30 Jun
2019
30 Jun
'19
10:24 a.m.
Scott,
You appear to have several facts confused. When I answered the door after
hearing one long super annoying incessant ring on omni's doorbell as i
walked up all the way from the basement to answer, i opened it with
"please, don't ring our fucking doorbell like that." I didn't know who
was
at the door but it's my responsiblity to make sure make sure they are a
member of a collective, a guest of a member of a collective or attending an
event. The man refused to identify himself & said he knew Needa B (Needa
has an agreement with Omni to use the Omni office, but the Village is not a
member collective at Omni & no other members of Needa's group use the omni
aside from the donation pile in the basement which hasn't been touched in a
very long time) but i had never seen him at an Village workparties or
actions & i was unable to even confirm with Needa as he refused to give me
his name.
i did say, at one point as i was annoyed, "learn how to ring a doorbell
like a normal human" but i would have said that to anybody under similar
circumstances regardless of ethnic background.
i've agreed to mediation but so far all that's happened are two messages,
one yours & one Needa's, to very large groups. we have a mediation list
mediation(a)lists.omnicommons.org for actual mediation coordination & a
process defined on our wiki.
i have stopped answering the door altogether
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 10:00 AM robb <sf99er(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 6/28/19, D. Scott Nanos <scott.nanos(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Basically, Deon is friends with Phat Beets and
Food First, and has been
frequenting the Omni in order to do work and access the community
resources
that are available. To my understanding, he often
works in the Sudo room
space. Although this should not need to be said, I can personally vouch
for
Deon as an upstanding and generous member of the
Oakland community.
Deon was having trouble accessing the space the other day and rung the
Omni
doorbell several times, at which point guy named
Rob opened the door and
started cursing at him and being very aggressive. After Deon was able to
enter Omni, Rob then started following him around and harassing him,
acting
like a cop. Although this is egregious in and of
itself, and a terrible
counter-representation of the Omni's values, this all came to a head
when
Rob accused Deon of not being "an actual,
normal, human being". Whether
or
not this was intentional, it evoked longstanding
racist attitudes that
black folks have been subjected to, suggesting that Deon was less-than,
or
sub-human. Deon was so offended that he promptly
left the Omni and has
not
been back since.
Besides this very loaded and hateful comment, this general kind of
treatment and attitude, overall, is the EXACT opposite of the way black
folks should be treated when interfacing with the Omni. Rob's actions
are
not okay, at all, and I strongly feel that a
serious accountability
process
should be implemented for this incident. This is
not a small matter.
I've
spoken with Deon, and he has agreed to
participate.
I've also heard that this type of incident has happened before at the
Omni,
specifically involving Rob. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but apparently, the
attitude that was expressed to Deon was that Rob is one of the main
people
that operates (i.e. helps to reproduce and
sustain,) the Omni, and as
such,
people basically go along with what he says and
does. If this is in fact
the case, then an accountability process is even more imperative. In no
way
should labor, and by proxy, "power"
derived from labor, enable a person
to
act with racism against members of the Oakland
community. I think it's
in
the best interest of the Omni to address this
issue immediately, for
Deon,
for the Omni, and for the Omni's relationship
with the greater
community of
Oakland.
I believe Marc was present for part of this incident as well, and
although
I know, Marc is so busy doing vital work for Sudo
and Omni, it might
behoove him to also participate in this process, as a witness.
I am writing this email not because I am trying to "cancel" or ruin
anyone,
but because I care about Deon, The Omni, Sudo,
and the Oakland
community at
large. This issue seems indicative of larger
problems, and if addressed
with love and respect and accountability, could seriously benefit all
parties listed above, and improve the Omni and it's relationship with
Oakland.
I'm not sure where to take it from here, as I am personally extremely
busy
with other community-based activities in Oakland
right now, but a
mediator/facilitator should be sought out, ideally a black person, but
at
the very least, a non-black poc, and probably
someone that isn't
personally
involved in the day-to-day operations at Omni,
sudo etc. If i am able, I
could possibly be this mediator, but I hope other options are sought out
first, because a.) I'm a non-black, mixed race poc, and b.) I have very
little capacity at the moment.
But please keep me in the loop regarding an accountability process for
Rob,
and I'll do whatever I can to help move this
along and reach a fair and
just conclusion.
Sorry to bring such difficult news to you all, but I could not stay
silent.
With love and Solidarity,
Scott
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