Minneapolis community members share what “hero” means to them, and what keeps our communities & families safe.
#SafetyNotFear highlights a new approach to public safety, away from the kind of policing that hurts communities.
Learn more: https://safetynotfear.com
Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
00:07
when i think of a hero i think of the
00:08
community members who aren’t perfect who
00:11
have a past who have a history
00:13
and
00:14
are just trying to make ends meet like
00:16
everybody else in minneapolis
00:20
[Music]
00:25
a lot of crisis harm and crime i would
00:28
say arises out of a lack of resource
00:32
or a need not being met
00:35
you know we were already
00:38
you know shortchanged with resources
00:41
and then we were
00:42
indoctrinated and
00:44
corrupted to believe that
00:47
the only way to survive was to
00:50
feed off of each other
00:52
well first
00:54
no baby is born a savage
00:56
there’s a narrative around our kids that
00:58
they’re savages and they’re just
01:01
terrorists and they just
01:03
want to loot and steal and all these
01:05
things but if we really do a deep dive
01:08
a lot of the kids don’t have resources
01:11
a lot of the kids
01:13
even us in our own community we walk
01:15
past them and get away from them and we
01:17
treat them the same way unfortunately
01:20
instead of having a conversation with
01:22
them
01:22
it’s time i’ve found they want to talk
01:25
like the saying when a kid comes into
01:27
school
01:29
and you’re wondering why they can’t
01:32
learn why they’re not able to focus on
01:35
the the lesson for the day
01:38
nine times out of ten is because
01:40
they’re thinking about how hungry they
01:41
are
01:42
they’re thinking about the trauma they
01:44
just left at home
01:45
it’s the same thing when a person gets
01:47
out of prison you tell them go ahead and
01:48
be a productive citizen in society but
01:52
yet they don’t know where they’re going
01:53
to sleep tonight they don’t know what
01:55
they’re going to eat how they’re going
01:56
to sustain themselves it’s hard for
01:58
whites to see racism
02:00
because they live in a bubble and the
02:02
disparities keep them in the bubble
02:05
and unless we break our bubbles and go
02:08
outside our bubbles
02:09
they’ll always be
02:11
because it’s too comfortable for whites
02:13
the way it is
02:15
and they have it’s hard for them to have
02:17
empathy inside that bubble
02:20
we have lack of resources but we also
02:23
have to understand in our community we
02:24
are the resource i would say my biggest
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role in the community so far has been to
02:29
be on the front lines of the fight for
02:30
black lives i also have been involved in
02:33
the network of mutual aid work that has
02:36
been going on on the ground here in
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minneapolis one of the biggest
02:39
initiatives that we helped out with was
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to provide aid and
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supplies to the houseless community
02:48
which has been a very very very imminent
02:51
issue here in minneapolis what mutual
02:53
aid looks like in my view is
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the people
02:58
coming to fill those gaps so my personal
03:00
vision with mutual aid has been to give
03:03
resources
03:05
to the most vulnerable because when our
03:07
most vulnerable are
03:08
respected protected and taken care of
03:11
that is a way of prevention so because
03:14
we’re given these resources
03:16
brothers are able to find their place
03:18
back in their community in a dignified
03:20
manner they’re given hope that you know
03:23
there is a different way from the way
03:25
they’ve been taught that there is um and
03:28
so by
03:29
taking some of those those burdens off
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of people’s shoulders when they’re
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coming home as far as the resources that
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we’re lacking
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but also
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helping them
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relearn
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what it means
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to be a brother a friend a community
03:45
member is how we push back against these
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oppressive systems what we do is we
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provide
03:52
housing
03:53
services we provide
03:56
health care services we provide
03:59
hygiene clothing
04:02
tickets
04:03
as far as for
04:05
rides
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if a person is
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trying to get their license
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and they have tickets or fines that need
04:13
to be paid we will you know write a
04:15
stipend for that
04:17
so any little thing that is that is a
04:19
barrier to successful re-entry
04:21
successfully navigating a world that
04:23
they have left for 5 10 15 20 plus years
04:28
we uplift that during my experience
04:30
volunteering at george ford square
04:32
sometimes it was traumatizing
04:34
and i actually had witnessed a murder
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and after that my mother suggested that
