This time around, we take time out to focus on localized grass root organizing & activism. We talked to Majyck D in our #BLM mini series to understand how what has been happening in Kalamazoo Michigan lately. The Killing of George Floyd resulted in protests and demonstrations in cities across the nation, with Kalamazoo Michigan being one of those cities. We also learned about the relationship between Kalamazoo Public Schools and the community and discussed what measures are being considered to end police presence in Kalamazoo Public Schools and policing students in general.
Transcript:
Sound Bite:
Each and every one of you for being here. We cannot stop. We cannot wait. We cannot be patient. We want our freedom every morning, now. I said to each and every one of you, do what you can. Do what you can and change America.
We can do it.
We can do it. You have the power to do it. And some of you should get out there and organize like you’re organizing. And so I said to you, never give up. Never give up, never become bitter or hostile and never hate. Hate is too heavy a burden to bear. That goes for all of us.
Amen.
Intro:
Welcome to the Radical Zone Podcast, where we get updates on the current state of the world and how various communities are impacted from activists and organizers who are out there doing the work. The Radical Zone Podcast is housed under the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. I know you’re probably wondering what the Arcus Center is. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, also known as ACSJL, is an initiative of Kalamazoo college, whose mission is to develop and sustain leaders in human rights and social justice through education and capacity building.
We envision a world where every person’s life is equally valued, the inherent dignity of all people is recognized, the opportunity to develop ones full potential is available to every person, and systematic discrimination and structural inequities have been eradicated. Listen to and engage in conversation with organizers and activists across the globe about social inequities that impact us all.
Rhiki:
Hey, you all it’s Rhiki. Welcome to another episode of the Radical Zone Podcast and another episode of our BLM mini series. Today I have Trevor Loduem Jackson with me as a cohost. Trevor, tell the people a little bit of something about yourself.
Trevor Jackson:
What’s up, everyone? Happy to be here. I’m currently a rising senior at Kalamazoo college. I work within the Arcus Center as a student liaison, and I’m just happy to be here. And thanks, Rhiki, for allowing me to do this.
Rhiki:
So for this episode of the BLM mini series, we have the pleasure of introducing DJ Majyck, also known as Majyck D who is a local organizer in the Kalamazoo community.
Trevor Jackson:
Majyck is a media cultivator community organizer, videographer, mentor. They also serve as board president of PACCT board, or the Promised Advocacy for Children and Community Transformation in Kalamazoo, created an internet radio station and creates video content that advocates for positive change to the disenfranchise. So, welcome Magic.
DJ Majyck:
Yes, thank you so much, everyone for having me.
Rhiki:
To start off, I just want to talk about everyone knows the killing of George Floyd resulted in protests and demonstrations in cities across the nation with Kalamazoo, Michigan being one of those cities. So, Majyck, what has been your involvement with what has been happening in Kalamazoo related to the recent uprising?
DJ Majyck:
A part of it, myself and the group that I work with, PACT and Michigan Liberation, we’ve been out in the streets, just like some of the other peaceful protesters, and it’s all about, enough is enough. I think, really, it’s not like George Floyd was nothing new, unfortunately, but I think what happened with George Floyd and just how it was shown in the media and just the outward display of ignore someone’s cry, I think that really tugged on a lot of hearts and brought out a lot of rage for a lot of people, as far as seeing what exactly racism looks like. So really what happened with George Floyd just really ignited what was already simmering.
Rhiki:
Yeah. I agree with that. So, what organizations have you been involved in and what resulted from the demonstrations that has happened in Kalamazoo specifically?
DJ Majyck:
So again, working with PACCT, also with Michigan Liberation, that is actually the main hat that I wear as far as organizing, I’m the Collinsville County director for the Michigan Liberation for the West side of the state. So working with other people of color, black and brown leaders in the community, there have been sets of demands that have come out of protesting and meeting those demands with action.
So just bringing more attention from the protest, working with BLM, some other groups that have started up, I want to say Uplift Kalamazoo has come out of this, and just continuing that direct message. To the folks that want to uphold the white supremacy that’s going on here in Kalamazoo, that we are tired of it. And all of us are pulling our knowledge and resources together to fight against this.
