BLM B-town's full response to the Question's posed by the HT on the response to Bridge Initiative report

BLM B-town was asked several questions about the Bridge Initiative Report and only a few selections of our answers were provided in the article and the context of them was somewhat skewed. So, below is our complete and uncut answers to the questions about the report. We feel you should see and know what BLM B-town is saying about all of these issues without the lens the media put forth.
Here is the article: (click here) 
 
Here are our answers: 
​Questions regarding the Divided Community Project report sent to BLM B-town by Emily Ernsberger from the HT
Here is the Report mentioned in the questions  BRIDGE REPORT 
1) Overall, how do you feel about the report? Do you feel the issues laid out in the subsection "Visibility of African Americans in Bloomington/Loss of African American history in Bloomington" are accurate? Other sections?

1. We agree that the city has repeatedly failed to engage Bloomington’s Black communities in any meaningful way. Anti-Black language, behavior, and people in power are an obstacle to successful engagement between the city and its Black residents. Those who do engage or are asked to the table face a lot of undue scrutiny, doubt, and hazing.When the rest of us hear those stories, it is a reminder that the structures of leadership in Bloomington are designed and maintained as “white spaces.”  
2. Subsection III.B.1 of the report contains an error. The person listed as “The Chair of the Affordable Housing Commission, an activist who was one of the co-founders of the local Black Lives Matters group,” was not, in fact, a co-founder of the local BLM organization in Bloomington. The founder of the local BLM chapter is a Black Woman. Had the authors of the report consulted BLM B-Town, we would have happily helped them avoid this embarrassing inaccuracy.

2) What, if anything, do you feel like is missing? While this report is a brief overview of a lot of topics, do you think anything egregious was left out?

1. The simple fact of the matter is that Black leaders both inside and outside of city government have been talking about the issues addressed in this report for years now and have not been believed. For example, local leaders, especially those of us in BLM B-town, have been talking about a myriad of problems with white liberalism in Bloomington for a long time and have been brushed aside by city officials. It is a slap in the face and wanton mismanagement of city resources to hire an “expert” from New York to tell them what we’ve been saying for years. 
2. Because this report relied on an outside expert rather than local knowledge, it was unable to locate and name the issues appropriately. The City of Bloomington is a white liberal haven that continually props up anti-Black behaviors, policies, and actions while claiming to be progressive. The mayor, the city council, and the full administration of the city espouse liberal progressive beliefs but then consistently enact/uphold policies counter to its stated commitments to diversity and inclusion.

3) What are your views on the suggestion of a task force to cover the race issues laid out in the report? Would any of you be interested in joining one, were it formed?

1. BLM has called for similar task forces many times, including 2017 when the city purchased the BearCat Military Assault vehicle. 
2. During last summer’s uproar about the Market, BLM informed Mayor Hamilton, city workers, Marcia Veldmen, vendors, city council members, and other activists that the Farmer’s Market had never been a safe place for Black people. We asked them to do a longitudinal study of the racial diversity to help explain the fact that the market is disproportionately white and why there was little outreach to the black community, despite the market’s close proximity  (within one block) to two historically black churches. 
3. Additionally, we called for a civilian-based task force with the power of law/policy making to have oversight of the City of Bloomington Police Dept to ensure they were not using the BearCat Military Assault vehicle disproportionately against marginalized people or in protest situations, as well as to attempt to stop BPD’s racially biased practices  (See also: UU Racial Task Force’s longitudinal study of BPD arrests). Additionally, we’ve called for the Commission on the Status of Black Males to be turned into the Commission on the Status of Black People to better study all of the Black community, or to have parity by creating commissions for Black women and non-binary Black folks.

4) Specifically regarding the farmers' market, there were many comments made at the Farmers' Market Advisory Council meetings this summer and on social media indicating that people of color never went to the market because they didn't feel safe. In the report, it is written that "many of the people with whom Mr. Johnson spoke, especially people of color, firmly dispelled this idea" and were instead not interested due to price and products. Do you feel this finding is correct? Or that both notions are? Other thoughts?

1. This is a false dichotomy. Yes, the higher cost of produce at the Market compared to grocery stores may be one factor in why Black people & other people of color wouldn’t attend the Market. This does not preclude the possibility that safety concerns are relevant. We suggest that Mr. Johnson’s results were skewed by the ambiguity of the term “safe.” Our own conversations with Black Bloomintgonians suggest that the Market has been and continues to be a space where we are made to feel unwelcome due to the paucity of vendors of color. That doesn’t mean they think violence might erupt at the Market, but rather, Black folks are subjected to macro/micro aggressions and put in positions to face racist indignities just to buy veggies. This too is a definition of an  “unsafe” market experience. Had the city or its hired expert consulted BLM, we would have been happy to provide guidance in this matter.
2. Further, subsection III.B.4 of the report contradicts Mr. Johnson’s assertion. The report cites “community leaders of color” as reporting that “when any one [person of color] is harmed, regardless of whether it was connected to discrimination, other people of color may also feel less safe” and notes the unrecognized but “disproportionate impact of such acts of violence on minority communities.” This too seems to invalidate Mr. Johnson’s supposed refutation of safety concerns while again highlighting the marginalization of the expertise of local leaders of color..
3. Finally, since Schooner Creek Farms’ numerous connections to violent white supremacist organizations and acts of terrorism were revealed, the threat of physical and/or mortal violence at the Market became clear to the entire city if not to Mr. Johnson.

5) Is there anything else you'd like to add regarding the report/farmers market/etc?

1. Back on Aug 8th, BLM B-town submitted a letter to the press and to the City of Bloomington addressing the presence of white supremacists in our Market. We called on the City to take immediate action by adopting a strong and decisive stance against violent white supremacists at city-run events. We gave suggestions, pointed to all the research that had been done to uncover the white supremacists and asked the city to stand up for marginalized people in Bloomington. The city has yet to fully act in any meaningful way. Instead, it has forced the people of Bloomington (and marginalized communities in particular) to carry the burden.They have increased police and surveillance presence, further marginalizing already-marginalized people with oppressive police culture. We urge the city to review our letter, visit our resource list about how “more police does not make us safer,” and do what is best for the most marginalized people in our community rather than pandering to white centrists and liberals. And, finally, to listen to the black voices who are telling you that things are not alright. They never have been.
2. Links:

More Police Does Not Make Us Safer Resource List https://blm.btown-in.org/more-police-does-not-make-us-safer.html
BLM Aug 8th 2019 Letter about the Farmer’s Market
https://blm.btown-in.org/blm-b-town-blog/letter-to-the-city-regarding-the-farmers-market-and-nazi-farmers-of-schooner-creek-farm