It's always a joy to see when people FINALLY conclude that symbols and systems to white supremacy no longer have a place in our public domains. For the last 5 years, Take Em Down NOLA has continued the long history of resistance work that precedes us, by long time community organizers, such as Reverend Avery Alexander and Dorothy Mae Taylor, who fought for progressive change, both symbolically and systemically. Rev. Avery Alexander was both put into a chokehold in 1993 by police for protesting against white supremacist David Duke at a ceremony in honor of the white supremacist monument that was deceptively named the Battle of Liberty Place Monument. In 1963, Rev. Alexander was also literally dragged by his heels up a flight of stairs out of the basement cafeteria of New Orleans City Hall for resisting the racists practices of segregated lunch counters and all other places here services were provided to Black people.

There would be no Take Em Down NOLA without people like Rev. Avery Alexander. And there would be no Renaming Commission without the grassroots work of a Take Em Down NOLA.

However, after being publicly ignored by the City of New Orleans time and time again, but clearly having impact and agitating the City of New Orleans, we have finally been asked by the vice chair of the commission to meet as a way to settle us down and help us to be more “constructive.” Again, there would be no commission, if it were not for grassroots activism. But the patterns of the city, and this renaming commission demonstrate that this is not an opportunity for progress. It is really a hindrance to real progress. We have been clear about how the city can fight white supremacy with our list of demands. The City of New Orleans has demonstrated that it does not want to. It only wants to take the pathway of least resistance as it appeases the rich white supremacist ruling class. This is their function.

Therefore, there is nothing we would say in a meeting, that we would not say publicly, so our response to a meeting request is as follows, and can be taken back as our “constructive” engagement:

After the blood, sweat and tears of grassroots organizers in the streets, the City of New Orleans creates a “Renaming Commission”, with no FULL commitment to remove the 10 remaining monuments to white supremacy (which includes Andrew Jackson in the French Quarter) as a precedent to renaming or replacement of white supremacist symbols in this city. The City of New Orleans is simultaneously CONTINUING to compromise with white supremacy which puts the lives of Black people in danger, daily. A concrete example of this the fact that as soon as LaToya Cantrell was elected as mayor, she began secret meetings with the white supremacists who defended the monuments that had been taken down before she was elected mayor. Her eagerness to appease them was exposed by the local media who found and released the minutes from those meetings. Even today, after the people of the CITY, COUNTRY and WORLD have risen up, during a mass uprising for Black lives, to say defund and abolish the police AND remove the symbols to white supremacy, Mayor Cantrell is STILL trying to appease the white supremacist of this city, sitting silent while the defenders of these monuments work with the District Attorney’s office to use the injustice system to prosecute people who say NO to white supremacy.

It is DISGUSTING to LITERALLY WATCH as the state and city police work directly with white supremacists to target protestors for fighting against white supremacy. This is what they have ALWAYS done, but unfortunately people continue to put their hope and trust in elected officials to lead the change, even when a Black woman Democrat mayor is elected for the first time, we see the same practices being used. What is Black representation good for when it chooses to uphold the white power structure that is causing harm and terrorizing Black lives?

We have said it before, and we will say it again, it has ONLY ever been the power of the people RISING up to DEMAND change that has brought actual change. Laws and change follows the mass resistance. Progress of any kind in the areas of social change, worker conditions, or worker pay has always come due to the rising up of the people.

For the last 3 months we have seen the country rise up in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, while our local government continues to be silent about Modesto Reyes who survived the horrific collapse of the Hard Rock, only to be gunned down by the same Jefferson Parish police that gunned down Eric Harris in Orleans Parish just 4 years ago. How dare we accept crocodile tears from city officials at the result of unsafe conditions for workers in the city, while we have seen no action regarding the conditions necessary for Black people, nor any member of the working class to feel safe, healthy or whole in the City of New Orleans?

Now, on the heels of Hurricane Laura, as we remember Hurricane Katrina 15 years later, the questions are: What’s truly better for Black people as a whole? Where is the LIVING wage? Where is the eviction ban for people impacted by economic hardship during a COVID-19 global pandemic? Where are the health services and healthcare for workers who have always been and continue to be essential? Where are the proactive sustainable services and programs to nurture the well-being and brilliance of our children and families? Where is the FULLY funded relocation for the all Black Residents of Gordon Plaza who have been demanding such since discovering that the City of New Orleans built their homes on a former landfill which is now the second highest cancer-causing neighborhood in the state of Louisiana? Where is the action oriented effort to #FlipTheBudget in New Orleans from investing 63% of the majority of the people’s money into cops, jails and reactive measures, while only investing 3% into children and families (who need it the most), and only investing a measly 1% into job development, when we are experiencing the largest unemployment rates seen since the Great Depression? Yet, that is the problem. Black people as a whole, have been contending with police terror (and white supremacist vigilantes who collaborate with the police to inflict violence) and capitalistic economic hardship since long before the Great Depression.

So again, while the police murder, by unloading 10 bullets into Trayford Pellerin, of Lafayette, LA and then two days later unload 7 bullets into Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin who is still fighting for his life, and may be paralyzed or life, we bear witness to the complete cooperation of the state with the white supremacists who wreak havoc on the lives of people in the streets fighting for self-determination.

We refuse to be silent. We refuse to go along to get along! We are demanding change. We have been peaceful, but clearly that approach does not work. Perhaps we have to completely defy the mindset of nonviolence, not because we are violent, but because the state continues to be violent toward our people and is showing no signs of stopping. What people would ever allow terror to be cast upon them and not defend themselves? When we say, no justice, no peace, we mean it! Why should we be peaceful, since there has been no justice?

