海角大神

Episode transcript

Samantha Laine Perfas: Hi everybody. I鈥檓 Samantha Laine Perfas, multimedia reporter at 海角大神. You鈥檙e listening to Part 2 of 鈥淭ulsa Rising,鈥� the story of a city wrestling with its past and 鈥� maybe 鈥� forging a better future. This episode was originally published in the fall of 2020, so afterward we鈥檒l hear an update from Tulsa鈥檚 mayor, G.T. Bynum.

Today we talk politics. One of the many terrible things about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre is how the city government responded to it: by making it even harder for Black Tulsans to rebuild.

So we wanted to know: What happens when your history is marked by such a huge failure of leadership? And when your experience today says those leaders are still not addressing your needs, where do you find hope?

Today鈥檚 episode is hosted by my colleague Jessica Mendoza. This is Part 2 of 鈥淭ulsa Rising: The Illusion of Inclusion.鈥�

[Music]

This story contains descriptions of violence, including gun violence and trauma inflicted on Black Americans. Please be advised.

[Music]

[ from The Oklahoman: 鈥�...more police are killed in this country every year鈥︹�� // 鈥�...hands up! Don鈥檛 shoot! Hands up 鈥� don鈥檛 shoot!鈥漖

[ from ABC News: 鈥�...we begin tonight with the news from Tulsa, Oklahoma, authorities there declaring a civil emergency ahead of President Trump鈥檚 massive campaign rally there tomorrow night鈥︹�漖 

[ from TODAY: 鈥�...already Oklahoma seeing positive cases surge past 10,000 over the weekend...鈥漖

Jessica Mendoza: Even by 2020 standards, it was a stressful summer for Tulsa. Like the rest of the country, Tulsans are dealing with all the strain and anxiety related to the pandemic and the election. But the city is also gearing up for the commemoration of the 1921 race massacre 鈥� a particularly violent incident of racism that destroyed almost the entire Black community in Tulsa 100 years ago.  

You might be thinking: What does a hundred-year-old event have to do with anything we鈥檙e dealing with today? 

Well, for one, it鈥檚 churning up a lot of pain and resentment, especially for Black Tulsans, at a time when race and racism are already very present political issues for much of the country. When we talked to members of the Black community in Tulsa, we heard a lot of exhaustion and cynicism. A sense of: No one really cares. Not now, not for a long time. 

Audio montage: 

Robert Turner: This is not just a Democrat or Republican thing. You got racist people who vote for Democrats. You got racist folk who vote for Republicans. 

Ty Walker: I tell the Republican Party, you know, you鈥檙e no different than the Democrat Party because if the Democrat Party puts something in place that鈥檚 not really beneficial for the people, the Republicans don鈥檛 change it. They let it ride.

Tiffany Crutcher: And it鈥檚 just crazy, but you know, I don鈥檛 know why we continue to vote for parties that don鈥檛 serve us well, that don鈥檛 serve our best interest. 

Mareo Johnson: A large majority of Black America, they feel it doesn鈥檛 matter either way, Republican or Democrat. 鈥楴othing is going to change in my situation, my circumstance, my surroundings. Nothing is gonna change it.鈥�

[Music]

Jess: So much of how we understand the election is through our partisan politics. Each side is claiming the soul of the nation is at stake. But what about the voters whom both parties have failed 鈥� not just today, but consistently and systematically, for generations? How do they decide whom to support? And where do they find hope? 

[Music] 

Crutcher: I woke up with this eerie feeling. It was just a blah feeling. I couldn鈥檛 even put my finger on it. I wasn鈥檛 sick. It was Friday. My 鈥� my colleagues, they were like, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 going on with you? You鈥檙e not your bubbly self.鈥� And I said, 鈥榃ell, nothing鈥檚 wrong.鈥� And I happened to pick up my phone and I pulled up a picture of me and Terence. And they said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 a nice picture of Terence, what is he doing today?鈥� I said, 鈥榃ell, he鈥檚 getting ready to start his first day of class.鈥� And that was that. 

