Crank began by sharing via the computer screen a portion of a poster that Wooten put together for a student social justice and community organizing program as part of her master’s degree work.

The ultimate goal for allies and accomplices, Wooten said, is the red arrow that goes through the middle of the poster. Saturday’s Black in Edmonds discussion is represented by the one-on-one cups in the middle left, where people are building relationships with each other. “Now we’re in this kind of raising awareness position, where we’re really trying to bring our community together and talk about the ways we can work together for collective liberation and we can work together to make Edmonds a community that is welcoming for all and really belongs to all of us,” she said.

Being an ally and accomplice “it not just about reading the right book, it’s not just about having the right mindset,” said Wooten, who through Suburbia Rising offers hands-on training and workshops for groups looking to become more effective and inclusive. “It’s about getting out there and helping changing the world and make the world a better place.”

Crank said her desire to talk about the topic of allyship was influenced by recent events in Edmonds, where local businesses and individuals supporting racial justice issues have faced negative reactions, including incidents in which Black Lives Matter signs have been physically taken down from stores and customers have told proprietors they won’t shop in their stores because the signs are displayed there.

It’s important, Crank added, to hear from the panelists, who have embraced their roles as allies and accomplices of people of color — not just recently, but for years. “What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What’s been your personal journey and also what’s been your professional journey?” Crank asked participants.

Koenig said it’s hard to know where to start in becoming an ally, but it’s key to “use your voice, use your business reach that you have to amplify.” It’s also important to listen to the needs of communities of color and act on them, “and not having to put it on Facebook that I’m so fabulous that I did X Y Z. It’s just continually doing the work,” she said.

“I just try to show up and listen, and post the (Black Lives Matter) sign so people understand the this is a business that is supportive,” Sanger said. “We do very much believe in Black Lives Matter, and I put it in our front window and it will stay in the front window until it no longer needs to be.” Sanger said she also shows up in the Westgate neighborhood for regular BLM demonstrations “so people know my face is part of that support.”

Everyone can do their part to be an ally or accomplice, she added. “It doesn’t need to be a lot. It just needs to be a small step from everybody to recognize the humanity that we’re all sharing and that we’re all in this life together.”

Crank said she invited the ECA’s Jones to participate given the performing arts center’s work to diversify its programming to draw people of color and to establish an inclusion and accessibility committee — and also because of the strong solidarity statement that the ECA sent out immediately following the murder of George Floyd.

Jones said that the ECA for years has been committed to bringing more diversity to the stage and “bringing in audiences who haven’t been in the theater before, who maybe didn’t feel welcome or safe coming to us.” But in the past six months, the performing arts center has focused on systemic changes, such as reviewing its hiring practices and how it connects with the community. Collectively, the ECA put together racial equity priorities and “it’s critical for us to keep moving those forward and to really stay committed as a whole organization and not one committee doing that work,” Jones said.

Crank also brought in a special guest, Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson, who talked about the importance of “empathy and standing in the shoes of someone else, and trying to see things from their perspective.”

“This is, I believe, the moral issue of our time,” Nelson said. “Every generation has tried to address racism, some have been more successful than others and clearly we have not solved it.”

“We as a community, we have to wrestle with it, because we see what happened when we haven’t wrestled with it,” Nelson continued. “We can choose to address these racial injustices and work to heal our community, or we can do nothing and hope it goes all away. And I think that’s immoral — and, by the way, history has shown it doesn’t really work.”

To address these issues, Nelson said his administration is committed not only to calling out racial injustices and “confronting those who are perpetuating hate,” but to ensuring that city government is “part of the solution” and “is a role model.” He said he appointed the mayor’s Equity and Justice Task Force, whose members are currently exploring questions that include how diverse is the city’s workforce, whether city decisions are made “through an equity lens,” and what is the police use of force policy “and who are those policies being used against.” Based on their findings, the task force will come with policy recommendations that will be sent to the city council, he said.

Nelson also said he is also taking action steps, such as requiring all city employees and board and commission members to have bias training, establishing a pilot project for police officers to wear body cameras, and providing grant funding specifically for businesses owned by people of color and women.