In 2016, the New Orleans City legal team had enough sense to the write the following: “Time has not tempered the unrest and violence that began in Ferguson. In April, riots [what MLK called the “language of the unheard”] erupted amid demonstrations in Baltimore following the death of a black man in police custody. These protests injured police officers and shuttered sections of the City. In June, a white supremacist killed nine black worshipers in the basement of a Charleston church. Subsequently, fights broke out on the steps of the South Carolina state house over the continued display of the Confederate battle flag. And just last month, protests raged in Chicago over police shootings of a black youth. While plaintiffs [defenders of the symbols to white supremacy] are free to dismiss these events as the inevitable conflict that “can occur in a free society at almost any time,” public officials responsible for the safety of life and property are not unreasonable for taking them more seriously. The City Council need not wait for the City to burn before reasonably concluding that statues honoring Confederate leaders are a potential lightning rod for simmering civil unrest.”

So, with our leg of this resistance work, we have consistently expressed how important the removal of symbols to white supremacy is to the process of real truth and reconciliation. There can be no reconciliation without truth and there can be no truth when the so called elected powers that be are sleeping in the same bed with the members of the rich ruling class, and using the police to carry out their function to repress and protect property, profits and the status quo. State sanctioned commissions and committees that do not push for fundamental systemic change are the status quo. They are always touted as being the “constructive” ways to address issues. However, it’s evident that they are being used to compromise with white supremacy and hinder the work of revolutionaries dedicated to the obliteration of white supremacy as a tool of divisiveness used to engage in exploitation and oppression of our people. We don’t apologize for taking the most constructive route in this organizing work, which is anchored in a commitment to dismantle that which causes our people harm, while simultaneously building new systems that edify the minds, bodies and spirits of our people. If the City of New Orleans (and all of its projects) really wanted to be taken seriously in this regard, it would engage in the following:

1. IMMEDIATE removal of the remaining monuments to white supremacy. There are 7 that have been removed, and now the 10 that remain MUST go.

Even an empty pedestal (until replacement comes) sends a message to all that New Orleans would prefer an open space, rather than one filled with the honoring of racism, hate, exploitation and oppression. By making a CLEAR decision to NOT compromise with white supremacy and honor it in any form or fashion, New Orleans would be a leader in the removal of images of psychological terror upon Black lives. This would also show up in the way systems in New Orleans work. The many city workers (and hospitality workers and essential workers, who are essential 365 days a year, not just during COVID19) should be paid a LIVING wage, hazard pay, PTO and PPE, and city workers should be given the green light by the city to remove these statues/monuments. This could happen today if city officials were principled, rather than compromisers with the rich ruling class who put mediocrity and profits over people. If elected officials were principled against racism, exploitation and oppression, they would take ACTION NOW and remove all remaining symbols to white supremacy!!! When it comes to school names, each and every school community should have say and active involvement in the replacement of the school names, and with parks and street names, residents across the board can be provided the criteria below to support and guide replacement choices. However, by having a renaming commission that focuses on a few streets here and there, based on the comfort level of those that joyfully compromise with white supremacy, the renaming commission actually becomes more of an obstacle to progress than a conduit.

2) REPLACEMENT CRITERIA:

Take Em Down NOLA not only has criteria for which symbols to remove, but we also have Build Em Up NOLA criteria. When removing symbols to white supremacy, exploitation and oppression, we need revolutionary criteria for replacements. Take Em Down NOLA uses the following criteria: (a) Images that honor, uplift and celebrate RESISTANCE to exploitation and oppression (b) Images of REVOLUTIONARIES and REVOLUTIONS – those people and movements that fought for the liberation of oppressed people (c) Images that edify, celebrate, honor and revere complete LIBERATION (d) NOT images that fetishize Black trauma, suffering, exploitation or oppression. Just because an image of a Black person or symbol goes up, does not make it about liberation. Some images further perpetuate exploitation and oppression, and we must discern between these clearly. We do NOT condone images of white supremacists, nor Black misleaders who comply with the white supremacists, neoliberals, nor those who placate to members of the rich ruling class. NOTE: If the white supremacist can look at it and find any joy, it’s got to go!!! If a revolutionary would find inspiration in it, to continue the fight to end systems of oppression, while building toward complete liberation of the Black working class (which ensures the entire working class’s liberation), room must be made for it!!!

3) SYMBOLS & SYSTEMS are connected:

Therefore, we are demanding that the City of New Orleans flip the budget and no longer continue to invest in that which further causes exploitation and oppression of the very people these symbols aim to deny, erase, and maintain oppression over. 65% of the current general budget goes to cops, jails and reactive measures, only 3% goes toward children and families, and a measly 1% toward job development. We are certain that as the names change, we need the conditions of our people to change. We need a complete end to police terror, which requires abolition of the police.

Therefore, if the the street renaming commission wants to be constructive in their efforts, they don’t need to meet with Take Em Down NOLA. Instead, they (and anyone else who aligns with Black Lives Matter) need to make an all-out action oriented DEMAND that systemic change happens now, by both removing ALL symbols to white supremacy from the landscape of New Orleans, while flipping the budget as a means of proactively investing into the complete physical, mental, and emotional health and wholeness of children and families, and providing a LIVING wage, job development and equitable education. This is how you Take Em Down AND Build Em Up!