- The world stopped and paused to watch the public killing of George Floyd in broad daylight on May 25th, 2020.

The infamous eight minutes and 46 seconds in which a police officer knelt on his neck until he died will go down in history as a public lynching.

This tragedy sparked outrage across the United States and the world.

Protests broke out nationally and internationally against white supremacy and police brutality against minorities.

People from all cultures, races and backgrounds took to the streets and demanded change.

The movement has challenged organizations to begin to address issues of systemic, structural and institutional racism.

Right here in the Lehigh Valley, there is a movement that is working hard and engaging and attempting to dismantle white supremacy.

Some nonprofits are working with the community to engage and empower the black community through a strategic response team.

I'm Phillip Davis, host of Courageous Conversations.

Welcome.

We are broadcasting from the PPL Public Media Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Joining us to talk about the strategic response team today are Jessica Ortiz.

She's the founder of the Ortiz Ark Foundation, a year old nonprofit that is committed to serving community.

Primary work is in Allentown but they do stretch to other parts of the Lehigh Valley.

She represents grassroots community as an Afro Latino female leader.

Jill Pereira, vice president Education and Impact of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley.

Jill's background is in social work and includes serving diverse populations throughout the Lehigh Valley.

Over her 12 years at the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley she takes on increasing levels of leadership and is currently responsible for overseeing $12.7 million annual investment into the areas of education, food access, healthy aging and emergency services to ensure achievement of the organization's goals in the community, including $1.4 million annually to support a 28-school community school network.

Jared Mast is the executive director from the Greater Easton Development Partnership and has brought a lot of knowledge and innovative ideas to the SRT over its time, helping us to understand what other communities, progressive movements have done during the Covid relief, and racial equity.

He represents the nonprofit community as a white male leader.

Well, I am so glad that you all are taking the time to join us today.

Thank you so much.

Jill, can you tell us what the SRT is?

- Sure.

Thanks, Pastor Phil, for having me.

The strategic response team really was a team of cross-sector leaders that came together in March just after our community closed down because of Covid.

And we've been working to support a rapid, informed and coordinated effort to support our community with evolution of that happening over time, including some pretty significant shifts to ensure we're doing this work through an equity frame.

Again, after, you mentioned the murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest that followed, there's been some pretty dramatic shifts in how we've been thinking about supporting our community since that time.

- And so, Jessica, why do you think the SRT was necessary and what are the key goals with the SRT?

- So I'm proof that... Of what the goals is and how it's working.

Like you mentioned when you introduced me, I'm a year old.

Although I've been doing the work and service in the community for years, you know, you're not acknowledged until you become an actual non-profit with a 501(c)(3).

I run, co-founded with my husband, a BIPOC-led non-profit that does work in our BIPOC community, that targets that community that often large institutions that are white-led, like Jill's United Way, would have not seen the work.

Through this cohabitation, they've been able to touch more people than they have ever reached and really understand what I like to call hood conversation that they might have never been a part of, ever.

They know the real workers now in the real grassroots - and who is really involved.

- Right.

Yeah, that's very important because often, you know, the resources are managed and overseen by people who are not in the community or connected to the community or represent the community.

And, you know, I celebrate the United Way and the other funders who got together to really engage the BIPOC community at another level to ensure that the resources were getting directly to the community and it was led and driven by folks from the community.

Now, Jared, I appreciate your perspective as a white male.

How do you feel about the issues of white supremacy?

And do you feel there is a need to address systemic racism and why?

But before you answer, let me say I've got...

It sounds cliche, but I've got some really good white friends who are guys and some are Republicans, some are Democrat.

And from one side of the conversation, any time we start talking about race, they're saying to me, man, there go your people again, you know, pulling the race card and, you know, crying over the past.

And, you know, y'all really need to get over it.

And they don't believe this systemic racism ever really existed.

And that's a made up clause for us as African-Americans to just really cry the blues.

So I gave them a little piece, right?

I talked about, you know, the wealth gap and how there's a difference between African-Americans and white community, but it is not because African-Americans are lazy, uneducated or incapable, right?

I take them back to the New Deal with FDR just to give an idea of systemic racism.

$120 billion that the government financed, right, to build suburbia and move white folks out into the suburbs but then wrote covenants that said black people can't move out there.

And then they said we're going to draw red lines around certain communities and banks can't invest in that community.

Right?

So now we've got a perfect example of systemic racism.

So back to the question.

