Race: Conversations Are Key
“We’re not going to get anywhere in this movement if you don’t get uncomfortable,” said panelist Amber Lucas during the Community Conversations on Race Facebook Live about the Black Lives Matter movement.
This Facebook Live is part of a weekly series hosted by Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County that focuses on creating an educational and conversational space where community members can learn about and discuss topics of race. This Conversation, moderated by Marcus Clarke and Nydia Mora, was just one of the many live streams that discuss the topic of Black Lives Matter. The panelists included three local activists: Tayna Forsberg, Amber Lucas, and Julian Quibell (Bios featured in the photo gallery). They each shared what inspired them to get involved in social change.
Tanya Forsberg shared her thoughts saying, “We have a narrative about what America is and that’s hard to give up.” She further explained that in 2016 she chose to look beyond the narrative of America being a perfect place and has been an advocate for social change ever since. The other panelists also shared about moments when their view of America shifted and they saw deeper into the problems that truly plague our communities.
I felt the seriousness of the topic when Fosberg said that we all must “understand how the disease of white supremacy is disrupting the foundation of our country.” Every single speaker had extremely impactful things to say that taught me just how crucial it is to get involved in activism in some way or another.
What I took away from this Conversation is that there are several ways you can get involved which may include being present in your community and on social media, but in order to make a lasting impact we need to go further. Lucas elaborated on this expressing that we must focus on making real change, and to do that we need to get involved in politics and that goes beyond BLM art pieces and things of that nature. The Black Lives Matter movement cannot be just a trend on social media, or something for white people to appropriate. It must be a movement of fundamental changes to our society.
I feel that we must use our voice in the vote even if you may think your opinion is too small to count. According to Quibell, the electoral process is “a self healing system that only works if people get involved.”
Lucas used her closing statements to make a call to action saying “I don’t want this to be all for nothing. We have to make a better tomorrow.”
CAP Sonoma hosts these conversations on their Facebook page. You can view this Conversation and all past Conversations on their Facebook or or Youtube Channel.
Tanya moved to Northern California almost 25
years ago. She lives in San Leandro with her
husband and two children and is a marketing
manager at Kaiser Permanente.
She has always been a concerned citizen with
an interest in politics but believed that voting
in every election was enough until 2016
when she decided to get more involved
locally and joined the board of the San
Leandro Education Fund (SLED) - a
nonprofit foundation whose mission is to
identify and mobilize local, regional and
national resources in order to bring increased
funding, innovative programming and strong
partnerships to San Leandro Unified School
District’s public schools.
Tanya is married to a long time Santa Rosa
resident from Bennett Valley, and has been
coming to Sonoma County with her husband
and children to visit the grandparents and
explore all things Sonoma County for the
last 20 years. She has unique perspectives
on race and community and we are so
grateful and excited to be able to hear them
tonight.
local Influencer in Sonoma County. She has
worked with national brands such as Target,
Macy’s, Almay, and Crest. Amber enjoys
traveling, writing, public speaking and is
the founder of A-Mused Blog.
We have been fortunate to have Amber lend her
voice, views and passion on two past
conversations and we cannot wait to hear
what she has to say tonight. Thank you Amber,
for the work that you do in this community
on a daily basis. Sonoma County is lucky
to have you in it. https://www.amusedblog.com/
incredible panelists on tomorrow’s, “Community
Conversations on Race”.
Julian is a proud native of Sonoma County. For
the past two decades (+) he has worked in
international development, starting with a
3-year stint with the Peace Corps in Ecuador
(1997-200). He has served as country director
for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for
the past 18 years -- first in Mexico (2004-12),
then Nicaragua (2012-20) and recently came
"full circle" when in Aug. 2020 he returned to
Ecuador as NDI's director.
The programs he has managed have been
designed to support democratic culture,
institutions and processes. This has included
support for a variety of projects aimed to
increase political participation, foster inclusion
and promote government accountability.
Through this work he has supported youth
leadership programs, domestic election
observation efforts, civic advocacy and
movement-building projects. In addition, he has
designed and implemented programs to
strengthen the organizational capacity
and responsiveness
of political parties and to increase the political
participation of historically marginalized groups,
including women, LGBT+ and indigenous
communities.