Tacoma racial justice activists bring joy, food, and commitment to the Capitol Thursday

Olympia’s Legislative Building has been the setting for a number of protests focused on racial justice lately. On Thursday evening, however, it hosted a barbecue for the cause.

The event featured food, dancing, DJ sets, and performances by Tacoma and Olympia rappers. People of all ages sat on the Capitol steps eating hamburgers, writing chalk messages, and enjoying the day. Tacoma rapper One Kahleo performed a few songs addressing police brutality, while his daughter and son danced with the crowd.

The cookout was organized by a budding Tacoma activist network called New Generation 2.0. Local businesses donated food, and churches chartered six buses to bring attendees to Olympia. Organizers Erin Sarvis and Ashlyn Thomas, who are friends from high school, both said that the cookout was a spontaneous outgrowth of a recent protest they organized in Wright Park in Tacoma. Neither have backgrounds in organizing but felt compelled by recent events to build unity in their community.

Thomas said she was encouraged by Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent comments supporting the Black Lives Matter protests, and wanted to bring her message from Tacoma straight to the halls of power.

“I love that so many people from Olympia came here,” Thomas said, looking out at the crowd. “We’re going to keep coming out and keep doing this for Olympia because this is what we need.”

People of all ages attended, and Sarvis and Thomas both brought their children. Sarvis said she wants the movement to include family-friendly events focused on building community in addition to demanding police accountability.

“Yes, we understand that a Black man, a Black woman lost their lives to the police,” Sarvis said. “But then again I want to celebrate the unity that the community and the love that the community has. Because yes, we’re angry and we’re upset, but we can still smile, we can still enjoy life, we can still go on.”

“If I can come out here and feed some angry people, at least they’re hungry and not so angry — that’s the goal here.”

Various other people came together to help organize and donate food. Some wanted to do a march or sit-in, but were outvoted.

While the event focused on unity and fun, a couple of speakers addressed the meaning of the sustained protest movement. A Tacoma resident who goes by the name Arrius spoke about the need to keep up the pressure on elected officials.

“I know we’re up here dancing and having a good time, but there’s something you need to know,” he said. “The people who are in this building right here, these are the people who can change things. Jay Inslee, this is the man who can do things. You need to yell at him, you need to yell at these politicians. These are the people who are going to get things done.”

Sarvis said she wanted to provide a platform for grief to commingle with joy.

“Some people want to feel angry and hurt and they have every right to express that,” Sarvis said. “The main thing is crowd control and the safety of everybody.”

New Generation 2.0 hired a private security team, as well as a team of unarmed “peacekeepers” whose goal was to keep the event family-friendly.

“I promised everyone that this was going to be safe because my own children are here,” Sarvis said.

Sarvis says she received warning that white supremacist groups intended to disrupt the event. While she didn’t see any show up, her security team told her they believed such members were “on grounds.”

While no police presence was visible at the event, Sarvis said she coordinated with the Olympia Police Department to block traffic. As people arrived, an unmarked SUV blocked the road leading to the Capitol.

The group also posted a list of detailed demands on its Facebook event page, including prosecuting the officers involved in the death of Manny Ellis and Charleena Lyles; an independent oversight committee; banning tear gas and chokeholds; and yearly “mental evaluation assessments” for officers. Sarvis said many of the demands are just common sense.

“To my knowledge, you go to school to be a beautician longer than you go to school to be a police officer,” she said. “To me, that’s kind of crazy to allow them to do so many things without enough training.”

She also brought up body cameras. The Tacoma Police Department does not have a body camera program, despite proposing one itself in 2016. Mayor Victoria Woodards has recently called for expediting a body camera rollout.

Thomas said she is thinking about creating an official nonprofit so they can continue community organizing work.

“I think we wanted to bring a lighter heart to what’s been going on,” Thomas said. “There’s a lot of anxiety and people getting depressed because of what’s being going on, and so we thought, ‘What if we just throw a cookout, something that still brings awareness to what we want to do but we’re able to get people together and still laugh, joke and have a good time?’”

Next week, New Generation 2.0 is having a “Moms for Manny” event specifically for kids. The title is a reference to Manny Ellis, a Black man who was killed by police in Tacoma in March.

“We want to bring to light that kids can protest, it’s not dangerous, you can stand up for yourself,” Sarvis said.

This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 8:30 AM.