By Janlee Wong, MSW
Throughout California, in many places, with many people and groups, the dialogue continues. We owe a debt to Michael Brown and Ferguson Missouri for waking us up from a nightmare state. We were awakened by acknowledging that racism and discrimination continue unabated. Those of us who never thought it went away, gained new energy and determination to work against it. In several communities, schools of social work have held events, teaching us about racism and the sad state of community relationships with law enforcement.
I attended an excellent event in Oakland on April 24—the annual Dr. Terry Jones Forum hosted by CSU East Bay with an audience of social workers, faculty and community members. Dr. Jones led off with a powerful tribute to all in the community who fight for social justice. We had an excellent dialogue with Oakland Police Department Assistant Chief Paul Figueroa and Sgt. Holly Joshi. Both were progressive in their views and espoused a philosophy of “procedural justice,” with its four principles of voice, neutrality, respect and trust. If the cop on the beat and the community member could share these principles, we’d make tremendous progress in police community relations.
Lesson: Espouse radical change but it comes slowly.
I attended an excellent breakout session with Professor Seals who brought it all back for me, that we are still a racist society and culture despite the progress from slavery to affirmative action. He also helped me reaffirm that we don’t know anyone, especially our clients, the youth, or whoever we work with without truly listening to them, and continuously listening to them.
To sum it up with a quote from Assistant Chief Figueroa, “Culture eats policy for lunch.” In other words, we can set and push all the policies we want, but until we truly change our culture, and our society, little changes.
