Resisting in Place: UBUNTU’s Call to Action Amidst the RNC's Arrival in Milwaukee
dr. monique liston
Unapologetically Black Leader, Facilitator, Evaluator, and Educator at UBUNTU Research and Evaluation, Executive Director at The Leadership Undercommons and Milwaukee Business Journal 40 Under 40 2025 Honoree
“Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.” - Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches?
“From their inception down to the present, police forces have protected and served the wealthy few against the many, and the white against the rest… Today, despite the diversification of police services, the main activity of police remains street patrol. Street patrols enforce a range of ordinances to manage the poor and other populations seen as disorderly or insubordinate. They use race–and especially blackness–as a key identifier for potential targets."?- A World Without Police, 2016.
This week, The Republican National Convention will occur in Milwaukee, WI. For those who do not know, Milwaukee is home to most of the UBUNTU Research and Evaluation staff. Although a remote team, we treat the entire community as our office, often meeting and co-working across the city. Recent violence during former President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania has resulted in heightened security, and there are an estimated 30,000 additional police in our city this week in preparation for the former president’s visit to the Republican National Convention.??
The UBUNTU team is acutely aware of how more police presence increases the likelihood of violence against Black people, especially when providing services for public figures who see Black people through a lens of criminality. Today, we, as Black people with other marginalized identities that are queer, trans, femme, and non-binary are at the most significant threat. Further, we know that the current rhetoric and policy championed and discussed at the RNC incites violence against people like those of us at UBUNTU and our families. On top of this, movement across the city of Milwaukee is already restricted. This premeditated stifling of movement is going down the intentional road of suppression. There has been state-sanctioned resistance to organized protests. Security point checks are making it hard for people to travel to work and childcare as the security checkpoint requires anyone currently on parole to report engagement with law enforcement.?
As community members, we are frustrated, and as data scientists and evaluators, we are reminded of how measures are conflated —- more security doesn’t mean more safety or more crime; it means more chances to cause harm and violence to the most marginalized folks in the city.?
While we knew about the RNC coming to Milwaukee for weeks, this latest act of violence has caused heightened tension in the city, layering on top of misgivings many of us had about the RNC coming to our home in the first place. As a result, in the spirit of prudence, we are taking extra precautions to protect our team, their families, and our community. We will not tap into the capitalist urge to conduct “business as usual” when we, our families, and our communities are under direct threat --- which has been business as usual since the founding of this nation.?
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From Monday July 14th through Monday July 21st:
If you feel so compelled, here is work that you can support this week in Milwaukee to help a city essentially under siege:
Follow and participate in The Great Milwaukee Block Party - joyful resistance in trying times! https://linktr.ee/greatmkeblockparty
Founder and Principal, Data+Soul Research
8 个月Thinking of you and your team this week dr. monique liston
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8 个月Respect communities. Support peace. Donate wisely. dr. monique liston
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