Tag Archives: Sean Goode

Community

Community Leaders Will Meet to Discuss Solutions to Increasing Gun Violence in King County

by M. Anthony Davis

A shootout last Friday in South Seattle near Emerson Elementary School sent five people to the hospital. According to reports, more than 70 shots were fired on a residential street. Then, later that evening, more gunshots were fired on Seward Park Avenue South. That shooting left one person dead at the Atlantic City boat ramp. According to police, witnesses saw a car fleeing the scene before hitting and killing a pedestrian at the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. 

Gun violence is on the rise throughout King County. In Seattle in 2019, there were 18 gun homicides. In 2020, there were 17 by the end of July. If this trend continues, we will have a record year for gun homicides in Seattle. Local officials such as  King County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Ryan Abbott, quoted in the KUOW article linked above, blame “warm weather” and juveniles “not being in school” during summer months as reasons for the increased violence. 

Critics say local politicians and police have failed to curb gun violence in our communities. By and large, police are only involved in the back end of gun violence — they are called after the shooting has already occurred. In the demands of those calling to defund police, part of the reallocated funds are needed to support community efforts to stop gun violence on the front end — by strengthening social services and engaging youth before any violent crimes are committed. 

Continue reading Community Leaders Will Meet to Discuss Solutions to Increasing Gun Violence in King County →
News

King County Equity Now Announces Community-Based Research Team

by Elizabeth Turnbull

On Monday, the King County Equity Now (KCEN) Coalition unveiled the Black Brilliance Project, a Black-led, community-based research team set to investigate health, public safety and racial equity solutions, with the goal of providing direction and authority on how City funds should be applied toward meeting these needs in 2021. 

The Black Brilliance Project’s first 50 members were on-boarded last week, and the project will ultimately consist of over 100 paid research positions, occupied by various members of the city’s Black community, some of whom spoke at a press conference on Monday. 

Overall, the project will survey the needs of the Black community and provide a potential avenue for community members to be involved in budgeting decisions as an alternative to City-formed task forces that usually decide how money for the Black community is allocated. 

“When we say community voice we don’t mean some task force that is cherry-picked by white wealthy people who already have access to political power,” said KCEN research director Shaun Glaze during a press conference Monday. “Instead of having pre-set priorities, instead of having hand-selected task forces, we are pushing for a community voice and community power to be at the center.”

Continue reading King County Equity Now Announces Community-Based Research Team →
Voices

An Open Letter to My Black Brothers, Sisters, and Non-Binary Siblings

by Sean Goode

To my Black Brothers, Sisters and Non-Binary Siblings, 

What do you say when you’ve run out of words? What do you do when every action rooted in love is met with a reciprocal act blossoming with hatred? Where do you go when there is no escape from the reality that we are only days away from watching another state-sanctioned murder of a Black person in America? In our angst, we have marched, protested, rioted, preached, pleaded to politicians who have overpromised, offered platitudes, and in return have expected our gratitude while seemingly nothing has changed. Yet somehow, in many ways, we stand as a community divided, arguing over which boat is best suited to travel back to our ancestral roots as royalty.  As Black people in America, we are not a monolith, and yet we are all inextricably woven into a social fabric that for over 400 years has been placed at the foot of the throne where white supremacy prevails. In this moment, we need the collective us more than ever. Not as competitors in the Olympics of Oppression, where we put my hardship against your hardship and see who has more scars from the whip of inequity, but as co-laborers for a common cause of Black liberation.

Continue reading An Open Letter to My Black Brothers, Sisters, and Non-Binary Siblings →
News

Violence Prevention Leaders Hold Mock Funeral to Call for Investment in Community-Based Public Safety Alternatives

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

During the height of rush hour on Friday afternoon, four Black men carried a casket into the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard and placed it on an awaiting table. A loudspeaker on the corner blasted Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” passing drivers glanced, a few of whom honked in support or to express their condolences. The pall bearers, joined by a woman in a black veil, paused in front of the casket as volunteers with cars, bikes and trash cans blocked the intersection for a moment of reflection. Then the group picked up the coffin again and returned it to a pair of sawhorses set up in front of The Original Philly’s, where a group of fifty-or-so stood watching.

Continue reading Violence Prevention Leaders Hold Mock Funeral to Call for Investment in Community-Based Public Safety Alternatives →
Community

Black Fathers Matter Rally Elevates Stories of Black Dads

by Marcus Harrison Green

If America was seeking advice on a Father’s Day gift to the Black community this year, Sean Goode would adamantly ask for the returned presence of Black fathers over any ornate presents. A request to cancel the stubborn stereotype of belligerently absent Black fathers would rapidly follow.

Continue reading Black Fathers Matter Rally Elevates Stories of Black Dads →