Claiming the Right to the City Through Intergroup Dialogue

In the wake of police killing Cory Jackson, an unarmed Black man—and the subsequent acquittal of the officers—residents of Geneva, NY witnessed a rare and fleeting moment of dialogue between the city’s underclass and political elite. Public anger and anguish over the death of yet another young Black man operated to open up space where the city’s traditional politics of disenfranchisement and racial isolation could be named and possibly reimagined. In response to the public protests, the U.S. Department of Justice initiated a series of “intergroup dialogues on race” to help the city facilitate conversations- about longstanding grievances and divisions that Cory Jackson’s killing stirred up (Shaw, 2012a). The proceeding months witnessed the declension of the protests and the U.S. Department of Justice initiative. Despite significant voluntary participation from Black, White and Brown residents, despite the official compliance of city officials, and despite a widely heralded series of postdialogue initiatives—including volunteer “task forces”—the political goals of integrating Blacks and Latinos into the city’s economic and political structure faded. Ironically dialogues focused on “racial healing” functioned to silence the aspirations of Genevans to reclaim some of the city’s political machinery for Black and poor residents (e.g., Shaw, 2011).This article explores our intervention into these failed dialogues and initiatives against a backdrop of an individuated reading of racial equity activism, indicative of what Spargens (1999) calls “civic liberalism.” Yet, we argue, intergroup dialogue remains a safe space in which to conceptualize institutional racism and could be retooled to develop collective thinking. This essay explores our development and execution of a model of community education, known as Tools for Social Change, in Geneva, NY that uses the intimacy of intergroup dialogue to develop political collectivity. Drawing on our curriculum, reflections on our facilitation and participants’ narratives we illustrate our attempts to center collective power-building that is first initiated through individual relationship-building. Unlike traditional intergroup dialogue, our sessions began with a framing of the rights denied to Black and Latino city residents (e.g., sustainable jobs, equitable housing, access to banks, city council, day to day in store harassments, police violence, etc.). We use intergroup dialogue to buffer and process the stress and discontent that surface. In turn, we are making moves, of varying success, toward an education on the rights to self-determination, collective rights and collective transformations. Through our dialogues and community organizing we have: identified and built political machinery for the first Black candidate to run for city council, hosted the first 2015 city council and mayoral candidates forum—with questions designed and facilitated by our multiracial, multiclass coalition, and organized a campaign to disrupt the corporate and political construction of a food desserts on Geneva’s north side. Ultimately, our project works to resist the individuating of social actors, through intercommunal trust-building and collective activism to achieve political representation for urban residents. We believe that our measured successes, provide a model of dialogue and community building that may serve as a productive resource for employing interclass, interracial alliances in the fight for the right to the city. Moreover, this project is not intergroup dialogue, it is not service learning and it is not traditional grassroots community organizing—it is simultaneously all of these things. Furthermore, it may be a way forward for communities that have been systematically isolated and suffocated within their own cities.The research for this essay draws on methods commonly attributed to participatory research, which emphasizes participation and action. Moreover, it is research that seeks to understand the world by changing it, collaboratively and reflectively. As Bergold and Thomas (2012) note “in contrast to nomothetic research, which can be carried out under almost any social conditions, participatory research requires a democratic social and political context.” As cofacilitators of the weekly dialogues, the authors are uniquely situated to engage in and reflect upon the construction of meaning within the group process. Our own situatedness, as three men, one Black, one South Asian, and one White and all employed at one of the most economically prominent institutions in Geneva—Hobart and William Smith Colleges—underscores how visible our identities were in the group and how much our voices likely shaped the direction of the group. Therefore, we have included our personal reflections and observations among those of the other participants. Yet, there were hundreds of other voices that comprise our data pool and therefore this story also moves well beyond us, especially given the democratic character of the Tools for Social Change leadership structure. To tell the story, therefore, we have drawn primarily from four categories of data acquisition: (1) Jeremy Wattles kept notes of the weekly dialogue, noting the identity and precise language of each participant. While we have sought and received permission to quote these participants, their names are absent, though their social identity is noted. (2) Participants developed a series of written documents in small groups which we collected and coded, (3) group emails and posted comments and reflections on social media were collected and coded, (4) Lastly, our essay begins and ends with the story of a widely discussed tragedy which left a trail of public discourse in newspapers, blogs, social media and