City's First Official Forum On Policing, Racism Illuminating

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Black and pulled over in Manhattan Beach sometime in the early morning hours, it's dark out. You just went to El Tarasco to get a burrito. Now you're driving home. When you ask the police officer why you've been pulled over, you aren't given a reason.

Black and you move to Manhattan Beach and your neighbors greet you with a welcoming committee. When you walk your dog, people invite you over for wine, coffee or dinner.

These situations were two of several experiences brought to light during Manhattan Beach's first official city dialog on "Policing and Partnerships in MB" Thursday night. The forum covered policing, implicit bias, and community partnerships. Handled as a community forum with panels that spoke on specific topics while City Council and anyone who tuned in listened, the forum produced insightful, passionate conversation that gave notice on how Black residents and students feel when they are in Manhattan Beach. And lots of opinions and perspectives emerged.

"It's been a little bit of rose-colored glasses," said Malissia Clinton, who lives in Manhattan Beach with her husband and kids, "because until the fire in 2015 I would say our experience was overall positive." The fire Clinton referenced was intentionally set and broke out outside their front door in the early morning hours. Clinton said the fire was aimed at her family and home "based on our race."

"In many respects, I believe my family has been treated as a token family," she said, "because the kids were raised here. We've been here so long some folks would consider us an exception to the rule. But the truth is, as I said in the Ted Talk, a police officer murdered my brother in 2006 so we're not exempt. And like every single Black person who's walked in Black skin in America, I have an experience that's tied to the color of my skin." Clinton, in her 50s, expressed how she and generations close to hers were supposed to dispose of racism so that the younger generations did not have to deal with it.

For Manhattan Beach resident Dalia Feliciano, who has lived in MB since her younger years, racism does exist in the city. She was 7-years-old when she realized her neighbors did not want her here. And she and family members have been questioned up to five times about what they are doing here. She said Manhattan Beach residents think racism "exists elsewhere but not here."

"Racism exists in Manhattan Beach in a nefarious way," she said during the forum. "It is under the table, swept under the rug, hidden under the shiny facade of a friendly beach neighborhood. Prevalent liberalism makes it easy to deny the presence of racism."

Feliciano was one of the organizers behind the peaceful protest held in Manhattan Beach on June 2nd at the Manhattan Beach Pier. Protesters then marched along The Strand and bike path to Hermosa Beach's Pier Plaza where they concluded with speeches.

Manhattan Beach resident Lee Phillips, M.D, has lived in MB for 20 years and "moved here for safety reasons." She said she does not feel she's been followed or profiled, and she has had interactions with police officers but did not get a ticket. She is someone who wants "more patrols in my neighborhood. Interestingly, when I have posted to social media without a photo, I have been called a 'Karen,' racist, biased and worse, and have been challenged to prove I am African American because of my opinions and views. I find that very interesting."

Phillips noted, too, an encounter in Los Angeles at a medical facility when she ran into a man with a Ku Klux Klan tattoo. "My brain began racing," she said. "Never did I imagine I would see a klansman in my lifetime. I was terrified... So I get it. I get who we are and what we're dealing with."

"I think talking is good. And I think protests are good," she said later in the conversation. "I think getting everybody together is good. But I think there's so much work out there to do. And I don't know if there's problems in Manhattan Beach. I have to believe if you say there's problems, there's problems. And I think, one, we can't shut down conversations. I know people out there have different opinions but I we have to find a way to bring everybody together. We can't come to a meeting with saying 'Manhattan Beach is racist.' We have to come to a meeting and get people to understand that. And we can't shut down conversations. People are going to say, 'No, it's not.' 'I don't believe you.' And that's OK. We still have to have that conversation and we still have to let people have their opinions.

"And I have a question for some of the people in the audience. How many of you have invited your African American friends over to dinner to discuss racism or bias? How many of you have gone shopping or to church or on vacation with your African American friends? I think listening is good. Doing is quite another. You know apologizing, giving money, saying black lives matter, kneeling, posting online is minimal effort, maximum social acceptance. Mission accomplished it's not. It does not shift the needle of what needs to be done one iota. These are all symbolic actions and it takes energy away from the depth and breadth of systemic racism."

Phillips, who has worked in hospitals in the inner city as well as on a Navajo reservation, said "And being born into the inner city and into systemic racism really is a death sentence. You don't live a full life. Your life is shortened. You don't have a fulfilled life. It's full of despair. It's poverty. It's figuring out how to get money for the bus. It's figuring out how to get $5 to make it through the weekend. So, I think, conversations are good, protesting is good. But I don't think Manhattan Beach is breaking under the weight of racism. I think, OK, maybe we can improve things. But there's a real fight out there we have to fight. The inner city, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, and I'd really like to not lose focus and find solutions to this overwhelming problem in the inner cities of the United States."

This article covers the "Implicit Bias" panel during the forum Thursday night. Jemal Williams was also on the panel and spoke directly to life in the inner city. Manhattan Beach Patch will keep the dialogue going.

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