You know, as a white male, from your perspective, why do you think it's important to have this conversation and really address issues of systemic racism?

- So I think if you're really looking, you can't deny the fact that there are systemic barriers, there are limitations in place that affect the black and brown community in an adverse way.

And if your eyes are open and you're talking to your black and brown friends and understanding their experiences, you have to be willing to start to unpack and repair a broken system.

My background is in planning, my graduate degree is in planning, and so redlining and urban renewal, wealth prevention strategies, if you want to call them that, for the black and brown community that affected our cities have lasting effects to this day, not across the country, not just across the country, but in our urban core of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

And so this process has been confirming of that for me.

I wouldn't say that I was unaware of some of these issues that continue to persist, but I think what's been really important about this process is that folks have been brought to the table that typically are not invited to conversations about changing the system.

I kind of realize that I'm a white, able bodied male and have tried to pull back on my viewpoint and to be more receptive to how other people experience the world and to become a better listener, but also become a better collaborator through this process.

So...it's messy at times.

I've had a lot of positive conversations.

I've had some times of discomfort, but that is all part of the process.

And I think white people need to be more OK with that.

You know, black and brown folks have to experience discomfort all the time for all kinds of reasons.

And part of white supremacy culture is that there is a near constant comfort in white skin and... That's not equitable, it's not fair, and it's not a way of looking at your fellow humans and having compassion.

- Yeah, thank you, Jared, I mean, for your perspective.

I think it's so important that we not only hear from people from the black and brown community, but people from the white community with an open mind, to have discussions, courageous conversations, if you will, right?

To engage and being able to talk about the realities because, you know, one of the reasons that we started the show was I realized that many times the white community doesn't know about the black community.

And because history has been whitewashed in so many ways, from education to society and what happens in entertainment, it changes a person's perspective and purview if you never sit down to really learn about one another.

Jill, what was the impetus for the funders, right, in this work, to come together and who's involved in the effort?

Who are the individuals that are really doing the work?

- Yes, so the impetus really was around a joint fund to support the community, the Covid-19 Community Response Fund, and some of the players that you would imagine, so both of the health networks, PAC-LV, the Community Foundation, the Red Cross, some of those big white-led historic organizations.

And over time... Actually in that initial group was Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley.

And I give a lot of kudos and credit to Dr. Hasshan Batts for pushing us all to keep expanding our thoughts and our knowledge about how to drive equity in our community.

And so over time, we've expanded and have included... Jess Ortiz is a great example of that.

Jared was there from the beginning as well.

Phoebe Harris as a representative of the Allentown school board, Guillermo Lopez, who is a leader in his own right and an advocate for the Bethlehem community.

Delia Marrero that was previously representing the Hispanic Center and also stands alone as a community leader.

And then wanting to really reach out to BIPOC leaders in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton to figure out how we draw some relationship to and some understanding of the mechanisms that are already in place among leaders of color in those communities.

And how do we keep kind of expanding the table and the decision making power across the region?

- Oh, wow.

Thank you for that.

Jessica, you mentioned BIPOC and so it's been kind of thrown around a little bit.

Can you can you tell us what BIPOC actually means and why it's important as a part of the strategic response team?

- So the BIPOC term is black, indigenous, people of color, which includes all of us, you know, and the fact that they've looked for in the SRT all the BIPOC leaders that represent that black, indigenous and people of color...

I can't even put it into words because what it showed was just like, not that historic same institution, or in our terms, the token.

They didn't...

They have broken those barriers and they have opened it up to different types of led institutions because white institutions have their policy.

But different organizations like myself, we structure based upon BIPOC communities, based upon the lives that we live.

We have different needs so we have different services.

And coming together and explaining that and having them reach out and watching different organizations transform within themselves...

It was so interesting when Jared volunteered hisself for this interview because he's one of the people that I really watched transform over this time through the different projects, and how more he, I believe he understands the BIPOC community.

- Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Jared, what are some of the initiatives that are happening in the different municipalities that the funding has reached?

I can, you know, I know about Easton, but what are some of the other things that are happening across the Lehigh Valley?

- Jill can probably speak to Allentown, Bethlehem a little bit more than me.

I think as we were getting into this third round of funding and having conversations around the George Floyd murder, there was a question of how to.. not reallocate, but dedicate resources to BIPOC organizations.

And what we found was that it wasn't easy to connect to a coalition of leaders in each of the cities and that some of those conversations were actually playing out in real time.

