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SLO City News

Black Lives Matter on the Central Coast

By Camas Frank~

Breaking through the initial discomfort of discussing race in a mostly-White community, isn’t easy. Most people don’t want to have the conversation.

SLOCN baldwin and Canntrell

 

However, as part of the global village, residents in SLO are unusually good at connecting with national events. When a terrorist in Orlando committed acts of mass violence and hatred against the LGBT community, allies in SLO rallied with the local Gay And Lesbian Alliance to hold a march to Mission Plaza and a vigil in solidarity. Sadly the violence hasn’t ended with large one-off attacks and while it was easier for locals to unite against sudden and shocking malice carried out on the bodies of one minority group, it’s taken a slow burn of repeated headlines to catch attention for others.

All through the beginning of July the nation learned of more black men killed by police officers and the renewed mass protests that followed. As many commentators have pointed out, that form of violence isn’t new, but having recordings mass distributed is. On July 7, a military trained shooter ambushed a group of police officers on security detail for a peaceful ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest in Dallas. He killed five officers and injured nine along with two bystanders. That sudden toll again shocked citizens of good conscience in San Luis Obispo.

This time instead of a march, residents held the first confirmed Black Lives Matter protest in the same Mission Plaza, just as citizens were streaming in to enjoy a Friday night concert. With flags of the country, state and city flying at half-mast behind them, multiple City of SLO Police vehicles and the San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell joined protestors, not as a cordon, but in solidarity.

Also notably attending was Mardel Baldwin Jr., an academic advisor with Cal Poly’s Mustang Success Center, and the Co-Chair of the University’s Black Faculty and Staff Association.

In San Luis Obispo now for just under a year, Baldwin was thrust into the center of community attention in a big way, twice within a week, first at the Black Lives matter protest and again speaking with the Chief in front of the audience gathered for Pride in the Plaza, July 8.

A leader for his peers on campus, Baldwin was starting that uncomfortable conversation in front of the larger SLO community. It was a moment of unity, to express joint sympathy and proclaim that not all police are would be abusers of minorities and, for that matter Black people aren’t criminals. And it was the start of public dialogue.

Two of the first things to be learned in speaking with a young African-American professional in SLO; it gets lonely, and if you’re one of the people everyone points to as an example of diversity, you’re more likely to throw in the towel and move on due to lack of diversity.

Why lonely? Well, in the 2010 Federal Census 1.2 just percent of SLO City residents were comfortable identifying as Black or African American. The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus reported to CSUMentor.edu that in 2016 just 0.8 percent of their undergraduates are African American. For context 1.8 percent of their students were classified as Nonresident Aliens.

When Baldwin sat down with the SLO City News he was getting ready to again be in the action, helping with the Black Legacy weekend for alumni at Cal Poly, July 29-31.

Originally from Long Beach, Baldwin went to California State University, Dominguez Hills and got a Masters at Cal State Fullerton before a brief stint working at a school in Michigan. He came to SLO to be closer to home and to enjoy weather closer to what he grew up with.

“Initially, coming here I knew I would be an outlier on campus,” he explained, “But being one of a few individuals I found support.”

He also found a voice and passion of his own, being an older brother / peer figure for the approximately 166 African-American students on campus.
“I have a passion to support African-Americans but the young people especially,” he said. “Usually they come here from L.A. or the Bay Area [where the population is much more diverse].”

Events like the Legacy weekend help people maintain a connection to SLO and Cal Poly, and if they live here, feel a little less lonely being the only person of their own ethnicity in any given social situation.

With all that in mind, there are things that Baldwin would like to explain to the majority that may not consider the African-American experience before they speak.

“The crux of Black Lives Matter is that we are here and we want to have a voice. We want society to know that we matter,” he said. “To respond that ‘All lives matter,’ is insulting because it dismisses the reality that black men, women, and children are dying rapidly in an unjust manner.”

Some groups in SLO do take that point to heart. After a banner proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” was twice removed from the side of their church, parishioners at SLO’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship spelled it out in a letter to local media:

“Black Lives Matter is a movement and a stance in response to this reality: the United States was built on a legacy of slavery, racism and oppression that continues to take new, ever-changing forms. To say that ‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean that black lives are more important than other lives, or that all lives don’t matter. The systemic devaluing of black lives calls us to bear witness, even as we acknowledge that oppression takes many intersecting forms.”
But, the larger SLO community does not discuss such things as a matter of course.

“The system in general is broken so we need to organize the change we want to see,” Baldwin said, “to be the change. [Police Chief] Deanna Cantrell is amazing, …but we really are at the beginning for that discussion here.”

On the Cal Poly Campus there is more dialogue and students may be more familiar with the language of inclusion, including phrases often mocked in right wing media, “Safe Spaces and Micro Aggressions.”

“Basically at the college a safe space is giving these students a place to go ‘home,’” said Baldwin. “Every group needs those relationships, to be safe and communicate with people that understand some of their experience.”

For instance, at Cal Poly a student might be the only African-American in an entire dorm building. If their roommates happen to be the ones indulging in puerile, insensitive remarks or downright casual racism – in other words the substance of micro aggressions – then there’s no escape except for the safe spaces carved out by clubs or associations.

“My advice for everyone? Find ways to be supportive of each other,” said Baldwin, “Don’t be afraid to have the race and privilege dialogue when it comes up.”

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