We can all learn from the racial justice conversations Olympia and Lacey hosted

Elders should listen to their young people. Young people should listen to their elders. On the issue of racial justice, we need to do more of both.

In solidarity with all the kids who are locked out of their schools, it’s time adults to do some online learning.

Hundreds of people watched a series of four City of Olympia Zoom town halls on racial justice. If you’re not one of them, you can still watch these remarkable conversations on the city’s website. The speakers from around the region, all Black, spoke blunt truths we all need to hear, and responded to questions that many of us might have hesitated to ask in person.

Lacey held two similar sessions, called “Conversations with the Council” which are available on YouTube. Lacey’s speakers were more exclusively local and not all Black, but no less compelling.

Watching both cities’ conversations shows the cultural contrast between Lacey, which is more racially diverse and more conservative, and Olympia, which is whiter and more liberal. The city of Lacey is about 25 percent people of color; over half of the students in Lacey schools are kids of color. One of the speakers was Robert Amada, Lacey’s interim police chief, who is Latino. The police force he leads has an even higher percentage of officers of color than the city’s population.

Another speaker, current Lacey City Council member Malcolm Miller, who is Black and a residential mortgage loan officer, revealed that just last month, for the first time in 20 years, he received a referral from a white male real estate agent. When asked later whether he thought this finally happened because he was elected to the city council, he said, “No, it’s a millennial thing. I think they are thinking differently.”

Still, Miguel Stansberry, another speaker who is a Black Lacey police officer, told story after story of blatant anti-Black bias he encounters in his daily work, such as a call from a white person alleging that Black men were breaking into a house next door. The men lived there, and had for some time.

Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder acknowledged that until fairly recently, he had not understood what redlining was, or why Lacey has so many more Black people than Olympia. He was astonished by what he learned. Mayor Ryder’s advice to viewers: “Redlining – Google it.”

Watching these sessions will be a revelation to many of us – both about how much pain and injustice has been hiding in plain sight right here in Thurston County, and about how the murder of George Floyd suddenly opened white people’s eyes to it. Many of us who thought we knew better are humbled by the discovery of how much we need to learn, and eager to find ways to repair the harm. In the first Olympia town hall, one of the repeated questions from viewers was “What can I do? How can I help?”

White people educating themselves about the experiences of their Black neighbors, co-workers and friends is the first answer to that question. What we learn will guide what we do next in our families, our businesses, our nonprofits, our local governments, and in how we vote.

We are eager to see how all that was learned at both the Olympia and Lacey forums affects city council policies and practices in the months and years to come.