Trevor Jackson:
Did this feel different? This organizing around George Floyd and then the other death that happened over the past few months? Does this feel different than organizing in the past and different things like that?
DJ Majyck:
Yeah, for sure. That’s a good question. I don’t know what it is, but it just seems like this unfortunate murder of George Floyd has really… It’s like this synergy. There’s something that’s going on in the universe where things are just aligning people’s trauma and harm, aligning. And I think really with the pandemic that’s going on, you putting some of those things and it too, so there are people that are disconnected from their resources.
So what I’m saying, there’s a lot of white people are feeling and starting to experience where black people live every day. So having that, and then seeing, we’re actually seeing in the news, I think really helped ignite this movement, this energy, this deep burning to transform the racism that’s happening, just abolish it. That’s what’s going on here, in Kalamazoo. This is America, period.
Rhiki:
Yeah. I was actually talking, I think it was, I was talking with my mom a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about this very thing, the trauma of the pandemic and how I think she thinks because people are forced to sit down and isolate and be within their home, it’s making it where you have to see what’s happening. You can’t just like go about the rest of your day and ignore it. You don’t really have too much else to do. So you have to sit, you have to see this and visualize this and think about what’s happening and how you play a role in it. And I think that’s what her perspective was on why you see more white people getting involved. What are your thoughts on that?
DJ Majyck:
Now that you were saying that, it almost seems like a solitary confinement, even though it’s involuntary with social distancing, but you still have to put yourself in a space where you having things to entertain yourselves, whether it’s music or news. So if we are in a space where we are surrounded and inundated with media that is showing over and over again, the same thing, those same negative messages about what is wrong in America, folks aren’t able to necessarily escape from that.
They’re not able to get out and put that on the back burner by going to hang out with their friends because there’s no places to go. So, I agree with your mom, people have to marinate in their feelings because more people are online, they just have access and more time to watch a lot of these disparities and trauma that’s happening right in front of us.
Trevor Jackson:
Switching gears a little bit. So I work in the juvenile home in Kalamazoo. So I get to see a bunch of tips coming in and out of their work with the CO’s and everything like that. So I’m wondering what’s the relationship like between Kalamazoo, public safety and the community, and then within that, the police presence within Kalamazoo public schools and policing students in Kalamazoo in general. So what’s that like, and how does that all work?
DJ Majyck:
So, yeah, so right now, PACCT, actually it originated, the work that we’ve been doing, organizing around education and juvenile justice, started doing our work with SEE Change, which stands for Social Economic Educational change. And that was working on the [inaudible 00:09:04] pipeline and all those different things, from suspensions, unwarranted suspensions, to qualify parents and caregivers not able to access the school. So starting that work with SEE Change and then, when we’re working and as impacted folks, impacted people, our lives change, our capacities change. So with the capacity’s changing, some of the folks have changed. I am one of those persons that was from See Change that has taken the groundwork, the work that was done and moved it over to PACCT, where the current folks that are on that team, renamed the work and the work is more focused.
So, when we talk about PACCT and the police, one of the things that we know historically that we’ve been trying to share with the district is that the historical context that police have with slavery, and one of those things that has come up, and actually with the curriculum, the social studies curriculum, and how black history is pretty much watered down and cut out in a meaningful way that will give some depth to the real contributions of black history. So our black and brown youth that are more traumatized and harmed, just social, economically in the community. So you have police that are in the community. These people are normalized that they’re in these children’s lives every day. So this is something they see every day. So when you take that presence of the police and transfer it over into the school setting, that is something that is normalized for many black and brown students.
Some of those students don’t have a problem with the presence of police, but there are many students that do have a problem with the police and the trigger mechanism that it has and the negative outcomes that they’ve experienced, or they’ve seen their peers experience. So PACCT currently has an online petition right now, demanding that a public school district eliminate their contract with Kalamazoo police department. Now, right now that contract is not in effect. It expired June 14th, but it is in review. So the district does have an option to review that.