Later that evening after I got off of work, I got a call from a cousin who lived in Dallas. And she said, 鈥楬ave you called home? When was the last time you called home?鈥� I said, 鈥業t鈥檚 been maybe a day or two.鈥� And she got really quiet. I said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 wrong?鈥� She said, 鈥業 think you should call home. And I said, 鈥楽pit it out. Something is wrong.鈥� She said, 鈥業t鈥檚 about Terence. I heard that he was shot and he鈥檚 dead.鈥� And my entire body went numb.

Jess: This is Dr. Tiffany Crutcher. She鈥檚 founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, a nonprofit named after her twin brother, who . The story, by this time, will sound unfortunately familiar: On September 16th, police received a call that an SUV had stopped in the middle of the road. 

[Audio clip from The Wall Street Journal鈥檚 copy of the : sirens and police officers talking over the radio]

Officer Betty Shelby was the first to arrive, as she was on her way to another dispute. She found Terence on the scene, and was soon joined by other officers.  

Multiple videos, including one from a police helicopter with an on-board camera, show Terence walking on the road with his hands in the air. One officer in the helicopter can be heard calling Terence a 鈥渂ad dude.鈥� 

[Audio clip from police videos: 鈥�...that looks like a bad dude too鈥︹�漖

On the ground, officers follow Terence as he approaches his vehicle. Then Officer Shelby pulls the trigger, and he falls.  

[Audio clip from police videos: 鈥�...shots fired!鈥︹�� 鈥�...three-twenty-one, we have shots fired, we have one suspect down鈥︹�漖

Crutcher: Betty Shelby was  within the week. And for the first time in the history of Tulsa, a police officer was indicted. For the first time in the history. And we thought we were making progress. They released a video, so we thought they were being transparent. I said, 鈥業t鈥檚 gonna be different this time. We鈥檙e gonna be different here in Tulsa.鈥�

Jess: The trial took place in May of 2017. Officer Shelby told investigators that Terence  with requests to stop and get on his knees, that he seemed to be under the influence. She said she thought he was reaching for a weapon, and that she feared for her life. The Crutcher family pointed out that he was unarmed, with his hands in the air. Terence did struggle with addiction. But the Crutchers鈥� attorney said the police didn鈥檛 have to approach the situation with deadly force. 

The trial was followed closely by the community and received national attention. And then, &苍产蝉辫;鈥�

Crutcher: She was acquitted of all charges. Acquitted but not exonerated, because the jury  to the verdict saying that, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 believe that she鈥檚 blameless. She should never be a patrol officer again. But because of鈥� 鈥� and I鈥檓 paraphrasing 鈥� 鈥榖ecause of how the law is written, we have to render this verdict.鈥� 

Jess: The letter explains why the jury did decide to acquit Betty Shelby, breaking down each aspect of the case. For Tiffany, though 鈥� 

Crutcher:&苍产蝉辫;鈥� I had to figure out a way to face the world.

[Music]

Jess: What happened to Terence Crutcher is all too commonplace. And this is usually the point in the narrative when it becomes a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats will often see totally different meanings in the events that took place. And many will use a tragedy like this to rile up supporters. But for Tiffany, it is about so much more than partisan politics.

Crutcher: This is my lived experience. You know, just to give you a little bit more intel about my family, we鈥檝e been through so much trauma. We鈥檝e had every single issue hit us. Back in 2008, my oldest brother鈥檚 children, . Leaving church, two o鈥檆lock. Broad daylight. Donovan, my oldest nephew, was only 16 years old, and he was hit 36 times. His brother, Adrion, was also 16. They were eleven months apart, he had just turned 16. The bullet went through a spinal cord, and paralyzed him from T7 down, never to walk again.

My first cousin, Jeremy, was in the car. He was the church drummer. His right eye was shot out. And another cousin was hit in the stomach. Strict case of mistaken identity. They were riding in the same color and make car of gang members that these guys were looking for and they got the wrong little suburban kids. 

Fast forward, my oldest brother. Less than two years before Terence was killed, we lost him to stage four colon cancer at the age of 44. And then finally, I lose my twin to police brutality. And I said, I鈥檓 not going to lose this. 

