Here & Now

Welcome to Noon Wednesday. I'm Marisa Wojcik, multimedia journalist with Here & Now on PBS Wisconsin. Today is February 10. Burlington, Wisconsin has seen a national confrontation play out within its own school district from a Black Lives Matter curriculum to racial slurs graffitied on school property. The community is divided on how to respond to this growing tension. Today we speak with Darnisha Garbade, president and founder of the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism. And Darnisha, we're very happy to have you with us. I wanted to start just by asking you about over the summer when the Black Lives Matter protests started erupting all over the country and things were hitting a boiling point in Kenosha, which is about a half hour away from Burlington, a white elementary school teacher in Burlington attempted to incorporate Black Lives Matter curriculum into her classroom. And I wanna ask you about how you thought the community responded to that. I thought the Burlington community, for the most part did not respond to that very well. I think even outside of the Burlington community, there was a huge racial divide during that time period. We had quite a few angry Burlington residents lashing out on our coalition's Facebook page, on our personal pages but then we also had some supporters, which was also pleasantly surprising. Has this impacted the community as a whole or as much of it just been centered within the school district itself. It has definitely impacted the community as a whole. although most of it definitely has been centered within the Burlington area school district. You've been in Burlington since about 2016, where did things really start to grow in your mind? So it looks like, as I'm thinking back on it, things took a turn for the worst with me personally when my daughter was accused of planning to shoot up the school when she was just nine years old, she was attending Winkler Elementary. She was in fourth grade. She had taken an airsoft toy gun to school just for show and tell day. And she was detained in the principal's office all day. She was accused of plotting to shoot up to schools and email was sent out to district parents letting them know that a student brought a BB gun to school. My daughter had been crying for a long time. The school didn't contact me. In addition, my daughter kept refusing the narrative that she was plotting to shoot up the school and kept reminding them that she had just brought a toy gun for show and tell day. When her answer wasn't good enough, the principal proceeded to tell her about a black kid in Milwaukee who was shot and killed by the police officer as an intimidation tactic. And so to me, it was already pretty bad in Burlington. And when the protest broke out behind Floyd and when Melissa coalition member taught the Black Lives Matter curriculum, we saw what we had been seeing play out in Burlington in the previous years leading up to those events. Recently, you have had to move out of Burlington because of everything that has happened, what ultimately led to that decision? What led to that decision was we had received threats. We had endured quite a bit more of racism. Once I started going public and getting into the media about what was going on in Burlington, my face became known all over. We made national news a few times. My name became known. And one of the, I don't know what else to call him other than a racist, because he was very boldly and blatantly racist at more than one school board meeting, but he showed up at my then 15 year old daughter's job and she was terrified. And that was the point where my husband and I had to have the conversation about questioning our children's safety. Will they ever be able to live normal lives with Burlington being so such a monoethnic community. It's not hard to spot children of color when there's only three, less than 3% of people of color in Burlington. And so will they be able to work? Will they be able to drive? Will they be able to hang out with friends without having to question their safety and the answer for us was no. And that was the point where we knew we had to leave, especially when we got word that the Proud Boys was aware of the protest that broke out at the school district, where myself and other coalition members was in attendance. We knew that it was time to move. What moved you to form the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism? When I founded the coalition, just before that, I had been trying to dialogue and partner with the Burlington area school district just as a parent. At that time, I had been working in healthcare for about 20 something years, and I thought I would retire from the healthcare industry, but I realized that the district was just checking off boxes and they had no genuine interest of pursuing racial equity and justice for children of color. And I also realized that being a double minority, black and female and Burlington seems to be a male dominated white male dominated community, that the things that I was recommending, they just weren't going anywhere. And so I started going to other community leaders, other parents to hear their stories and experiences and to invite them to come alongside me. And then the coalition was birthed in October of 2019. And what has been your experience working with the school district since the founding of the coalition, what were you initially setting out to do? Initially, what we wanted to see is, we wanted to see the district provide a safe learning environment for all students. When it comes specifically to race-related incidents, we did not see the school taking it seriously. We did not see the sense of urgency that we even saw when COVID hit. The school district put a plan in place right away and they implemented it to keep all students and faculty safe. Those were the same things we were looking for them to do when I, as an individual parent, as well as coalition members started going to them about the racism in the school district. Students have been spat on, pushed down the stairs. Students go through the hallways yelling the N word on a regular basis, telling Mexican and Hispanic students that they climbed the wall to get here. And does Trump know that they're here, calling them wetbacks and being and just horrible names. Students openly display confederate flags within the Burlington area school district. And so we were asking the district to do two things. We wanted them to be proactive by providing a safe learning environment, openly denouncing racism, adopting an anti-racism policy, sending the message that racism of any type will not be tolerated. And then we also wanted them to allow the students who were targeted to feel a sense of justice by maybe, by effectively holding students accountable who participated in racist acts. But the district would not do that. They drug their feet, they remained silent most of the time. And then when they did issue a statement, it was a public statement which came off to us as retaliation as opposed to genuinely investigating their racist incidents. In a letter addressing some of those very concerned by your organization regarding those racist comments, the school district said, quote, the Burlington area school district has no evidence to support the assertion about these behaviors having merit, unquote. They also said that they recognize microaggressions may inflict harm despite not intending to be racist and reiterated their commitment to creating a welcoming environment. What is your response to how they addressed your concerns? I was very angry regarding that specific statement that the district had released. The reason I was so angry is because, first of all, it was a lie that