PHOTO/KAITLYN GRIFFITH
KANSAS CITY, MO — Over the past few months, a new organization, One Struggle KC has tirelessly coordinated Kansas City’s responses to Ferguson while leading many demonstrations, even at the city’s largest tourist attractions. The group has also held day long arts workshops for the sake of community healing. Two of the founders, Diane Burkholder and Kristin Chow, tell their story.
Chow: “Five of us just got together. We knew each other from different groups around the city, and we came up with some visions of what we’ve always wanted to see here. At the core of it was bridging the gaps between Black and Brown communities.”
Burkholder: “We wanted to make sure that women, the undocumented and youth, whoever was involved, had equal footing and equal say.
“The first event drew about forty people, with signs in solidarity with Ferguson and signs in solidarity with Ayotzinapa [Guerrero, Mexico, where 43 activist students recently disappeared].”
Chow: “By our second week, we did a banner drop at the Power & Light District during the sixth game of the World Series. We’ve grown fast and created a Spanish speaking wing called Una Lucha. We’re taking some direction from the larger Ferguson action movement, but we try to localize the issues. We’ve had people arrested and experienced police violence.
“The misreporting of these events broke a few hearts in our group, and these events led us to think about how to work around the mainstream media. I give it up to [the Ida B Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality in Kansas City] because they understand that you have to be out in the community [the group has held vigil every night since the Michael Brown decision]. We’ve talked about teach-ins, even at bus stops.”
Burkholder: “Our immediate focus is how to keep the momentum going and hang on to what has been working. A lot of artists have said ‘I want to help out, I want to contribute.’
“We knew people were hungry for an outlet, but we’ve been surprised how many come to us saying ‘I’m doing this,’ and ‘I want to be connected.’ It hasn’t felt forced. And people step up so others can step back for a few days and take care of ourselves.
Chow: “I was having a conversation with one of the Ida B. Wells members, who said that last year thirteen white men were killed by police in Kansas City. Though we’ve featured the killings of whites in our protests, we were discussing how to start that dialogue, at the same time recognizing that there is a distinction behind Black Lives Matter versus other communities.
“In Black-led movements, the natural instinct is to relegate white people to an allied role, and that’s why we’ve been having conversations about letting politics lead, and not relegating white people to just an ally, you know, peripheral status. They have a vested interest in tearing down these systems as much as we do.”
Do you know of any “dismantling racism” workshops in the KC area?
Yes. SURJ KC (Standing Up For Racial Justice-Kansas City) meets every month on the 3rd Monday at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, on the Plaza.