In that petition, there are things that we are asking for them to take that money that will be used for an SRO and put those resources back into the school as informed of trauma informed trainings, hiring behavior specialists, hiring counselors or social workers. But that is the main argument that we’re seeing with the district is that police makes our schools safe for everyone and our compelling narratives and the compelling research that we have brought forth to the district and still been met with resistance.
We’ve talked with the Kalamazoo board township trustees about police in Kalamazoo central school, and obviously Kalamazoo public school trustees or Lori NORCs, and the sense that they are very resistant. There are a few people that bind police safe in the schools, but even if there’s a small number of family and students that don’t feel safe with the police being in schools, that is not being considered and being disregarded. So, that is definitely a fight that we’re working on because research has shown that students contact with the police are at increased because the contract that the police have with the school districts in the language of the contracts, the job description part of it is for them to police, by any means necessary, arresting, detaining.
So if we have that same practices in our community that are in our schools, how is that making our children safe? And some of these students were teargassed during a peaceful protest in late May, early June.
Trevor Jackson:
Wow, thank you for that. Also, going along those same lines with COVID and everything, how does KPS look like in the fall? Are the plans to return to school, or how do you feel like that can be done correctly or safely if possible?
DJ Majyck:
So the school district just a few weeks ago, they had a series of community listening sessions, where they were asking for input from stakeholders in the community. So actually, this coming up Thursday at the board meeting, we are going to get the results of those community listening sessions. Just to share my own personal sentiment, I strongly believe that staff and students should not be returning to school in the fall. A lot of parents and students that I’ve spoke with in the community do not feel safe returning to school in the fall. So the question for us is how equitable is that going to look for the students that were already behind before this pandemic started and what equitable lens is going to be used to prevent students from falling further behind and what are they going to do to make sure they stay engaged?
So those are some of the main things that we’re asking. And then for the students that want to go back to school, what does that look like for them? The district is talking about a budget shortfall, which there is, we’re talking about 6 to 8 million dollars and this is coming from the state. So the district is trying to figure out how to use less money, but we still have parents that are essential workers that have to go to work. And there are some students that want to go to school. So how do you accommodate that? Those are the questions that still need to be answered.
Rhiki:
Yeah. I was actually talking about this the other day and we were talking about how for some students and some families, not only do they need school because they have to work. So that helps them where they don’t have to find a babysitter, but also in school, that’s where some of those kids get a meal, that’s where they’re able to eat every day, especially if they’re from a low income, impoverished household. So it’s like, I also don’t think we should open schools back up, but then how can we meet the needs of those students in replace of them not being able to go to school and get some of those needs met already?
DJ Majyck:
Right. I think this is the exact examples of where we have to, I think, shift our paradigm of trying to be reformists and try to work into a system that don’t work. The students are going to continue to get their breakfast and lunch. They go to the distribution sites, they’ll still get that. So what if we had no school and we increased the amount of food that we’re giving to the families because growing kids, especially boys, they eat a lot of food, right? Increasing that. But one of my other concerns is, how long are the students expected to sit in front of a screen each day, and how healthy that is. Because just as an adult, and having meetings, I know what it can do to the body when there’s not movement.
So, we leave a whole bunch of concerns from in-person schooling to now we’re going to be open up the can of worms for a whole nother set of possible outcomes that are going to need to be dealt with. So, thinking outside of that, I think one example that comes to mind is, I don’t know if you’re familiar with a group of parents out at Interface apartments, low income, subsidized, apartment complex in Kalamazoo, it’s called Aims Kidz. Talked with one of the lead persons that organized it. They have about 80 kids a day that attend that summer camp. That’s a school right there. It’s a matter of how to take the resources that are being put into a system that don’t work for our students and creating, designing structures that will work for us.
So part of that is the emergent strategies, right? Thinking outside of the paradigm of what we live it. And one of the things that I think is slow about that is a lot of fear. A lot of people want to go back to normal, whatever that was, before this pandemic, but normal was racist. Coming out of this, moving out of the pandemic, more people are able to, their lens is not as blurred. They can’t deny the overt racism that’s happening right now. Another concern that I have, which brings up the online learning, black and brown students, especially boys, are disproportionately suspended more than white students just based on their behavior.
