The Advocate

CRT "is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies." "The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others." "A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas." In San Leandro, we saw that in its choice to be a segregated sundown town with virulently racist redlining practices whose effects exist even today. "Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blin

I am pleased to share the recent presentation from the San Leandro White Antiracism Initiative! (SWAI) This month we look into the racist history of San Leandro, how it affected us then, and how it still impacts us today. Even more importantly, it serves as a step towards how we can repair the harm that was done, honor the history that has been ignored, and move forward towards a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive future. For more background, you can watch:  The Suburban Wall (1971)  and  The Invisible Wall (1981) Please reach out to SWAI@googlegroups.com to get involved! Take note and take care.

In 2005, our city council approved the implementation of a red light camera program over the concerns of residents and local leaders. The rationale seemed beneficial on its face – automated cameras to help catch people running red lights, improve traffic safety, and cut costs related to traffic enforcement. The program has been repeatedly extended, with frequent praise on its effectiveness from SLPD Chief Tudor, Mayor Cutter, and other city officials. The reality has been far different from what we were promised. To start with, San Leandro's red light cameras were installed at intersections with enough vehicle traffic to generate sufficient revenue to pay for their annual cost. They were *not* installed at the intersections that were the most dangerous. In fact, when one red light camera location was found not to generate enough citations, it was removed! This is a common problem with red light camera programs, not just in San Leandro, but across the country. You can watch a short

(Image credit: Banksy) In the midst of all the discussions taking place about the problems facing San Leandro in the here and now regarding racism and policing, I think it's important we take a step back to look at part of how that happened. Well, it was on purpose. See, San Leandro was, as far back as the early 1900's, a sundown town. Look through the entry for our city by Bay Area historian, James W. Loewen. His holistic work is available here . What is a sundown town, you ask? Sundown towns, occasionally known as sunset towns or gray towns, is an all-White municipality or neighborhood in the United States that practices a form of racial segregation by excluding non-Whites. This is usually accomplished via some combination of discriminatory laws, intimidation, and violence. As a result, entire sundown counties and sundown suburbs were also created by the same process. The term originally came from signs posted that demanded Black people, and sometimes other racial minority g