Jess: After her brother鈥檚 death, Tiffany moved back to Tulsa from Alabama, where she鈥檇 been working as a physical therapist, and started her foundation. She鈥檚 since become deeply involved in advocating for Black civil rights in Tulsa, and even considered a bid for mayor. She instead wound up throwing her support behind Greg Robinson, a Democrat who was one of seven candidates to run against sitting Republican Mayor G.T. Bynum in August. (Though people in Tulsa, Tiffany included, are quick to note that .) 

For all her frustration with politics, Tiffany gets that the change she wants to see will have to happen in the political space. At the same time, she knows that the way our institutions are set up, there really isn鈥檛 any space to operate outside of the party system.  

Crutcher: The viable options are the Republicans and the Democrats. That鈥檚 all we have. And until we can do something different, we鈥檙e going to keep getting what we鈥檙e getting.

Jessica Mendoza/海角大神/File

Tiffany Crutcher stands in front of a mural just off Greenwood Avenue that celebrates the history and legacy of Black Wall Street on Oct. 2, 2020, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Crutcher, whose twin brother Terence was shot and killed by Tulsa police in 2016, says part of her fight is to get voices like her family's heard in a political system that doesn't prioritize Black experiences.

Jess: Tiffany鈥檚 story is complicated and difficult to hear 鈥� a close look at what it鈥檚 like to be Black in this country today.

She says 鈥� and we heard this a lot 鈥� the fight for racial equality within the Black community has been a long one, nonstop. And to many Black Americans, that fight is clearly connected to a history that we as a country are often eager to dismiss or move on from.  

Both parties are also failing Black communities, and have for a long time 鈥� though, in our conversations with Black Tulsans, we heard different explanations for how they鈥檝e failed, and what people need to do about it. 

Take, for example, the Rev. Robert Turner. We heard from him last episode. He鈥檚 the pastor of the Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church. Over the past two years, he鈥檚 become a weekly sight outside Tulsa City Hall: a tall man in a sharp suit and a megaphone, calling for reparations in his booming preacher voice.  

[Audio clip from Rev. Robert Turner marching in front of Tulsa City Hall: 鈥�...You may not like saying the words, Mr. Mayor or Mr. President. But to God, Black lives matter鈥︹�漖

Turner: And while I鈥檓 out there, you know, I tell people: This is not about a political party or political agenda. The Democratic Party has done nothing to support what I do. Absolutely nothing. In fact, unfortunately, they鈥檝e run away.

Jess: Rev. Turner sees his work as a necessary step toward racial justice. And to him, that justice is based on faith and moral values, not party politics. But he says political actors need to participate for justice to happen. 

Samantha Laine Perfas/海角大神Robert Turner, seen here September 30 in Tulsa, says reparations are crucial to any effort on the city鈥檚 part to wrestle with its racist past. 鈥淲e need to digest and marinate on what we did to a group of people ... solely because they were Black,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 all for moving forward, working together. But let鈥檚 understand where we come from.鈥�

Turner: This is, at its foundation, a spiritual movement. But it calls for physical, political remedies. If this is political, it鈥檚 just as political, or not more political, than Moses telling Pharaoh to let God鈥檚 people go. It means you have to emancipate your slaves, right? 

Jess: He says that that kind of fight is always going to ruffle feathers. The way America is divided today, that may mean more Republican feathers than Democratic ones, but, he says: 

Turner: It鈥檚 not just one party, it鈥檚 not just Republicans. John Conyers for decades introduced H.R. 40, calling for a commission to study the effects of slavery and have reparations.

Jess: The late Rep. Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, was the longest-serving Black member of Congress. He first introduced the bill back in 1989, and faced resistance over it for years, even from within his own party. In recent years, some Democrats, particularly  of Texas, have been more supportive of H.R. 40. But reparations is still divisive among Democrats. The reverend鈥檚 point is that the machinery of party politics isn鈥檛 really built for change, especially not around race.

Turner: It just shows you this is not just a Democrat or Republican thing.