And so I'm sure you can speak to the Easton group that was formed, and I think the SRT played a role in kind of bringing that conversation together in some regard.

But other conversations in Bethlehem and Allentown were in kind of a different stage and are still, I think, playing out and the funding is still waiting to kind of find its final place.

But, you know, the conversations that it brought together I think is kind of the more important part than the funds themselves.

And I think Jill can talk a little bit about that, as well.

- Jill, do you want to share a little bit more about that?

And then, I have a follow-up question to that, as well.

- Yeah, yeah, sure.

I'll say actually, part of the impetus for much of the equity lens on this was looking at all of those applications that initially came into the fund looking for resources.

And, as a mostly white group, looking down the list, we realized there were so many groups on that list that we didn't recognize.

And to be honest, there was a point in time in a conversation where somebody said, well, if we don't know about the organization, they're probably not worth funding.

And somebody else challenged that belief and said, "Hold on a second, if we don't know about the organization, "we can't just dismiss it.

We have to do some homework.

"Let's go figure out who is the Ortiz Art Foundation, "and see what kind of work they might be doing."

And as we started digging into that list, we realized the majority of the organizations that we didn't know anything about were BIPOC-led and serving community at a really critical time in a really critical way.

And so, that experience started to shift mindsets around, "Wow, you know, we were almost ready to dismiss this entire "group of nonprofits, and how else can we be more intentional "about digging in a layer deeper and doing some real work "to understand parts of our community that are not "currently represented here?"

- Right.

Well, thank you.

And Jill, so the follow-up question is, when you begin to challenge structures that have been in place for a very long time, many a times, those who sit at the very top of those organizations will kind of lean in for a moment because, yeah, it's the right thing to do.

"We should probably diversify our board."

I've served on so many boards where I'm the only Black guy in the room.

I just don't know what to do sometimes, I just...

I made a lot of new friends, essentially.

But talk about, from a structural perspective, how do you begin to change the narrative, change the structure of boards, and really engage the community to be a part so that those decisions that are being made can actually represent and those funds can make it actually to the community directly?

- Yeah, I can start here, and maybe Jared and Jess have other thoughts to add on.

I'll say, Guillermo Lopez I think said it best in a community conversation a couple of weeks ago where he said, you know, if you're really going to change the community and drive with an equity lens, you have to love... You have to love other people.

And so, if you don't currently love a Black person, go and find a Black person to love, and extrapolate that out.

And so, I think those of us that are committing to driving racial equity and challenging all of the systems that have been in place for longer than we've been alive are doing it from a place of pure humanity and really recognizing that the skin that I had had the privilege to live in my entire life has given me so much more than maybe I deserve.

But certainly, what others also deserve.

And the fact that they were born into different skin shouldn't justify that.

- Right.

So true, because when we think about it, there's more that, you know, connects us than there is that divides us.

And the issue of white supremacy and issues such as that have been perpetrated over so many years, it just seems, right here in the state of Pennsylvania, you know, when they talk about hate groups, we're number eight in the whole country, you know, for those hate groups.

And just with the storming of the Capitol, you know, we're in the top probably ten of states where people were arrested for actually storming the Capitol.

So, right here in our little beautiful Pennsylvania, there is a lot of separation, a lot of division.

You know, Jessica, a lot of people say that this conversation is unnecessary, it's overblown.

It's playing the victim.

How do you respond to that?

- We are not victims, we are survivors, Of our oppression.

- Wow.

- And the conversation is needed so that we can shed light on what has happened and how we're going to overcome, you know, no more false promises, no more empty promises is what I see.

And this SRT group has succeeded in a movement well beyond I think any of us could ever imagine.

I could give you tons, but for two examples, the Community Foundation put out a grant in the last year that a few of us would have never qualified, or never even heard of.

They changed their policies within their system to adapt to our smaller BIPOC groups, which would have never happened years ago without these kind of conversations.

My organization does work similar to the Red Cross before they come in.

Through Jill and the SRT group, we were able to partner now with the Red Cross to strengthen ourselves and them, which, a long time ago, what would've happened?

Somebody like the Red Cross and a large institutional white organization would have bombarded us and made sure we had no way to assist our own people.

So through this, it's like everything that's happening is like, you can't even put it into words, the barriers, the policies that are breaking, the infrastructure that is changing within a small group.

It's just so...

I can't believe how large the impact that is happening within just a small group.

- That's wonderful.

Yeah, and so, Jared, when you now come to a conversation like this and you begin to engage, what do you hope are the outcomes, even for an SRT?

