growth, for the most part.

“I want to be a part of helping to guide that growth, and making sure that folks don’t get left behind,” Spinks said. “We should build a better city for everyone.”

Photo via Joseph S.H. Rogers/Facebook

Joseph S.H. Rogers, 7th District

Running for the city council seat in a district against a 12-year incumbent inherently involves “running on a platform of change,” said Joseph S. H. Rogers. While he’s a new candidate for the 7th district, which has been represented for the past 12 years by Cynthia Newbille, Rogers has old ties to Richmond.

As a historian and museum educator, Rogers tends to frame most things with historical context. One example is his family’s connection to Richmond — which is brief, but significant — through Rogers’ ancestor, James Apostle Fields, in the 19th century. “The routes that my family take through the city of Richmond is very interesting,” Rogers said.

Fields was an enslaved man that made his way to freedom from Hanover to Richmond in 1863, where he stayed with his brother John. After almost being captured into slavery again, Fields made his way to Roanoke, Virginia. That’s where Rogers was born, and where his family has been based since the 1860s. 

“I think that we have a tendency in the modern age to believe that everything is new,” Rogers said. “And that we are coming up with radical solutions, innovative and radical solutions to problems, when a lot of those solutions have already been applied. They’ve happened in the past, they have examples that we can refer to from the past. But also in some of those places where those solutions have not yet existed, it’s good to have a historical lens.”

Rogers moved to Richmond in 2014, and he’s been politically active in the city since he became a resident. He said he’s been an advocate for a Marcus Alert and a civilian review board, and part of a lobbying effort on City Hall with the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality since 2017 to “make those changes be taken seriously, as well,” he said. “And I realized that we’ve been, more or less, right. We’ve been right this entire time.”

His decision to run for city council in the 7th district stems from Rogers’ observations of “rallying calls” being made for political action after George Floyd’s death, he said. But his decision wasn’t “just about George Floyd.”

“Here in the City of Richmond, it was about statues, monuments, and Marcus-David Peters,” Rogers said. “And as I listened to everything that was happening, I realized that there was a lot of anger there. But there was a lot of love that was underlying these messages. There’s also just that need for people to feel heard, and for action to be taken. And I recognize that in myself — I had been at the forefront of those issues.”

Rogers’ desire to be part of that movement came from his struggle to bring issues of reform up to the City Council. He said the lack of response led him to think “maybe we need a different City Council.”

“[Or a] councilperson who will listen to the people, before the city is actually on fire,” Rogers said. 

Rogers said he wants to try to be “that voice that works with the people in the city who are voicing these concerns, before they get to a boiling point.”

In addition to calling for the removal of Confederate statues, one reform that Rogers’ is calling for is the defunding of the Richmond Police Department. His campaign is advocating for a citizen review board, and for the City to invest in building up services that will address the tasks that police are asked to do outside of solving crime “that’s stretched them thin,” like wellness checks or responding to mental health crises. Rogers wants to “divest from the policing model, invest in the community first model.”

“Defunding the police is not even talking about a decrease of civil servants,” Rogers said. “Just different civil servants involved in these areas.”

Rogers’ perspective as a historian is once again informing his ideas for policy. His understanding of the history of crime in the 1980s and ’90s, and the police response to that, has shaped his understanding of the current issues with police departments in the U.S.

“We were told that the way to address crime was to punish criminals,” Rogers said. “Ultimately, that led to increases in funding in police departments across the country. And it led to the demonizing of the ‘criminal,’ ultimately seeing them as other. The problem is that primarily the people who they were claiming are criminals were Black people. And so disproportionately Black people were affected by these policies.”

Being a Black man and a member of the Black community, Rogers said he recognises “that these are things that we need to uplift. These are people that we need to uplift.”

Being a member of Richmond’s LGBTQ community has also led him to recognize issues he plans to pursue while on City Council. 

“I identify as bisexual. That is part of my identity. So in the same way that I bring my being a Black man, also being a bisexual Black man is a part of that conversation as well,” Rogers said. “I also want to acknowledge [that] how I plan on helping the LGBTQ community isn’t just by being bi on the council.”

He said he has plans of “putting forward policy that addresses a wide state of things” that affect the LGBTQ community, such as the high rate of homelessness for the trans community. Richmond’s high rate of homelessness in the trans community and in the larger population is “no different” than other cities, Rogers said. 

Looking at Richmond’s past, Rogers said that the problem he’s seen isn’t that the city has changed, but that “we’ve seen the ways in which it hasn’t changed, and hasn’t done better.”

“It doesn’t look like change from the outside, perhaps because we live in this big world where everything else in the nation is changing so rapidly,” Rogers said. “But then, Richmond is still struggling in those same ways that we thought we were gonna be able to move away from.”

Top Photo via Tavarris Spinks/Facebook & Joseph S.H. Rogers/Facebook