Jess: And that鈥檚 why he marches, why he鈥檚 so convinced that moving forward as a nation will require something of Americans that they鈥檝e never given before.

Turner: It requires a lot on this generation of white people. I give them that. I鈥檝e heard similar sentiments, 鈥榃ell, you know, it just feels like, you know, as a white man in America, we just under attack, we can鈥檛 do anything right. We鈥檙e the problem. We鈥檝e done all this and it鈥檚 like we can鈥檛 catch a break.鈥� And I鈥檓 like, 鈥業鈥檓 sorry that you have been able to benefit for the last 400 years. That whiteness has been the innocent victor in American culture for the last 400 years.鈥�

And I鈥檓 all for moving forward, but we need to digest and marinate on what we did to a group of people solely because 鈥� it wasn鈥檛 because Blacks were uneducated, it wasn鈥檛 because Blacks weren鈥檛 海角大神 鈥� solely because they were Black. And we have not fully digested that yet. I鈥檓 all for moving forward, working together. But let鈥檚 understand where we come from.

[Music]

Jess: We did meet people in Tulsa, including members of the Black community, who would rather focus on the here and now than on a history that鈥檚 long gone.

Samantha Laine Perfas/海角大神Tyrone Walker smiles in front of Wanda J鈥檚, the restaurant he runs that鈥檚 named after his mother, on Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. Mr. Walker, a Republican, says he supports the GOP because the Democratic Party focuses too much on what government should do for people or say about them.

Samantha Laine Perfas/海角大神/File

Tyrone Walker smiles in front of Wanda J's, the restaurant he runs that's named after his mother, on Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Oct. 1, 2020. Mr. Walker, a Republican, says he supports the GOP because the Democratic Party focuses too much on what government should do for people or say about them.

Ty Walker: We鈥檙e fighting things that happened in the past. I鈥檓 not discounting it. You know, I think it鈥檚 great. But at the end of the day is it really going to change the community鈥檚 economic situation?

Jess:This is Ty Walker. He鈥檚 a Tulsa native, a minister, and a military veteran. He runs a restaurant on Greenwood Avenue called Wanda J鈥檚 Next Generation.

Walker: Wanda J is my mother. We鈥檝e been around since 1974. I was eight years old, I believe, when she first started.

Jess: The business is Ty鈥檚 pride, and also the heart of his political philosophy. His experience running it is one of the main reasons that he decided as an adult to identify as a Republican, after being raised in a primarily Democratic household. He acknowledged that being Black and a Republican is seen as taboo these days, but he feels that the priorities of the Republican Party align much better with his values. 

Walker: Everything we do always comes back to economics. To pull people up the ladder is to change their economic situation. We keep saying government intervention is the key. And then we keep relying on somebody to say they鈥檒l take care of you 鈥� and can鈥檛 no man take care of you. You have to learn to provide for yourself.

Jess: Ty says the weakness of the Democratic Party鈥檚 position is too much emphasis on what other people should do for you or say about you, and not enough on taking charge of your own life. He has six daughters, and he says he teaches them to fend for themselves. To not let race or any other label define their lives.  

Walker: I don鈥檛 want them to ever get caught up in labels because once you get caught up on the labels, name tags and things like that, guess what? You become that. But I teach them to be business women, and understand that you can be who you are regardless of the color of your skin.

Jess: This is a big part of why Ty decided to run for mayor this past summer. He focused his campaign on developing business opportunities for all Tulsans, and tried to convince voters that he was a unity candidate. On his campaign site 鈥� and during our chat 鈥� he emphasized that he鈥檚 lived on both sides of the tracks that literally divide Tulsa鈥檚 majority-Black community from the rest of the city. He won  of the vote.

[Music]

Tulsa鈥檚 current mayor 鈥� who won reelection in that race 鈥� is also Republican. We heard from him last episode. G.T. Bynum was a Tulsa city councilor for eight years before being sworn in as the city鈥檚 40th mayor in December 2016. He says he has always tried to make the needs of Tulsa鈥檚 Black community a priority. 

