From King County Councilor Girmay Zahilay
On June 7th, 2020 I recorded a video on my cell phone that shook me to the core. I stood in Othello Park in South Seattle, held up my cell phone, filmed 10,000 people with their fists in the air and shouted, “Black Lives Matter!”
The energy was amazing. I grew up in the South End and been to Othello Park a thousand times. But today was different from any other day. We lived through history. We saw a modern civil rights movement in King County.
Although our district was named after him, our region has the ideals of Dr. King repeatedly missed. Black people are incarcerated more than anyone, have one of the highest homelessness rates, and average household wealth that is ever near zero. However, the energy I felt in Othello Park on June 7th made me a believer. The work of organizers, protesters and activists during the summer of 2020 and long before it made me believe that we could achieve real transformational changes for blacks.
I believed that change was possible because, as a policy maker, I saw firsthand signs of it. Legislative and budgetary priorities that were never possible before 2020 suddenly became possible. By working with the community and harnessing the base energy of the Black Lives Matter movement, my office achieved significant political victories for our African American communities in my first 12 months as a King County councilor.
No example is greater than our work in Skyway, the most African American neighborhood in all of Washington state. For several decades, this parish has been one of the most systematically neglected areas in King County. Yes, the most black neighborhood was also one of the most deprived at all levels of government. That is the definition of systemic racism. However, in 2020 we were able to change the usual course. My office, which worked with the community and our King County colleagues, has invested tens of millions of dollars in Skyway. We started a community center, budgeted millions for affordable housing for the first time, and dramatically expanded public transportation. We have also refined the Skyway sub-area plan to promote services in this neighborhood while protecting black residents from gentrification.
My office was also able to join the black ownership movement. We identified underutilized public land in King County and transferred that land to black-run organizations. We worked with these organizations to design and propose a Youth Achievement Center, a housing and resource center for underserved and unhoused black youth in South Seattle.
In direct response to the protests against Black Lives Matter, my office put Amendment 6 to the Charter for public vote in November 2020. This change, which has been publicly approved, will allow King County to fundamentally reshape our vision for policing. We will now be able to invest in public health and alternatives to traditional policing and protect our black residents from police violence. This is really a change for our region and it would not have been possible without the movements we saw in 2020.
We also passed laws requiring teenagers to be given public defenders if the police ask them to renounce their Miranda rights. started a guaranteed basic income program with black-run organizations; and worked with black companies to buy commercial real estate. We even worked with a coalition of black leaders to meet with our governor and campaign for a statewide framework of justice that makes bold investments in black communities across Washington. These are just a few examples of what I consider to be the beginning of a paradigm shift.
Despite all of the struggles we have seen in 2020, our nation has seen an awakening too. Our collective awareness of race and racism entered a new phase, as did the opportunities for a transformation policy. Our society is nowhere near where it needs to be to clean up systemic damage and ensure thriving and healthy black communities, but I believe in our development. On this holiday on which Dr. King is celebrated, I choose now and forever to believe that the arc of the moral universe is leaning towards justice.
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