This column ends with a note I wrote to FEED members and NPC board members, staff and volunteers in response to the rise in hate-fueled incidents around the country, including here in Madison.

I share this not because I think it is the perfect response, but rather to be transparent with my vulnerability, frustration and doubts in hopes that others may share theirs, as well. Here was my process leading up to writing this:

I had just returned from a two-week trip to Tanzania with my parents and a friend to learn more about my mother’s childhood there (and to discover that my family actually helped facilitate the independence of that country!) and to do some work with children in orphanages for my husband’s nonprofit. What I saw was so heartening: these children’s homes were run by extraordinary Africans, complicated and talented people that you’d find running any nonprofit in this country. They were doing community development work that was identical to what NPC does: job training, business incubation, local food systems support and grassroots leadership development (Americans are by no means at the forefront of social innovation!). And while Tanzania faces the challenges of a not-quite-developed country, these Black men and women were in charge of their lives and their futures without the constant, suffocating fear of racial animus poisoning the air around them. I returned on the day of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, West Virginia.

I then spent weeks alternately agonizing over and avoiding the topic. Why does this even need to be said? Why, as a woman of color, do I have to help other people feel better about this? Why do I have to talk about it when it hurts me? Why is it my responsibility to put a bandaid on the wounds of white supremency when my family has been a victim of it, too? And the answer came back: because it is my job to set the tone for this organization and the hundreds of people now connected to it. And it is all of our jobs to take care of the people around us. We find healing by helping others heal.

Then, this: should I be bringing this to NPC? Yes, it affects me personally. Yes, I am now frightened to travel with my inter-racial family to many parts of this country. But NPC has always stayed away from partisanship. Is this too political? And the answer was, “No.” A line must be drawn, and if we shy away from doing so in order to avoid controversy, we are truly lost.

And then, finally: How can I write something like this when I am certainly not perfect, myself? I have my blindspots. I have my prejudices. I can’t assume that I have the answers, and I certainly don’t want to put myself on some moral high horse. But then I realized, we all have to lend our voices, as imperfect as our words may be, to the chorus denouncing hatred.

My note:
As a naturalized citizen and a woman of color, I have struggled to make meaning of the recent surge in hate-fueled incidents in our country, of this simmering nightmare that only seems to get darker each day. How do I, how do we respond in a way that moves us forward, together, toward the light?

First and most importantly: There is no moral equivalence.

Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists cannot be put on the same level as the people who show up to oppose them. Hatred has no legitimate place in this country. We can agree to disagree on many things, but not on this. We will not tolerate anyone’s desire to subjugate, dehumanize or brutalize others. 

Next: Everyone is welcome here at the Northside Planning Council and FEED Kitchens.

If you respect and value the people around you, you are welcome here. As the sign on the door says, no matter who you are or where you are from, you are welcome here. We want to know if you are not feeling safe here.

And then: Peace is local.

Ultimately, we can make our country whole by stitching together small pockets of peace in our communities. This is our pocket of peace, and it matters what we do here. But peace is not simply an end goal or something we can perfect. It is a way of being, towards ourselves and one another, especially toward people who have had different life experiences from us. We can choose to practice the discipline of peace every day.

Finally: We are not alone.

The number of good people in this country far outnumber the purveyors of hate. Now, more than ever, the principle of relational power—the power of organized people in relationship with one another—becomes our top priority. In other words, we must find strength and strategy in our togetherness. 

There’s work to be done. We, as an organization, are not perfect, by any means, but we are willing to work. Thank you for being here with us and let us know how we can do better.