Fighting SB4 in Fort Worth

On August 15, 2017, concerned constituents spoke to Fort Worth City Council before a vote on whether Fort Worth would join many other Texas cities — including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, San Marcos, and tiny El Cenizo — in a lawsuit against SB4. Forth Worth citizens had been lobbying the council for weeks (here’s why) to join the lawsuit against Senate Bill 4, a notorious piece of “show-me-your-papers” style legislation signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on Facebook Live.

After four hours of emotional testimony, during which seventy-one Fort Worth residents — including myself — testified in favor, the council voted 5–4 against joining the lawsuit.

Four council members — Brian Byrd, Cary Moon, Jungus Jordan, and Dennis Shingleton — voted against joining the litigation, with Mayor Betsy Price casting the deciding “no” vote.

It seemed to many of us present that they had been decided for weeks. In fact, council members made little pretense of democracy. Instead, they moved right into crisis management, preparing hundreds of concerned constituents for bad news. Despite the fact that our community had united in such a resilient, fearless way to persuade them, each of the five opponents to joining the suit said essentially the same thing: “I’m not a racist. The law is the law.” They were forgetting that this vote was called precisely because of their ability to affect the law.

After the vote, some chanted “Shut down the floor!” and police responded by escorting — and in some cases carrying — protesters out of the council chambers.

Fort Worth did not lie down or give up.

This wasn’t our first loss and it won’t be our last. The win within the loss is that each of those five representatives is now on the record refusing to take a stand against this legislation. I am proud of the work of United Fort Worth and of all the people who came in solidarity to voice their opposition to SB4.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the law; but if it does eventually go into effect, there will be consequences for communities of color throughout Texas. Many of the people speaking out today may be silenced for fear of deportation or harassment. Those already silent will likely stay silent. Then who will be left to speak out against SB4?

If you live in Texas, please take the time to contact your representatives, neighbors, friends and community members about SB4. If you don’t live in Texas, lobby corporations, organizations, professional conferences, and sports events to boycott Texas.

I encourage you to check out some of the moving speeches on FWTV (8/15/17 City Council Meeting). Among my favorite “soundbites” of the evening:

“Fort Worth, like the rest of the U.S., is black, it is native, it wears a hijab and it speaks Spanish, it is queer and it is not going away.”

Here’s what I had to say to the Council:

“This is my second time addressing the Council on this matter. Since we last spoke, white supremacy reared its ugly head in Charlottesville, Virginia.

I want to read you a statement made by Mayor Betsy Price:

‘Everything about the incident in Charlottesville stands in total opposition to our dearly held values as a nation.…There is no place for hate in this nation, in our communities, or in our hearts.’

I couldn’t agree more, Betsy.

But it needs to be said — white supremacists don’t have to carry torches or run their cars into lawful assemblies of protesters to be dangerous. White supremacy is also offering lip service to people of color while you go about the ‘real business’ of serving the white middle and upper classes. White supremacy is peddling a threat of civil violations in undocumented immigration that is totally out of touch with reality.

White supremacy is admitting the grand majority of the correspondence from constituents supports joining the litigation, but that you are still “confident,” despite all evidence to the contrary, that your “white constituency” would be against joining the lawsuit. Here, white supremacy is a threat to the democratic process.

White supremacy is hosting a Facebook town hall and urging people to remain calm from an office we pay for while you stand with zero risk to be affected.

I’ve heard concerns from council members that already fragile race relations in the city would be especially tense if the litigation does not pass. Let me say: They’re right. Hundreds of thousands of people in this city will hear straight from the votes of City Council whether the council is willing to fight for their rights or not. But it remains a common misconception that people who bring racism to light are the ones who create racial tension.

And I’m also going to say: You better hope the passage of this bill affects people like a clap of thunder — that they make an uproar in response. Because the alternative is their silence — the refusal or fear of undocumented immigrants in our community to speak to law enforcement, the hesitancy of people of color to speak truth to power when that power appears to be indifferent to their suffering. You better hope our city raises hell over this bill, or else its symbolic passage will have affected our communities in a far more devastating way and the lines of racial tension and division will have been effectively fortified.

You can claim this is an inclusive, ‘compassionate’ city all you want, but what you do is so loud, we cannot hear what you say.

Now, will you stand with this community against this racist bill or won’t you? There is no middle ground. The resolution is not enough and citywide protections will not protect people traveling across the state. It’s also not enough to say you are not racist, then refuse to stand up against racist legislation that will be enforced in the city you govern.

Either you’re with us, or against us.

And lastly, I want to remind you that these speeches are on the record. When this bill inevitably has racist consequence, if the records show that you were unmoved by hundreds of testimonies — you won’t be able to claim ignorance as a defense — and you will have so much to answer for.