So with online learning, there are going to be new ways of tracking students. So one of our concerns as PACT is that none of our students, especially ones that are not able to engage in the standard that the district puts out is that they are not harmed, then they are not held responsible for any harm that is caused. So what I’m saying is, if they’re not able to get online, do whatever requirements they are for their coursework, that they will not be suspended or any type of way dealt with in a harmful or a punitive way about not doing the homework, because they can’t engage in a meaningful way, according to someone else’s standards.
Rhiki:
Yeah, I agree with you when you say we have to think outside the box and realize that the old normal is not possible anymore and work towards something different and being intentional, that that something different doesn’t have some of the racial stigmas and implications that the old system has, but staying on this topic of the school system, I want to talk specifically about school board candidates and what you think people should pay attention to when becoming familiar with different campaigns.
DJ Majyck:
Yeah, the school board definitely an important campaign to vote on in November. But one of the things that you have to be mindful with the school board, with any politician, are they speaking to your values? Are they doing what they say that they’re doing? And that there are some folks that are getting ready to announce their candidacy. I believe one person announced her candidacy yesterday. She is someone that I know that works within the school and works with students. So being mindful of people that you may know, or you think would be good for those roles would be awesome. Just because of the work that we’ve been doing in the community, we know that we have to have people that share our values, when they get into office, that we’re going to support them.
Part of the problem is it’s like one done deal. When we get our people in, we think that they’re going to be able to change the world, transform things. They can’t, they still need to have us behind them and echoing what they’re saying. So being mindful, who is currently on the board and checking their track record about what has not been done. So I say, for example, we have a problem with suspensions in black and brown students still disproportionately suspended. If there are school board members on there that are ignoring the concerns of parents and students, and they are still on the board, I would say that those folks are ineffective and those folks needs to go.
So a lot of people that aren’t familiar with PACCT, you can get familiar with some of the things we’ve been working with. And as far as keeping our trustees accountable, you can hear their responses. So if we are still dealing with some of the same stuff we’ve been dealing with with decades, I would say that those people that are on the other side of that table are ineffective and we cannot continue to listen to reformist language. We cannot continue to let these leaders pass it by us with silence and think that we are going to continue to talk and not escalate because that’s the next steps is what does that look like when you escalate?
Trevor Jackson:
Magic, you definitely bring up a good point of following a politician that needs to fit your values and what you believe in, but also at the same time, not just doing lip service, is what we get a lot of nowadays, is just lip service. All talk no back, for the communities that they’re supposed to represent. And I do think that that next action is going to be something different. It’s going to be past trying to listen to reformists, and as college students, I guess, myself, when people were around, we tend to think of ourselves as catalysts for change because we’re at these institutions.
But I think it was Angela Davis said a few weeks ago that college students shouldn’t center themselves in the movement. It should be people who are on the front lines doing this work. So what advice do you have for students who are in college, who wants to start getting into organizing work, or even high school students who wants to start getting into organizing work? What advice do you have for them as they start to participate in these movements?
DJ Majyck:
That’s a great question. Part of it is, a lot of young people, they want to do something, but they just don’t know what to do. So a lot of us, a lot of you all will attend a protest and you’ll hold a sign up. And it’s like, “Okay, I feel good.” But it’s not just about feeling good. It’s like, what can you do? And I would say, if your community doesn’t have a grassroots organization that’s on the ground, that’s doing the work, and I’m talking about the work that’s talking about changing the policies. For this stuff to change, the policies have to be transformed. So that means having conversations with politicians. So I would say to someone that really wants to get into organizing, like protesting, there’s a difference between attending a rally and organizing.
And organizing, you’re going to bring people into the work, you have the shared language, you have shared actions, to make transformation. When you just go into a rally, you are just being enlightened with some information and you holding up a sign and you chanting. But there has to be more than that. So after you hold your sign up, having conversations with people outside of your circle, reaching out to organizations that are doing work, that you may want to get into. And that may be you having to look outside of your community. You may have to create that yourselves. It just starts with one person attracting that energy.