The mayor said it’s also critical that such efforts are funded as part of the city’s 2021 budget. “We have to make sure this is not a one-and-done thing,” Nelson said. “This is sort of an ongoing effort that we are addressing equity and justice work.”

Wooten noted that the anti-racist journey the panelists are taking “is something that is ongoing and is really kind of a lifelong thing. It’s beautiful that there’s this energy right now where people are standing up and really coming together and saying, ‘Hey, what can we do, how can we do this all together?’ I think it’s also really important that we’re kind of in this for the long term.”

She said it was also important to bring what she called “the dreaded p-word into the conversation — privilege,” adding that “nobody wants to talk about it and it shuts down conversations.” But as allies and accomplices, Wooten said, “the lovely part about privilege is that there’s a blind spot for you — it let’s you focus on how you can make yourself better, but it’s also a place where you can open a door for somebody else.”

Something as simple as including your pronouns when introducing yourself “is a way of showing solidarity and allyship to trans people…and those who are non-gendered,” Wooten said. “There’s always a place to look to be a better person and be a better human.”

Crank then asked the business owners to share negative reactions they have experienced as a result of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

Koenig said that she hasn’t had any customers directly express negativity about her support, but she has heard of incidents at other businesses, including Teri’s Toybox and ARTspot. “I just feel like that one interaction or whatever happens at your store is just a tiny piece of what Black people are experiencing,” Koenig said. “Fine, bring it. I don’t need you shop at my store.”

Ho, who owns four restaurants and a catering company in Edmonds, said his eateries serve thousands of people, collectively, every day, who see a Black Lives Matter sign at each location. He noted that his restaurants serve food from a range of cultures and employ people of many nationalities. “We cook probably 10 different cuisines at any given time across our company and so those who don’t want to come in and support us, I think miss the bigger view. You’re eating food from a different culture made by a guy from another culture, and another guy from another culture is washing your dishes.”

“There’s plenty of people in this community that do support us and do support the cause and see the bigger picture, and that I am grateful for,” Ho said.

Sanger of Ombu Salon said she “had a remarkable amount of support.” She recalls only one customer having an issue with the BLM sign in her window, yet chose to stay.

Jones of ECA said that majority of customers have been positive about their equity work and messaging, but the negative responses fell into two categories: those community members of colors who wanted to ensure the performing arts center would be accountable in fulfilling its stated commitments, and those who said they wouldn’t be coming back to the theater because of the racial justice message. As for the latter response, “those are our values and if people don’t have those same values, at this point that’s their loss, that’s not our loss,” Jones said.

Crank then asked panelists what advice they would have for those watching who might be “afraid to be more visible or be more vocal in their allyship.”

Ho replied that “the feeling of including everybody and broadening your family circle and your friend circle is a great feeling. Once you get along with everybody around you, it’s only going to make the community stronger,” he said.

“It’s OK to feel uncomfortable, to feel insecure about making a move or to have a conversation,” Sanger said, and that includes anxiety about “saying the right words and using the right phrases and trying not to offend anybody,” she added.

Koenig, who is a lifelong runner, said that “this journey that we’re on to make our community better and our world better, it’s like a giant marathon” that feels overwhelming to complete. “I want to fix all the things and I can’t.” Instead, it’s important to look at “the first step or the first block — what little things can I do…along the way that all add up to bigger things,” she said.

Jones pointed to the importance of “embracing and initiating when you can those difficult conversations, acknowledging that you’re not going to be perfect and you don’t know everything. I think as white people we’re very conflict-adverse and you want to get out of a difficult situation as soon as you can and fix something really quickly. So just being comfortable sitting with that discomfort and talking with people and really listening to what they are saying,” Jones said.

For Mayor Nelson: “The more I talk about it, the more comfortable I am,” he said. “I’m accepting and acknowledging of where we’re at and I’m also hopeful of where we’re going. As more people embrace that uncomfortableness, it goes away because you’re shifting to, ‘Wait a minute, there’s some things we can do.

“We know that being silent, not doing anything, just being an observer, is not working,” Nelson continued. “It doesn’t help anybody. So you have to be uncomfortable, you have to be willing to step out and when you see something you say, ‘Hey, that’s not right.'”

You can watch the entire Saturday panel discussion via this Facebook link.

— By Teresa Wippel