G.T. Bynum: I ran for mayor largely because I was so upset by the fact that studies showed that kids that grow up in the predominantly African American part of Tulsa are expected to  than kids elsewhere in the city. That disparity is a symptom of many other things that we鈥檙e trying to focus on and address.

Jess: Throughout his term, Mayor Bynum has been praised for speaking openly about Tulsa鈥檚 racist past. In 2018, he reopened the investigation into where the bodies of those killed in the 1921 race massacre might be buried. 

Bynum: There are members of your family who have disappeared, and you have no idea where they are. And the response of the city government and of the leaders at the time is you need to just move on and get over it. And then we wonder why we have issues of racial division all these years later. And so I think we have a 鈥� just a fundamental human responsibility to the victims of this event to try and find their remains and allow them to have a proper burial, and for their families to know what happened to them.

Jess: Just this past summer, on the anniversary of the massacre, a group of Black leaders 鈥� including Tiffany Crutcher 鈥�  to support his commitment to police reform.

That support has since wavered, after the mayor told  that Terence Crutcher鈥檚 death had more to do with drugs than with race. (The mayor later apologized.) He also disappointed many Democrats when  in Tulsa in June. Most recently, he鈥檚 received flak for the removal of the Black Lives Matter mural that was painted on Greenwood Avenue 鈥� illegally, the mayor points out.    

Still, Mayor Bynum says he believes party politics don鈥檛 have to get in the way of providing for marginalized communities, including the Black community.

Bynum: The coalition that I built both to be elected and then to govern has not been partisan. I don鈥檛 even know the party makeup of our team in the mayor鈥檚 office. I don鈥檛 care. Political parties are very much focused on federal policy, and when it comes to city government, I don鈥檛 think either party has a monopoly on good ideas or hard work. 

Now I am a Republican, and in the time that I鈥檝e been mayor, I routinely have Democrats tell me, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e the only Republican I鈥檝e ever voted for,鈥� or 鈥業 can鈥檛 believe that you鈥檙e a Republican.鈥� And I always think that鈥檚 a shame, because the Republican Party, at least that I believe in, is focused on the individual and the liberty of the individual. And you can鈥檛 do that if you have individuals in your community that are being robbed of a decade of their life just because of the part of town that they happen to be growing up in. We have a responsibility to build a better community.

[Music]

Sam: Hi everyone, Samantha Laine Perfas again, a reporter for 鈥淭ulsa Rising.鈥� As Mayor Bynum pointed out, politics can be challenging and divisive. But one thing we noticed in Tulsa was a real effort to strive for bipartisan collaboration; it鈥檚 not always easy, and mistakes are often made. But intentionally putting forth that effort can lead to results, and Tulsa is a window into what that could look like. If you鈥檝e appreciated this on-the-ground reporting, the best way to make sure we produce more work like this is to subscribe to 海角大神. If you already do, thank you! But if not, you can do that at csmonitor.com/subscribe. We really appreciate your support. Again, that鈥檚 csmonitor.com/subscribe. Thanks for listening.

[Music]

Jess: The idea that Black voters would have such a wide range of political ideologies, or that they don鈥檛 feel like they really fit in either party, runs up against a powerful narrative in American politics: that of the monolithic Black vote. While Black Americans do tend to vote as a bloc, their politics are anything but monolithic. What we heard in Tulsa isn鈥檛 all that different from what Black politics look like across the country. To learn more about this, we called Theodore Roosevelt Johnson III.  

Ted Johnson:  of Black Americans identify as conservative. Just over a quarter identify as progressive or liberal. And about 45 or so percent identify as moderate. So what this suggests is that Black folks span the spectrum of political ideologies just like every other race and ethnicity in the United States.

Jess: Ted is a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who studies Black politics and voting behavior. And yes, he鈥檚 named after the president. 

Johnson: It鈥檚 a bit odd for a Black guy from the South to be named after a rich white Republican from a century ago. But at the time that my grandfather was given this name by my great-grandparents 鈥� he was born in 1918 鈥� it was standard practice for Black Americans to identify as Republican, to the extent that they could vote.