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i go to therapy it helped me
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really put into words and into thoughts
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honestly how i really feel and make it
04:44
made it easier to be vulnerable with
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people and talk about that
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how i was really feeling
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um so after just seeing uh how that
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experience helped me so much like in my
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personal life
04:56
i wanted
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all the people in my community to have
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access to mental health the way that i
05:01
was you know fortunate enough to
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i wouldn’t consider therapists like a
05:04
first responder but i would consider
05:07
them more on the end of like prevention
05:09
because i felt like if more people
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sat down with the therapist and talked
05:13
out
05:14
their past
05:15
and you know develop better coping
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mechanisms with their demons instead of
05:20
like taking it out on the people they
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love or their community members
05:23
there’d be a lot less 9-1-1 calls
05:26
and
05:27
a safer safer environment for the
05:29
community all around
05:31
i’ve never had a problem with police
05:34
as a boy
05:36
growing up in the 1940s and 1950s
05:40
i was taught the policeman is your
05:42
friend
05:44
particularly white people and we tend to
05:46
live in a segregated
05:48
society
05:50
in terms of our neighborhoods i mean
05:53
and most white people live in
05:55
predominantly white neighborhoods
05:58
and
06:00
so i think they are treated differently
06:02
in their own neighborhoods
06:05
and certainly the the violence
06:09
uh and the assumption of guilt and the
06:12
profiling that seems to be done
06:15
by police
06:17
i think is a major problem for people of
06:19
color
06:20
the police does not make me feel safe
06:23
the police have never made me feel safe
06:26
the police have always made me feel that
06:28
i was vulnerable
06:30
that i wasn’t safe that i was only
06:32
inches or seconds away from being harmed
06:34
or abused because that’s what typically
06:36
the police have done to me
06:39
that is
06:40
no real fault of any individual but the
06:44
system of policing and the constant
06:47
work that goes into it is constantly
06:50
seeing people at their very worst
06:52
in doing that work you then create a
06:57
a narrative in your mind that tells you
06:59
that people are inherently
07:02
harmful i’ve literally seen
07:05
police sitting right here
07:07
a shooting happened right here
07:10
and they don’t even roll up until the
07:13
shooting stops they’re not you know
07:16
actively working to keep anyone safe
07:18
it’s more like they’re actively working
07:20
to keep you restricted confined in a
07:23
certain area and move in a certain way
07:25
keep us in a certain neighborhood make
07:28
sure we’re only hurting
07:31
in our area more recently i was thinking
07:33
it’s kind of like covet
07:35
we don’t know where that bug is
07:37
and when it will
07:39
engage us but we know it’s out there we
07:41
know it’s lethal
07:43
well that’s how it must be for people of
07:45
color in terms of their contact with
07:47
police they don’t know if it’s a bad
07:49
apple or not and they don’t know what
07:50
will happen if they get engaged they
07:52
don’t know what would happen if they’re
07:54
unjustly accused and they end up in the
07:56
system it’s totally
07:59
at risk and
08:01
that’s just wrong for people to have to
08:03
live that way it’s
08:05
to live with that kind of distress is
08:08
cruel
08:09
the reason why i decided to organize the
08:11
barbershops and use them as a platform
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to create protagonist and community
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development leadership is because i
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started noticing in the barbershops is
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where disenfranchised people feel most
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powerful so when people come inside the
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barbershops we lawyers we sports
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analysts we politicians and you you hear
08:29
brothers and sisters speaking with more
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confidence inside that space and then
08:33
when i started understanding the
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capitalism and white supremacy i started
08:37
understanding like well that makes sense
08:39
because most of the time when we we as
08:41
black people step outside our doors
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we’re stripped of everything publicly
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but when we’re around each other
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community that’s when we actually feel
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our most powerful so the barbershop is