these things were not happening on a daily basis. I had done an open records request within the district and their own records showed multiple instances of racism and racist behaviors. And also if, when I looked at their discipline disparities, it was significantly higher for the 39 black students who attended the district than for the 2,505 white students. And also when the district continually spoke the narrative that these were just microaggressions, I felt like they were minimizing the experiences of children of color. Microaggressions within themselves isn't a small thing despite the beginning of the name micro. Microaggressions are very hurtful. They cause a lot of trauma to children of color. In addition, microaggressions wasn't the only way that the racism was showing up. There was bold and blatant bigotry happening and playing out within the Burlington area school districts. You could see it on individual levels and you could also see it systemically. And so I was very angry and sad and that the Burlington area school district, like I said before, didn't take the racism as seriously as they should have. What to you would make for actual meaningful change with the school district as they have come out with many statements reiterating their commitment to equity, they have stated that they're partnering with equity organizations. What would actually show that a change is being made to you? I think what is going to take is, the district needs to not take a stance of being defensive and having to protect the district for myself and other parents of color who are making complaints of discrimination. I think if they take the approach of genuinely wanting to investigate our claims and to partner with us to see what can we do to bring equity within the Burlington school district and the community? Some of the things they could do is invite people of color to have a seat at the table to make some decisions. The Burlington area school district has one black teacher in the entire district. And they haven't even included her in the decision making. And so the anti-racism policy, for example, the coalition submitted the policy, we put it together, but the Burlington area school district, even though they promised us that we would be included in the creation and the implementation and the adoption of it, they left us out, and when it actually came time for them to adopt it, they did it on their own and they only included about eight sentences from the past policy, five of which were just definitions. So, they actually only included about three sentences. I think when the district takes a posture of truly wanting to learn and to become an anti-racist institution, they will first do a climate survey to see exactly where they are and then to hold themselves accountable. Are there lessons to be learned from what's happening in playing out in Burlington, you call it a monoethnic city. It's a population of about 10,000. It's very similar demographics to a lot of other cities in Wisconsin and in the Midwest, are there things that are happening in Burlington that you think are maybe happening in other parts of the country that you want other people to take heat of? Absolutely. What's going on in Burlington is not specific to Burlington. We are dealing with racism all over our country. I think when we talk about monoethnic communities where you have 90% majority culture, meaning white Americans, I think that they tend to be a little further behind the racial justice movement as a whole. The things that I see playing out in Burlington are things that my friends have seen playing out in other predominantly white areas like Waukesha, and like Franklin and Oak Creek and those kinds of places. And I think it's simply because you don't have enough support in those areas. Speaking for Burlington in specifically before the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism was founded, there was no racial justice organization there. There's no community centers for people of color to turn to, to get the support that they need to thrive in those areas. There's no, there was no one really stepping up to denounce the racism. There were individuals trying to fight this battle on their own, but they were outnumbered. And that's what you're seeing. That's a common narrative. And what we need is more businesses within the Burlington community, as well as the educators to walk alongside of us and push in the same direction that we're going instead of pushing against us. Are you surprised that something like, Black Lives Matter being incorporated into a school curriculum, being a bit of a launch pad for the community to start having these conversations and to kind of build the conversation up to what it is today? Great question. I am not surprised sadly with our country's history and the things that are happening currently. It definitely doesn't surprise me, in the same token, the conversations definitely needed to be had. And if it took the Black Lives Matter curriculum to get the Burlington community and other communities to start dialoguing openly and honestly about race and racism, then I'm glad that it happened. We can't address these issues. We can't eradicate racism. We can't work and stand together if we don't first have the conversation. I still talk to people in Burlington who tell me that, no, there's no racism here. I still talk to people in the Burlington community who gets very offended when I say the word racism. I talk to people within the community who thinks that because we had a black president that racism went away then, or it went away with the civil rights movement. And none of those things are true. Racism is alive and well and it's breathing. And as long as people continually choose not to educate themselves, it will continue to stay alive. We must open our eyes. The information is readily available with a Google search and we have to stop relying on what we don't know, it's our responsibility to learn, to find out, to seek out the information. And that's what we need to do in Burlington and beyond. You have moved from your home out of some safety concerns, does that make you want to continue to do this work in Burlington? Are you wanting to continue to put energy into seeing change, or is it hard to maintain that energy and momentum? Absolutely. So although my family and I have sold our home and moved, essentially is in the process of moving out of Burlington, there are still children and families of color there who need our support. And the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism will remain. We are in the process, excuse me, of making it a 501c3 nonprofit organization, because we would like to see this organization remain there within the Burlington community for many years to come. We don't want our future children or future residents of Burlington to ever have to endure what my family have endured, what my children have endured and what other families of color are currently enduring. And, so yes, we are still very active. This month alone, we are celebrating our Black History Awareness program. And we'd like to get Burlington community members involved, we'd like to get children involved. We have a spelling bee, an essay contest, a writing contest and many more things. So our presence will be seen. And we hope that at some point this will be the beginning of a beautiful partnership. We do have hope in Burlington. We know that they can be better and do better. And yeah, I'm excited. All right, Darnisha thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. You're very welcome. And thank you for having me. For more from Here & Now in PBS, Wisconsin, you can visit pbswisconsin.org. And thank you so much for joining us on Noon Wednesday.