So I would just say, look for like-minded folks that share your values and you create something, or look within your community on the ground to see what organizations, even checking out the universities, because there’s always student organizations that are working on social justice projects.
Trevor Jackson:
Thank you for that.
Rhiki:
I would also like to add to that. I think I agree with Magic as in you can’t just show up to a protest, hold up a sign, and then walk away and be like, “Good job, work. I did my part.” And I think also having conversation amongst your friends are important, but a lot of times if you’re friends with those people, they’re already like-minded. So, I’m not saying don’t have conversations with your friends, but you’re not really changing anything outside of that friend group, if you all already are on the same page and in the know with what’s happening. So really going into the classroom, being bold, having conversations with people that you know may not see things the way that you see things, and then also being self-aware of your realm of influence, I think is important.
So, I don’t think people utilize their social media platforms as much as they probably could, or the different things that you’re involved in as a college student, whatever platforms you may have, whether that be social media, or if you have a YouTube channel, or if you do have a podcast, and really being intentional about using those things in a way to add to the momentum of the organizing that is happening and move the needle forward a little bit, is really important. But yeah, it’s more than just protesting and the public stuff. It’s more than just the stuff that’s out front. It’s a lot of behind the scenes work.
DJ Majyck:
Yeah, I agree with that. And the main important thing is shared language. You brought up a good point, if we’re in our circle and we’re talking with our friends. Yes, we’re friends because for the most part, we have the same values, but sometimes we may not have the same definition of a word. I would say, for example, like struggle. My struggle is going to be different from everybody else’s struggle, right? But it’s still the word struggle. So a person that still has resources, their struggle is going to look different from someone that’s living in transition. So everyone’s experience is different.
One of the things that I see that we can’t get past this reformist living or this vision is because the educations of our children, there’s no vision, there’s no planning seeds of a world that looks different than what they’re used to. So if you can’t imagine anything outside of what your reality is, no, you’re not going to be able to imagine a reality without policing in the schools. You’re not going to have a reality without police in your community. You’re not going to have a world that doesn’t exist the way it exists with racism. This is all we know.
So if you don’t have the tools and the language for us all to move in that transformational way, we’re going to continue to spin our wheels and be right where we are.
Trevor Jackson:
So, switching gears just a little bit. So I’m a writer, I’m a creative person, I make music, do all this other stuff within the arts. So can you talk about how the creative arts, whether that be music, drawing, painting, photography, writing, shift consciousness and really help the movement or the voice of the movement. Can you speak about how the arts influences movements?
DJ Majyck:
Oh, yeah. Most definitely. Just over the consciousness, just the age of just blackness, just to different kinds of arts, the black Renaissance artists, all those different artists like poets, music that speaks to what’s going on in the world at the time, black and brown people’s interpretation of what the world is, what their experience to trauma is, regardless of it’s in an abstract way. And then those folks that are observing it, how they interpret that.
One of the things that many movements have used is art and music. And one of the things that we really do when whenever we have events is utilize art from black and brown folks in the community. Some of us may be silenced where we cannot speak, but our creativeness comes out in different forms. So it’s very important that we are able to use our art to still push our message and our agenda to the world that also expresses beauty in the creativity of what we create, but also taking that harm and being able to express it in a way that shows the world too, without having to speak it. Does that make sense?
Trevor Jackson:
Yeah, most definitely. I feel as if, when speaking about art in movement, I always place a song or a genre that just fits with the movement. So when I think of the black power movement back in the seventies, I’m always thinking of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, I’m thinking of these artists that spoke for the times. When I think about 2015 with the uprisings in Baltimore and in Ferguson, I’m always thinking about Kendrick Lamar, and some type of butterfly. So I always think of movement with music and art along, and you’re right, it just helps with that expression.
And do you think that art in general makes movements mainstream? Do you think it makes it easier for the people who aren’t living those realities every single day to understand it a little bit more?
