Emotional about racism, Tarrant County leaders hope ongoing protests prompt change
Reverberations of George Floyd’s death aren’t just being felt on streets across the country amid protests of racism and police brutality.
They also are being felt inside Tarrant County government.
“This is an interesting time to be alive in America,” said County Commissioner Roy Brooks, who is black. “We have witnessed many things over the past several months.”
First, he said, there was the coronavirus pandemic that remains a concern locally and throughout the world and has been “disproportionately felt in communities of color.”
Then came the death of Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes.
His death “ripped the scab off of the festering wound of racism that has never been effectively addressed, has never gone away in this country,” Brooks said during Tuesday’s county commissioners meeting. “I feel the pain and the rage of those across the nation and, in fact, around the world, who are united in protest against this action.”
He praised protesters and police alike in Fort Worth for ending a protest Monday with all on their knees in prayer.
“That was a symbolic moment of grace, a Kumbaya moment, that should be appreciated by all of us and celebrated by all of us,” Brooks said. “But that moment in and of itself, without additional action on the part of government, and on the part of the people that government represents, ... is not going to bring about change.”
But maybe it creates an environment where change can occur.
That would be a positive result, fellow Commissioner Devan Allen, who also is black, said.
Allen said she has been referred to as a young lady or little girl. She’s been talked to as though she’s stupid. And she’s been asked who she works for on the commissioners court.
She said she’s been complimented on her intellect, how she carries herself and how well she speaks. And she hopes those were sincere compliments, not micro-aggressive comments because of the color of her skin.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said he will never say that he understands how Brooks and Allen feel.
And while he’s proud of the way most protesters have voiced their concerns, he would like to see what the county can do to make things better, such as having the Human Relations Department hold workshops or training sessions “that maybe make us a little more aware of the words we use because words do matter,” he said.
Between coronavirus and Floyd’s death, Whitley said “it’s been a tough year.”
“For some of us, it’s a tough year,” Allen said. “For some of us, it’s a tough life.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
