While the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution proclaiming June 19 as Juneteenth in the county, Healing Justice Santa Barbara demanded that the board stop making statements and take action by allocating $500,000 over two years to establish a Black and African-American cultural resource center in Santa Barbara.
While the purpose of the agenda item was to hear about local efforts and recognize the Juneteenth holiday, Healing Justice used their presentation time to ask the county for more.
“We understand that Juneteenth in its entirety has not been realized, that investment is still lacking,” Healing Justice co-founder Simone Akila Ruskam said. “The needs of Black folks are being deprioritized. We are coming here today to say again that we will not fight with other organizers for pennies.”
Healing Justice is a Black-led and Black-centered organizing collective in Santa Barbara County aimed at uplifting, centering and creating space that empowers all Black people within the county.
It has been successful in redistributing more than $3,000 in emergency grants to Black residents, creating an entirely new equitable hiring process for the Santa Barbara City Council, boards and commissions, and established a healing center in partnership with UC Santa Barbara and the Hosford Clinic to provide free therapy by Black commissions to all Black residents throughout the county.
“We are really, really trying to show that we have been doing the work,” Ruskamp said. “We came to you all a year ago saying this is what our community needed and wanted and the county was not providing it, and rather than just give up, we created what we were missing.”
Ruskamp said the county had set aside money to advance racial equity, then watered that down to just equity, and then said that the county had allocated a majority of that money to the Human Resources Department, “essentially just pay(ing) themselves.”
Healing Justice asked the board for $500,000 to establish a Black and African-American cultural resource center, saying that it would allow Healing Justice to do the work that the board “refused to do.” Healing Justice recently asked the Santa Barbara City Council for the funding, but was denied there as well.
“We ask you today to meaningfully invest in this work, to not keep telling Black folks to wait,” Ruskamp said. “You all were elected to serve Black folks in your community, and many of you have not done so.”
First District Supervisor Das Williams said that a Black and African-American cultural resource center is a “worthwhile endeavor” and that the county did set up the equity fund. However, in the remarks about the Human Resources Department, he said that was important spending, “not the county paying itself.”
“It’s an effort, by the way led by people of color in the HR Department, to make sure that this is a place and this is an employer that values diversity, inclusion, and a place where people of color can get a job and thrive,” he said. “I think that’s an important effort, and so I don’t dismiss the need for HR.”
Williams encouraged Healing Justice to apply for the equity funds for a cultural resource center, but said he was not sure whether it would prevail in receiving the full $500,000.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said Santa Barbara might not be the best place to establish the cultural resource center and suggested establishing it in Lompoc, saying that places are much less expensive in the North County.
Ruskamp asked for time to respond to Lavagnino’s suggestion, saying that the presenters from the previous item were offered the same courtesy. Board chairman Bob Nelson explained that the last presentation was an appeal hearing, and Ruskamp would get additional time to speak only if asked a question by the board.
“OK, well, can someone please ask me a question about the suggestion that the center be located in Lompoc and why we have suggested it be where it is?” Ruskamp said. “You all make suggestions, you all move to create barriers without consulting any Black people.”
Ruskamp said that Healing Justice was very intentional about where the center would be located because there was a historic Black community on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
“It is not appropriate then, considering the history of Black folks in a specific area, to then suggest it be somewhere else without any significant conversation,” she said.
Ruskamp and lead organizer Mariah Jones-Bisquera began their presentation already frustrated by having to wait through an eight-hour meeting just to give their presentation, and they accused the board of disrespecting their time.
“I wish that you had shown us the same respect as our white counterparts that were able to name what time they wouldn’t be available and that Black lives were a priority when preparing today’s schedule,” Jones-Bisquera said.
“We were never given the option of picking the time,” Ruskamp added.
Some of the presenters who intended to speak were not able to do so given the delay of the presentation.
Although Healing Justice was not awarded the money for the resource center, it along with Juneteenth Santa Barbara created a series of celebrations to honor the upcoming holiday.
“We’re excited to be able to showcase our beautiful Black community and provide a platform for the celebration and education of Juneteenth,” Jordan Killebrew, co-founder of Juneteenth SB, told Noozhawk.
This is the fourth year that Juneteenth SB is holding celebrations, Killebrew said, but it is the first time that the organization has received immense community funding and backing.
The Community Services Department allocated $10,000 from the one-time funding to Juneteenth celebrations, split evenly between celebrations in the North and South counties, according to a letter filed by the board.
Throughout the month of June, Melanin, a Black artist gallery, will showcase entirely Black art for the community to enjoy and learn about Black history. The gallery, at 833 State St., will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the remainder of the month.
On June 18, Juneteenth SB is hosting a virtual program that includes conversations with United Hope, a student panel with UCSB and high school Black Student Unions, and youth learning tools from Gateway EDU.
On June 19, there will be a Chocolate Baby Story Time virtual program from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., and a Black artisan market at 833 State St. from noon to 4 p.m.
On the evening of June 19, a virtual program will include a welcome from Juneteenth SB founders, a performance of the Black national anthem by Talitha Black, libations by the Rev. David Moore, a Juneteenth poem read by Gateway Youth, performances by Mariano Silva and Jahbone, and a gallery tour and interviews.
In Lompoc, Collective Cultures Creating Change will host a Juneteenth celebration at Ryon Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The celebration will include games for children and adults, arts and crafts, food trucks, poetry, dancing, and a puppet show, among other festivities. There also will be a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the celebration.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