DJ Majyck:
Yes. I think this is, again, sometimes we’re able to see the disparities and our resources, how just to keep it real, because there are a lot of white people, that culture, are able to take in art and appreciate that. So being able to take artwork from a struggling black person, I don’t know, it says a couple of things. For one, it shows the creativity of that young person, but it also, sometimes, I like to see the reaction on their faces because they’re in disbelief. They cannot believe that this brown person, this black person, created this work of art, and is just so expressive.
And I have art hanging up in my studio now from some local artists, Calvin Green is actually one of them had his art and it’s so Afrocentric, his art. And it’s so texturized. The art and music, the music keeps the energy going. It keeps the movement, the flow. So it’s like, without music and the art, things are silent. Even locally, here in Kalamazoo, we have all the black lives matter art, all the love on black and brown folks that have been murdered or killed in some kind of way by violence or police violence. That art is shown throughout Kalamazoo. Not all of it was created by black artists, but it’s still part of the movement of what is currently going on right now.
Rhiki:
I remember Angela Davis, I watched this webinar. It’s been a lot of webinars, but Angela Davis was in one of them and she was talking about not only the importance of art to make people who wouldn’t be aware, more aware of the reality of black and brown individuals, but also it’s that thing that can help us think outside the box. It’s that thing that can paint a picture of a new world and give people an example of what abolishing some of these systems could look like. What are your thoughts on that?
DJ Majyck:
Yeah, I definitely agree. That’s just about going back to imagining what you see, even if it’s creating this utopia type picture, in order to dream it, someone has to see the vision and put that out there to the people. So if the vision is not put out there, then no one can see that vision. So the more we bring people into that vision and have that shared language, we can all move toward what it is that we’re tying to abolish, what we’re trying to create.
Rhiki:
Well, Majyck, I just have one more question for you. So what are some projects or things that you’re working on that you want to uplift in this moment to get people more active and aware of what’s happening in Kalamazoo?
DJ Majyck:
Oh, for sure. Definitely want to uplift the life of Cornelius Frederick, 16 year old that was murdered here in Kalamazoo at Lakeside Academy. There’s an online petition for him, asking for a number of things, for Lakeside to be shut down, just a number on things. So tomorrow we actually have our second of five listening sessions around Cornelius Frederick and Lakeside staff that are going to share on what to do with Lakeside. So the question is, should Lakeside open the way it was not with sequel, obviously. Some sort of residential housing for youth, or should it be repurposed into something else? So that’s part of it.
Another project that we’re working on is our petition with police in schools. We are still working on that. Again, where we at with that, that’s probably some escalation. Another what we’re working on, and this is a community demand as well, is demands for the Kalamazoo police department and how they treated peaceful protesters and a number of other things that we have demanded that the city do. And they started to come around and they’ve done a couple of things, but that’s not good enough. So those are the immediate things that we working on, as well as the school board candidates, making sure that folks are aware of who’s going to be running and the importance, making sure that we get the right candidates on the board. So those four things that are priority.
Rhiki:
And Majyck, I know you’re known for videotaping and getting footage of the protests and things that are happening just in general, that is uncensored, unfiltered. It’s just real, raw, what’s actually happened. Where can we go to find some of that stuff?
DJ Majyck:
Been slow to share it out, but you can actually go to my social media page and check that out. I don’t know if you want me to spell it out, but it’s on my social media page and also have a YouTube account that it’s on there as well. And magicradio.com is my internet radio station. So you’ll be able to keep up with those things as well there.
Trevor Jackson:
Dope, dope. Majyck, so glad though we could talk with you today. Thank you for your input and just breaking things down for us of what’s going on in Kalamazoo and how we can help. And for those listening, please remember that in a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist. So thank you Majyck, so much. We definitely enjoyed having you.
DJ Majyck:
I appreciate you. I appreciate the opportunity.
Rhiki:
So thank you again, Majyck, and we hope you enjoyed this episode of our BLM mini series. If so, please let us know on our social media platforms. And if you enjoy this conversation, remember that the conversation is not over. We have more coming, so be sure to join us next time on the Radical Zone.
Outro:
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