meeting minutes for city council and city hall. Each represents a different feature of the Cory Jackson story, and each has been coded for this project.Early in the morning of Friday, May 20, 2011 Cory Jackson and two passengers sat in a vehicle that had been stopped by the Geneva Police Department (GDP). Police were seeking to question Jackson regarding a robbery that occurred earlier that morning. When ordered to exit the car, two occupants did so. Jackson did not. Officer Carmen Reale, who would later claim he “saw Jackson turn toward another officer with what appeared to be a weapon” fired his gun, shooting through the rear window and hitting Jackson in the head. Three days later, at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, Corey Jackson died. No gun was ever found on Corey Jackson’s person or in the vehicle. The GPD placed Reale on administrative leave until the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office finished its own independent investigation into the shooting (Hibbard, 2011a).The larger narratives employed immediately after Jackson’s killing are telling, in terms of their scope and their competition for legitimacy. The police department rejected any charges of racism and referred to the killing as an isolated event where their officer followed protocol (Hibbard, 2011a). In the ensuing weeks Corey Jackson’s family and local residents publicly raised important questions: (1) Given that Jackson was in the back seat of a coupe, how could he comply with orders to exit the vehicle with his hands up if he had to bend down and reach forward to move a lever on the seat in front of him? (2) Since Jackson had nothing in his hands, what was it that “appeared” to be a weapon in the officer’s eyes? (Hibbard, 2011a). Many Black community members were angry at Jackson’s death, but also saw this event as tied to a larger structural issue of racial discrimination. Patrisha Blue, an active member of the local NAACP and longtime community activist, said “There have been too many unanswered questions in Geneva. And they all point to Black and how we are in this of the Geneva that an independent the Ontario County Sheriff’s Department the for a investigation (Hibbard, The local also its to the by a article on 2011 Jackson’s which in Jackson’s While this article did quote in the Black the to much on the individual Jackson’s and the police up in on the of police (Hibbard, the Ontario County the The said that the to about to the and after all of the in this that the shooting of Corey Jackson, was under the on of GPD to who and for Corey and to forward and that Geneva is a and the into the killing of Cory was not the to the questions of structural and racism raised by in the Black of at and William Smith the U.S. Department of Justice and was the In the a of dialogue on a designed through the first through group to of racism and to in their The Geneva included the The city of Geneva, the Geneva the the members of the the and the Geneva would the with the of meeting to the process the of and after the dialogue in a of an official of on much referred to the as and to the The which would be in after for the publicly the of the the of Geneva, Patrisha local media that the city’s to for the of and Latino police if we had that of on the right we would be the on May could have been in another there was or that they could to on the but at a police and has been and can not a of the Geneva the of the which community dialogue, and began meeting the of in to the goals in the of the GPD had developed a and with a on the rights of of or and their to with we is with and a of initiatives included an to police to and also on on the model of and in that dialogue would and to their own to (Shaw, The a city was a for the process. While the other were in the many of were their as community members or had other within city for the with and a this in with their of and back against later, against police of unarmed Black men, and a for structural Geneva witnessed a series of to the of the the that the Geneva had a to the for the as to a of in city has on to the in the of the 2011 Cory Jackson and that to to and in the The of many of the be the dialogues we are to we are (Shaw, 2012a). that the would be the and that in were have and to a of the of the in the are that are to our (Shaw, Despite the of and the city council, their for the and and the this in the wake of a community tragedy and in the larger of the Black and protests of police of unarmed Black men, would have for the by the the forward with the and on to a The Thomas to the city is under that we and our this of in an to to our and on of the one of those was the was to a on (Shaw, This of to be The city’s of the its and after another in of down as the and another in County (Shaw, months earlier in of the had its The had we not what and within and of the city and city council, but for some residents it as at the moment dialogue and on structural in city were most the city of Geneva to the out from under the a in the process and to forward the this subsequent there was a down of the in four officer Reale after on administrative leave with Police in of that Reale had as of that the GPD had a at the and though Reale had to be the said on his that it had any officer to be in an where they a (Hibbard, the Police after its first Lastly, of as a on the city of Geneva’s and a for city and the Geneva Police Department of police or the divisions between city and the Black Ultimately, there is to by the to in public or Blacks for to the Geneva and the of by the declension what we have out in our of the of the Corey Jackson that despite an there is much This of as the of many Black have been by or White for many the media in the of be on the of in 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