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safe in a way where people can actually
08:53
be who they are
08:54
in the middle of a crisis or when
08:56
something is urgent it’s really hard to
09:00
remember that perhaps aunt sally
09:03
is a person who can help you de-escalate
09:07
it’s sometimes it’s hard to remember
09:08
that your neighbor next door um really
09:11
you know knows how to make you laugh um
09:15
sometimes it’s hard to remember that you
09:17
know your cousin is a person who can you
09:20
know make everybody feel comfortable
09:22
people are not actually hearing each
09:23
other if you have domestic issues where
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people are not hearing each other i feel
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equipped to relate to my brothers and
09:28
sisters
09:29
i feel like i have the wisdom to talk to
09:30
people about exactly what’s going on i
09:32
think i have the skill set of listening
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to people that i can actually introduce
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people to
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i know how to check brothers and sisters
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temperatures i’ve been out here a long
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time i know how to address people i know
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how to preserve my brothers and sisters
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dignity and respect when i’m talking to
09:45
them even if i’m displeased about some
09:47
of the actions or what’s going on
09:50
a lot of people don’t know this but
09:52
right after world war ii
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i think it was through the united
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nations
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they declared a universal declaration of
10:00
human rights
10:01
but it begins with the basics you know
10:04
everyone has a right to housing
10:08
everyone has a right to earn you know a
10:11
decent income that will
10:14
where they’ll feel secure everyone has a
10:16
right
10:17
to health care everyone has a right to
10:20
education
10:21
everyone has a right
10:23
to have a decent roof over their head
10:27
everyone has a right to be free from
10:29
violence
10:30
all of those things are factors that
10:33
contribute to
10:34
you know people in a community feeling
10:36
safe it’s not just the absence of overt
10:40
violence
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but there are many underlying factors
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that we need to address as well
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things that actually make the community
10:47
safe is a willingness to actually engage
10:50
each other intentionally
10:53
so what i mean by that is
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people who wake up with the mission to
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say i’m going to speak to somebody today
11:02
i’m going to get to know this brother
11:03
right here who’s been two houses down
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for me for years and i’ve never spoke to
11:07
him before
11:11
more intention on the calendar around
11:12
the community coming together for no
11:14
reason and no holiday just because you
11:17
want to get to know each other in your
11:18
community
11:20
conversation
11:22
intentional engaging
11:25
and then actually making that part of a
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culture where you now have the kids to
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do the same thing that you’re doing
11:31
i think you know initially like most
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people i get this image of a comic book
11:37
character dressed in you know superhero
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outfit um but i but i know that there
11:44
are everyday heroes i think hero is this
11:47
person who’s willing to go in sometimes
11:50
making sacrifices for their self on
11:53
their selves for their own uh well-being
11:56
for to making sure that everybody else
11:58
is
11:58
you know doing okay
12:00
you know i
12:03
i shy away from heroes
12:05
because i think in our society we make
12:08
celebrities out of a few people
12:11
who knows who’s going to hit the jackpot
12:12
you know
12:14
but for me a hero
12:19
is a person who
12:22
steps out of their comfort zone
12:25
and is willing to
12:26
[Music]
12:28
open up their perspectives and listen to
12:31
other perspectives
12:34
a hero really is an inclusive person
12:37
who works
12:40
in coalition with others
12:42
i don’t think an individual can be a
12:44
hero really i mean they try and our
12:47
society certainly encourages that we
12:50
expect a hero to come along and fix it
12:52
and i think we need a multitude of
12:55
heroes
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because everybody’s a leader
12:58
god has given all of us something that
13:00
we’re good at
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and we need to tap into that and come
13:03
together
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and and build a united front
13:09
[Music]
13:26
you
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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