Dear CARB Board,
Thank you for this time.
My understanding of the resolution is that the
end goal is for CARB to better serve the public by creating a
workforce that is representative of all Californians, framed
through an equity lens.
Let me state the obvious. Not all black or brown or
Asians or white folks are the same. In fact, each of these
demographics have names for folks they believe have betrayed their
community. Hanoi Jane during Vietnam for example, or Malinche or
vendido in Mexico.
For some black folks, it’s the, “brother with
the whip.”
My community is an AB 617 community, in a
district led by a latino, whose key staff are latino, and whose
board includes well positioned latinos. However, the AB 617
boundaries sit directly across the street from a dense community of
monolingual Spanish speakers, a Title 5 facility, Macy’s
distribution center.
The initial proposal didn’t include a secondary
industrial park surrounded by low-income high-density housing, also
mostly monolingual latinos as well.
I’ve seen air districts bring black
& brown folks into the AB 617 process, who many would say spent
most of their time with their foot on the neck of other black &
brown folks. The
inequities continue there, despite the CARBs POC leadership.
I heard a song recently about slavery. A black man was singing
about the brother with the whip, who sold him onto the slave
ship. It was not done
out poverty or need according to the song, for they were already
wealthy.
So take note, a person of any ethnicity who is
more driven by ambition, than kindness and honesty, is likely to
expand any divide between CARB and the most marginalized
communities. I once
told a room full of angry Latinos that I’d prefer a
kindhearted white person up on that dais, that a POC driven by
self-interests. As
you can imagine, they wanted to kill me, but the Latinos advocates
were real ones, and they defended me telling the crowd,
“He’s being honest with you!” Ironically, I was defending
a Board’s make-up.
One could argue that your response to the
resolution has already cost you some CARB staff well capacitated to
achieving your end goal of better serving all Californians. The same folks you bring in
to improve equity, could also stifle the voices of people of color,
or those advocating for them. Regardless of how many people of color you hire,
even the kind ones can be indoctrinated to the oppressive Top-Down
approach that still reigns within government agencies. Many well-respected staff
of all ethnicities have shared these concerns with me about their
agency.
I’m not saying any of this in a vacuum;
I’m just the only one who will say it publicly. History will
bear witness to the complicity it takes to enable systemic racism.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my
truth to power.
Sincerely,
Mauro Libre (Free Brother)
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