Make a Public Comment: tell City Council to vote for reparations to Black Asheville
City Council will be considering a historic resolution for reparations to the Black community on Tuesday, July 14. The resolution documents some of the egregious harms that Black people have endured, and continue to endure, in Asheville. It asks our city government to take responsibility for the pivotal role it has played in those harms, from slavery to urban renewal. It lays out concrete plans for a process to begin remedying those harms, including the creation of a Community Reparations Commission, which will be tasked with putting together a comprehensive reparations plan for our region.
We need to ask each Council member: will you take a stand and acknowledge the harms that have been done? Will you take risks to do things differently, because that will be essential to truly repairing the damage done? Will you vote for this resolution and the long overdue justice it represents?
What to do:
- Email in a public comment for Tuesday’s Council meeting, advocating for them to pass the reparations resolution. (You can read the full content of the resolution below.) Write to AshevilleCityCouncilJuly142020@publicinput.com. If you encounter issues with this email address, you can also contact all City Council members at AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov.
- Provide your name, city of residence and the item you are commenting on – New Business Item B – resolution supporting community reparations for Black Asheville
- Start off with something personal: tell them why you are a resident whose voice they should listen to on this matter; share a quick personal story about why its important to you that the city commit to a path of reparations to the Black community; make a personal statement about why you think this issue should be important to them.
- Here is some additional language you can use:
- This resolution is a crucial first step in a long overdue process. Our city government must take responsibility for the pivotal role it has played in hundreds of years of oppression of Black people in this region, from slavery to urban renewal. The city must commit to concrete plans for assuring that those harms don’t continue and for remedying the damage that’s been done.
- Close by stating plainly that you urge Council to vote yes on the resolution supporting community reparations for Black Asheville.