Black wealth remains near zero due to centuries of systemic anti-Black racism and is on a trajectory to only worsen. In Seattle, white wealth is nearly 20x more than Black wealth. What specific actions will you take to close the Black-white wealth gap?
How much of the Black-white wealth gap will you close while in office?
Who are you working with in the Black community to close it?
How will you support investing federal funding directly and specifically into the Black community in the next two years?
Answer
My first priority on these issues is to overturn I-200. Without eliminating this barrier, it will not be possible to make direct investments into the Black community without legal challenges. That said, I have a number of programs focused on tackling the Black/White wealth gap by increasing access to high-paying, union jobs and increasing homeownership.
My “Just Transition Tax” gets at a lot of this. By implementing a 1% income tax, we will raise $400 million and invest into four main areas. This includes $100 million toward green apprenticeships—increasing the workforce needed to expand our housing—which will allow our community members to earn great wages developing the housing we need for their own communities. It would also commit $100 million of the funds into the Equitable Development Initiative because I recognize there are many great community-led projects ready to be executed but simply lack the funds.
With homeownership, I am focused on two large items: 1) Expanding our city’s homeownership programs specifically for Black residents 2) allowing more development across the city and providing resources that enable more residents of color to be able to self-develop their own projects. Because we need nearly 200,000 homes to meet the demands of those living in our city right now, we will need every person we can get to be a part of that solution. It is also a great opportunity for the Black community to build generational wealth and close the gap swiftly. That is why the majority of my focus for federal investments will go toward housing projects, and by subsidizing housing we can reduce the cost of development and invite more Black residents to be a part of the solution.
These ideas come specifically from my work as a Black architect and specifically as someone who has organized with Africatown in the past. I have also been part of the KCEN Coalition through Share the Cities and currently serve as the Chief Architect of MC^2 Equity, an all Black development firm explicitly focused on helping the Black community develop building projects and build generational wealth.
Question
There is a crisis in Black health in this region. In King County: Black babies are more 2x more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies; Black birthing people die 3x more than white birthing people; Black residents die of diabetes at 3x the rate of white residents; Nearly half of all Black adults in King County are food insecure; Black adults are 3x more likely to be living in poverty; Black adults are evicted at 6x the rate of white adults; Black people in King County contracted COVID-19 at 3x the rates of whites; and yet Black community received less than 2% of federal relief funding.
This region boasts some of the most sophisticated, renowned hospitals and medical facilities in the world. The disparities in medical treatment received by Black communities are appalling, with COVID-19 serving as just the most recent flashlight into this dark and disturbing reality. What are your specific plans to invest in Black community health?
In the entire Pacific Northwest (OR, WA, ID, MT, WY) there are zero Black community-owned, federally qualified health clinics. What are your specific plans to support base-building Black community-owned clinics? Specifically, the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom (TCHF), Somali Health Board (SHB), Surge Reproductive Justice (SRJ), African American Health Board and more?
Answer
I recognize the importance of culturally-relevant healthcare, however I will be honest and say that I currently do not have plans to address this specifically. That said, I am open to suggestions and think the idea of providing funds for these groups to develop their own facilities is an excellent idea. These projects can be funded by the $100 million / year I plan on having available through the Equitable Development Initiative as part of my Just Transition Tax. Something I have also championed during my campaign and will continue to advocate for is the creation of universal healthcare in WA state by 2026. I’ve endorsed the Whole Washington campaign and will continue to argue for this as a way to ensure all residents in Seattle can have access to physical and mental healthcare that is completely free at the point of purchase.
Question
Equity means ownership. Thriving Black communities require control and agency over land. We prioritize Black land acquisition as a foundational pillar to our work. As demand for land grows at an unprecedented pace, the rapid gentrification, active divestment from, and exclusion of Blacks from Seattle and King County is important not merely due to the dismantling of historical Black cultural and societal spaces, but also the socio-economic, health, wealth, and education fallout resulting from Blacks being pushed out of the State’s largest economic and cultural engine. What is your specific short and long-term plan to rectify this region’s abysmal Black land ownership rates?
What is your plan to rapidly advance Black home ownership rates?
What is your plan to rapidly advance Black community land acquisition and restore historically Black cultural and societal spaces?
How much will you invest in the: (A) Keiro project - the first entirely Black community led and centered homelessness consortium with wraparound direct services; (B) Red (Black and Green) Barn Ranch - Black liberated farming and youth healing center; (C) Youth Achievement Center - a holistic co-housing complex that is designed to support homeless students, historically underserved students, system-involved youth?
What mechanisms will you put in place to halt gentrification across the state, specifically to stop corporate and private developers from buying up once affordable property and pricing out Black communities and families?
What specific policies will you pass to not only halt gentrification but re-invigorate the Central District as the hub of Black land ownership in Seattle?
