An antiracist motion penned by Mayor Jacki Marsh and members of Loveland’s “Black, indigenous and people of color” community was set aside by a 6-3 vote of the City Council on Tuesday.
Councilors who opposed voting on the motion — which included six statements acknowledging the existence of racism in Loveland and endorsing various strategies for addressing it — said they wanted to wait until after a future study session on the issue to take action.
“That, to me, is a first step. It’s an opportunity to look at solutions. This doesn’t provide any solutions,” Ward III councilor Steve Olson said.
He ultimately made the motion to postpone voting on the item. Marsh and councilors Rob Molloy of Ward I and Andrea Samson of Ward II voted against the motion to postpone, while the rest of the council voted in favor.
Marsh’s resolution would not have called off the study session, which Ward II councilor Kathi Wright requested by a Rule of Four on Aug. 18. City staff members have yet to identify when the session will be held.
Wright said Marsh’s resolution went “too far, too fast” and urged the council to wait to take formal action.
“We need to have this discussion, not pass a long litany of whatever we say we’re going to support and do without any kind of study or discussion,” she said.
Marsh located her resolution within the national discussion about racism that has intensified since George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was killed by Minneapolis police in May.
Multiple demonstrations have been held in Loveland in response to Floyd’s killing, and many attendees and protesters at subsequent political rallies have carried signs denouncing police violence against minorities.
“The world watched the murder of George Floyd, and it brought outrage and pain,” Marsh said. “The good out of that, if you can say there’s any good, is that it has brought discussion. It has brought our BIPOC community to speak up, and our white community is listening to those voices.”
Before the meeting Tuesday, council members also debated the definition of racism in response to posts and comments made on Facebook by Olson, Samson and Loveland Affordable Housing Commission member Gil Barela.
Tuesday’s special meeting opened with about 56 minutes of public comment, the longest introductory comment period since council meetings went remote in March, including testimony from speakers who said they and their family members had been the target of race-based harassment in Loveland.
“Just a few generations ago, my family was not allowed to shop or be in downtown Loveland because of the color of their skin and languages they spoke,” a resident wrote in an email that was read into the record. “My great-great-grandfather was forced to stop participating in his Native American language, practices and traditions … It’s not uncommon for me to get asked where I learned to speak English so well, how long I’ve been in the U.S. and more derogatory questions and statements,” the email continued.
“What’s worse is when I speak up about (the) experiences that both my daughter and myself experience to our friends that happen to be white, far too often, I am being convinced that I am misreading the situation,” Latina McCoy, who identified as a Black woman living in Ward I, said. “That, to me, is what white privilege looks like.”
Others spoke up as white supporters of the mayor’s statements.
“Racism lives in our collective blind spots,” Ward I resident Shane Ritter said. “Are you considering procedures or strategies you may undertake that advantage whiteness, and are you helping to challenge them? I believe Mayor Marsh’s motion does just that.”
Some also criticized the mayor for her views.
“I am appalled at how low of an opinion you have of anyone of color, that they are not capable and have been so beaten down for the color of their skin that an apology (for) having white skin is required,” another person wrote in an email that was read into the record.
Marsh and Samson both spoke about the value of recent “listening session” events held by Stories Without Borders and Heart and Sol.
“Our citizens are really hurting — especially in the BIPOC community, but it sounded like a number of our white citizens are hurting as well — because there is a refusal to acknowledge that racism is still happening here,” Samson said.
Marsh also called postponing the vote a “slap in the face” to Loveland’s nonwhite residents and said that she viewed the resolution as building on rather than supplanting Wright’s request for a study session.
One councilor who voted in favor of postponing Marsh’s motion, John Fogle of Ward III, suggested that a future motion addressing racism be written by multiple council members or the council as a whole.
“Our community should in no way see this as a slap in the face,” he said. “Just coming up with the short form here … I think is unfair to our community and the people of color in our community.”
“They deserve more, they deserve better and they deserve a lot of work from all nine of us.”
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August 27, 2020 at 10:01AM
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Loveland council declines to pass antiracist motion, will wait for study session - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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