Jess: Ted makes the case that how Black people vote often doesn鈥檛 reflect what they actually believe politically. 

Johnson: What we see from the outset, from 1867 forward, are Black Americans voting for the same party.

Jess: In the late 1800s, that was the Republican Party 鈥� 

Johnson:&苍产蝉辫;鈥� the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party that championed the abolishment of slavery, the party that fought for the enfranchisement of Black freedmen after the Civil War. 

Jess: That began to change in 1877, after President Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, agreed to pull federal troops from the Southern states. This opened up the former Confederacy to Jim Crow laws 鈥� a brutal period for Black Americans. And after a while, they did what any oppressed people would do, if they could: They left. Black people began heading north and west. In some places, like Tulsa, they built communities like Greenwood.

Johnson: And as these Black folks in the South begin to spread out across the country, they change the politics of the states to where they move. So for a period from about 1930 through the 1950s, there is a pretty healthy competition for Black voters at the state and local level at various places around the country.

Jess: Then, in 1948, it looked like Democratic incumbent Harry Truman was about to lose the presidential election to Thomas Dewey. In July, . 

Johnson: He signs the order desegregating the federal workforce and desegregating the military. 

[ from British Path茅: 鈥�...Courageously, President Truman said, 鈥榃e must make the government a friendly defender of the rights of all Americans. Again, I mean all Americans.鈥� 鈥︹�漖

He does this because  in Illinois, Ohio, New York, New Jersey to support him, then he has a chance of winning the presidency. The strategy proved true.

Jess: And it was the start of two decades of political realignment. The Democratic Party continued to court Black voters with civil rights legislation, and the party鈥檚 white Southern delegation began to move to the GOP. 

[ from British Path茅: 鈥�...with the battle cry, you shall not crucify the South on this cross of civil rights鈥︹�漖

Jess: The deal was sealed in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.  

[ from The LBJ Library: 鈥淟et us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our nation whole.鈥漖

Jess: Today,  either identify with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic.

Johnson: And so what we鈥檝e seen over the sweep of American history are Black people voting in a bloc for the same party despite their political diversity, as a means of countering the electoral power of white racial conservatives, who would much rather the country pump its brakes on racial equality and racial integration.

Jess: What Ted is saying is that Black Americans today aren鈥檛 necessarily voting for Democratic presidents because they think that the Democratic Party is serving them well. Nor is it because they agree with Democratic ideology across the board. Ted鈥檚 own family is proof of that.  

Johnson: While my father is certainly more conservative, it鈥檚 the conservatism that leans on the belief that hard work, self-determination, individualism, education may not erase racism, but it gives you the best chance at success. And he also had a very strong sense of racial pride and racial identity, in that the government鈥檚 not going to be there for us, and so we have to learn to make our communities self-sustaining. 

Jess: Which, incidentally, sounds a bit like the politics of Ty Walker, the conservative restaurant owner who ran for mayor in Tulsa. Ted鈥檚 mom, on the other hand, had ideas that reflected those of Tiffany Crutcher, whose brother was shot and killed by Tulsa police. 

Ted: She held a lot of those same beliefs about the importance of hard work and self-determination and education. But she believed it was the government鈥檚 responsibility to ensure our civil rights protections above all else. If they were falling short of that, we don鈥檛 let them off the hook by doing for ourselves. We demand even more stridently that they fulfill that.

Jess: And yet on Election Day, especially a presidential election, the choice for Black voters often leaves very little room for those political ideologies. Because 鈥� and this is Ted鈥檚 ultimate point 鈥� Black participation in our democracy has been driven, and limited, by the necessity of voting for whichever party happens to be championing civil rights for Black Americans at a given moment. 

Johnson: And so when every presidential election is essentially a single-issue election around which party is better at civil rights protections, then what Black voters lose is their political agency. They lose the ability to express themselves fully in the political arena on the range of issues that should be presented in elections. And they are robbed of that luxury by being forced to consider the party that will protect and extend civil rights, and the party that is looking to dial those rights back.