Answer
Expanding on my answer to #1, an important move for the City to execute is land acquisition, where the City acquires the land and then provides it to community organizations to develop projects like community land trusts. This will be in addition to my expansion of the Home Ownership Program, which will be part of the long-term solution to increase Black ownership rates. Outside of this, the $100 million available per year through the Equitable Development Initiative will make it easier for more Black-led projects to be executed year-over-year, increasing ownership and specifically restoring the Central District to a majority-Black owned neighborhood. In terms of specific investments, I do support all three projects: the Keiro site, Red (Black and Green) Barn Ranch, and the Gross Center for Youth Achievement. My understanding of the Keiro project is that the City has funded the acquisition along with the remaining funding coming from the Governor; however if there are additional funds to complete the project I am open to making it happen. For both the Ranch and achievement center I would also prioritize these projects that have been years in the making. It’s finally time to get them done. In terms of anti-displacement measures, I would point to my Developer Displacement Mitigation Fee policy as well as my policy to increase the minimum wage. Both of these coupled with allowing multifamily to finally be allowed in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods will work to reverse the displacement we see and, coupled with expansion of affirmative marketing and right-to-return policies, work to restore the Central District as a thriving Black hub for the entire region.
Aside from these policies, I am also committed to incorporating Skyway into Seattle, recognizing that the largest Black community in the state is currently lacking infrastructure because it is not a part of a city and that many CD residents were displaced to Skyway. It’s finally time to bring them in.
Question
The public education system is anti-Black. It uses harsh discipline policies that push Black students out of schools at disproportionate rates; denies Black students the right to learn about their culture and whitewashes the curriculum to exclude Black peoples' history, contributions, and accomplishments. It pushes Black teachers out of schools in Seattle-King County, and across the country, and spends entirely more money on imprisoning Black youth than on educating and healing them. How will you support pro-Black education?
How will you create and maintain Black community schools?
How will you establish and maintain restorative justice practices in schools to end the school-to-prison pipeline?
What will you do to ensure Black teachers are hired, that current educators receive anti-racist professional development, that schools implement Black studies curricula?
What will you do to ensure the Black community has control of schools that serve Black kids as well as education resources and levy funds that are meant for but rarely make it to Black youth?
Answer
There are limitations to the power that the Mayor has, specifically because Seattle Public Schools is a separate entity. That being said, the Mayor can focus on specific programs and initiatives which can lead to statewide change. So I would focus on expanding funding to create universal Pre-K, and specifically fund culturally-relevant care that is ideally Black-owned and Black-led. I am also interested in expanding the number of community centers and libraries across the city, thereby creating even more space for after-school programs and community-centered activities that can supplement and enrich both Black and brown neighborhoods. With respect to necessary state-level changes, we must increase funding for all schools to where the lowest-performing schools see a significant improvement in the success of their students. I will also champion and fight for a more culturally-relevant curriculum, which will include working with our local teacher’s union to recruit and retain Black educators.
Question
Already experiencing COVID-19’s economic fallout, conditions for Seattle’s Black community have worsened. Against that backdrop, KCEN and many others in the Black community mobilized to divest from policing and demanded correlating investment in pro-Black public safety solutions that work for us, for the first time in Seattle's history. This movement was driven by Black community and specifically called and continues to call for a reckoning with anti-Black racism (i.e., not a general “racial” reckoning, or a “BIPOC” movement).
Emboldened by the overwhelming support of thousands and thousands of community members, the Seattle City Council briefly upheld their pledge to divest from a percentage of the Seattle Police Department (SPD)'s bloated annual budget and invest modestly in Black communities. It should not have taken such prolonged, sustained community efforts for this change but we acknowledge the small percentage of divestment as a break from decades of votes to expand violent, anti-Black policing.
The work of reshaping this region into one that values all Black lives—and moves away from funding racist policing and towards resourcing true public safety—is overdue and not for non-Black folks, unaccountable gatekeepers or non-rooted folks to dictate. We advocated strongly for monies from the police budget to be invested directly into the Black community and are unmoved on that stance.
What percent of SPD’s budget will you divest from and invest specifically in Black community-led and -centered organizations? What date will you close the Youth Jail in the first year of your term?
Will you join the veto-proof majority of the city council who pledged to defund SPD by half and what will you do to accelerate that commitment becoming a reality?
What specific steps will you take to shift investments from the criminal punishment system towards human services that are controlled, led and center Black community?
Answer
One of my main reasons for running for Mayor is because the Council backed down on their commitment to defund the police by at least 50%. I am committed to defunding SPD by 50%, at least, and investing those funds into community through community-led safety alternatives and other programs that will directly benefit the Black community. I am the only mayoral candidate who has stayed committed to this and continued to push this demand forward. I will join the veto-proof majority of the City Council and move to get us to 50% by no later than two budget cycles (2024 Proposed Budget). I will also aim to continue building the strength of coalitions that came out of this summer’s protests, making these demands in the first place, and making sure they are given power in City decisions.