But what would you like to see, as someone who is engaging, involving, investing your time and energy?

What would you like to see as the outcome?

- I think we all do work with some implicit geography in mind, so, you know, our region is something that you can kind of look and feel, and touch and understand.

And what I hope is that these regional conversations continue to support positive work and positive change in the Lehigh Valley, and that we can become exemplary in terms of resetting and restructuring inequities and do it across our three cities, which often present challenges in doing regional work.

I think one silver lining of these virtual meeting, it's no longer an excuse that that a drive is going to prevent you from going to a meeting.

And so, it would take me 45 minutes to get to Allentown for certain meetings, and that prevented conversation and collaboration.

And I think the SRT has kind of utilized this virtual meeting period to really push forward on that front, and I hope that that continues to grow.

I hope that we can get past the vaccine messaging and mask messaging, and begin to really focus more on just the work of living in a "normal day-to-day" again.

But the push was, you know, the Covid pandemic.

- Wow.

Thank you.

And because of this effort, Jill, I do know that, full disclosure to my viewers, I'm a part of the SRT and actually supporting the Easton effort.

I know that $30,000, I think it was in the last round of grants was given to each of the three municipalities.

Is there additional funding that's coming to continue?

And why did you choose to give equal amounts of money across the Lehigh Valley?

To BIPOC organizations?

- Yeah, so is there more money coming?

We sure hope so.

One of the efforts of the SRT is to figure out, how do we better integrate online and align resources that exist, but then, how do we also go out and attract new resources?

So, having those mechanisms set up in each of the three cities felt really important.

And we had some conversations around, is it an even split of the funding that was available?

Or is there some proportional formula that we should work out?

And I think for ease of transaction, not that that was necessarily the right answer, that's kind of how the money was divided among the three communities, and starting to see some really interesting and innovative work that would not have been the same decisions, I believe that the SRT had decided on how to spend that money itself.

- Yeah, that's amazing.

And I know in Easton, you know, we were able to take those funds and do direct grants to BIPOC-led organizations, helped to fund some businesses, helped to sponsor the Boys and Girls Club.

And the nice thing about it is that it wasn't a lot of red tape to be able to jump through, to be able to receive the funding, we're funding and giving a grant to the big Juneteenth celebration that's coming that's going to be held right here at SteelStacks.

And so, knowing that those dollars are having an effect and making an impact directly gives us, as the part of the BIPOC community, a faith and confidence that a shift is coming, and that we want to continue to partner to be able to really serve our communities.

You know, George Floyd's daughter made a statement.

She said that, "My daddy is going to change the world."

And I really believe that that has happened to some degree.

In closing, you know, what do you really want to see happen when you think about the work of the SRT?

- Yes, so I don't think there's any easy way to dismantle white supremacy in the short term.

I think we've had some quick wins, and I think we have a dedicated group of people that have far-reaching tentacles across this community that are going to work as hard as they can to mobilize a consistent effort through the SRT.

And, more than that, to take all of the learning that we have back into their own organizations to effect the same kind of structural changes inside those organizations to move this further, deeper, faster than we would be able to do alone.

- Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jessica, to you, same question.

What are your hopes and dreams, and visions for the future?

- I hope to see more small grassroots like ourselves, you know, come arise and be a part of, in the future or just even into the three you know, small BIPOC strategics group.

But I would like to see more funders supporting the cause with unrestricted funds, that they can see the work, because it proves itself, and just feeding back into so that we can break these systemic barriers.

So, having these funders supply unrestricted funds, you know... A lot of times, Jill and her team have to go over and try to change policy where if the funder would just open the door and say, "Go ahead, continue to do what you do and shine," that would make the team more successful as a whole across the whole entire valley.

- Thank you.

You know, we're stronger together.

And I think that these type of efforts for my African-American community and the BIPOC community can help us to understand that there's a lot of people doing good work to really bring sustainable change.

I want to thank each of you for taking the time to join me this morning and participate in a Courageous Conversation.

There are many people in the Lehigh Valley doing courageous work to engage and enhance the lives of others.

And we would like to put them in the spotlight.

If you would like for us to highlight the courageous work of someone in your community, let us know by going to... We would love to hear your suggestions.

Viewers, make sure you stick around for Counter Culture with Grover Silcox.

His show is straight ahead.

I'm Pastor Phil Davis.

On behalf of everyone here at PBS39, thanks for watching.

Tune in Tuesday night, 6:30pm right here.