And when people don鈥檛 鈥� when they鈥檙e unable to exercise their political agency in full, they feel like they鈥檝e been excluded from the nation. They feel like government is not responsive to their needs, that it鈥檚 not interested in what their community needs. And they see politics as nothing more than the pandering that happens every two or four years that may deliver election victories but doesn鈥檛 actually deliver change. 

Jess: When we talked to Tiffany Crutcher, she put it another way: 

Crutcher: I definitely don鈥檛 think that the Republican Party speaks to the Black needs of Tulsa. And as far as the Democratic Party, there鈥檚 racism within the Democratic Party as well. I do believe that our votes a lot of times are taken for granted, especially Black women. We come out and vote in droves, and we鈥檙e never afforded a seat at the table. And to me, that鈥檚 an illusion of inclusion. And so I don鈥檛 believe that our needs have been met by either party. 

I鈥檓 tired of politics as usual. I鈥檓 tired of negotiating with politics, if I live or die because of the color of my skin. Don鈥檛 we have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Isn鈥檛 that the American way?

Jess: We met Tiffany at the new offices of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, on the first floor of the Greenwood Cultural Center. The walls were still bare, but she鈥檇 laid out some news clippings and photographs she plans to put up. As we talked, she would go from anger to despair to exhaustion to relentlessness, and back again. 

Jessica Mendoza/海角大神Tiffany Crutcher stands in front of a mural just off Greenwood Avenue that celebrates the history and legacy of Black Wall Street on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Crutcher, whose twin brother Terence was shot and killed by Tulsa police in 2016, says part of her fight is to get voices like her family鈥檚 heard in a political system that doesn鈥檛 prioritize Black experiences.

Crutcher: Tulsa has a history of racially biased policing, evidenced by the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. The same police culture and state sanctioned violence that burnt down Greenwood is the same culture that killed my twin brother. Nothing has changed. They blamed the Black folks for the massacre. They blamed my twin brother for his own death. 

And so I often sit back and think about what my great-grandmother was thinking when a white mob came to burn down her community. I often sit back and wonder what she was thinking when she had to jump on the back of a truck and run. Then I think about what Terence was thinking when the helicopter was looming, saying that he looked like a bad dude. He wasn鈥檛 a fleeing felon. Terence needed help. But he got a bullet. And so this is the climate that we live in today. Nothing has changed.

Jess: And so we asked her: What keeps her going? How does she bring herself to do this work every day?

Crutcher: I鈥檓 simply following the blueprint of my ancestors. Our ancestors were resilient. They were strong. They rebuilt in the face of adversity. And that鈥檚 all I鈥檓 simply trying to do, is rebuild in the face of adversity. 

Jess: Tiffany says she puts her hopes in people. And she keeps going because she has to. 

Crutcher: We have so much work to do. White people ask me all the time, 鈥榃hat can we do? What can I do? What can you tell me?鈥� And I just don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 my burden to teach white people how to not be racist. Go ask other white people. You get what I鈥檓 saying? How come I have to carry that burden too? It baffles me. But what I can do is share my perspective and my lived experience with you. 

And I will say that post George Floyd, we鈥檙e having hard conversations. People are waking up and attitudes are shifting. And we鈥檙e changing hearts and minds. And so I think that鈥檚 the silver lining right now. 

[Music]

Jess: Thanks for listening, everyone. Next episode, we鈥檒l be looking at how Tulsans are finding ways to own their story using music, art, and the spirit that built 鈥� and rebuilt 鈥� Black Wall Street. 

This podcast was hosted by me, Jessica Mendoza. I reported and produced this story with Samantha Laine Perfas. Our editors are Clay Collins and Clara Germani, with additional edits by Mark Sappenfield, Judy Douglass, and Arielle Gray. Sound design by Morgan Anderson and Noel Flatt. And a special thanks to Steph Simon, for letting us use music from his album "Born On Black Wall Street" throughout this episode. Additional audio elements from ABC News, The Today Show, The Oklahoman, The Wall Street Journal, British Path茅, and The LBJ Library. Brought to you by 海角大神, copyright 2020. 

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