Black, Brown, the Unhoused and other community leaders are calling for a Boycott of the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) “community BBQ” as a step in the process of re-asserting our dignity as traditional Venetians and as original people of this land, we are asking that all People of Color (PoC) and others who resonate with our message, to refrain from attending and participating in the VNC BBQ on Saturday July 30th.
The decision to boycott was sparked at the June VNC meeting by a VNC BBQ organizer who made a microaggressive comment regarding the Oakwood community. The comment, while appearing inoffensive to non-PoC in the room, was highly offensive to Black and Brown Venetians in that it was the “breaking straw” exemplifying the pejorative attitudes by gentrifiers toward PoC and traditional Venetians. This boycott is a response to the continued disrespect toward Black, Brown, and other marginalized voices of Venice, by not just by the VNC but by other Venice community decision making forums as well. These unchecked attitudes and modes of operation only serve to reinforce the structure of institutional racism within our neighborhood.
That June meeting is also the same meeting where Ira Koslow, the newly elected President of the all-White Chamber of Commerce VNC board childishly told us to “go form your own organization (council)”, made fun of non-winning VNC candidates, and tried to wield LAPD to remove community members from the meeting as though they were his private security force. All this egotistical authoritarian action simply because PoC were being vocal about yet another disrespectful gentrifier narrative and the refusal from our community forum to correct it.
To give some context a very controversial VNC board has just been “elected.” With due respect to the community officers who made it past the “1300” questionable new votes in the election, this new VNC is a de facto all- white board of recent Venice residents intimately tied to real estate and development interests in the community. The bulk of the newly seated VNC members ran on the same all-White slate which utilized propaganda filled with lies, fear mongering, and racially coded terminology. None of the candidates who now sit on the VNC have yet to apologize or denounce their unvirtuous propaganda.
Also, contrary to popular notion many Black & Brown residents ran for seats this past election, the most we’ve seen in some time, yet not one was elected. If this past “VNC Election” and the “business as usual” modes of Venice politics is reflective of “the will of the community” as many like to claim then it is clear that Black, Brown, and Traditional Venetian families are not a component of the vision for Venice’s future unless it’s a token or patronizing role.
While gentrification affects low income people of all backgrounds it is the Black & Brown Venetians who bear the bulk of its negative impact. Some have ignorantly claimed that it is us who would be creating division by moving forward with this boycott but that is a cheap evasion for having to be responsible for their white privilege run amuck.
But to be accurate, the division was already created when this Native Tongva land was stolen, when the organizers of the VNC BBQ chose not to join in on the already existing Oakwood community BBQs, when the new VNC ran an all white gentrifier business oriented slate using coded racist language, when White politically active residents in Venice continue to spew racially coded language with no consequence or correction, when our requests to accommodate Spanish speaking residents gets dismissed and pushed to the backburner, when the VNC President said to form our own council and more than once wielded LAPD in attempt to threaten community members with arrest for voicing their opinions, and when the Parliamentarian (an unelected official) threatens to arrest a Native American woman if she continues to be vocal against their bullying tactics at VNC meetings. No, we’re not the ones who are creating division.
Given these assessments it is only logical for us as Black, Brown, and Unhoused Venetians to seriously reevaluate our relationship with, and the terms in which we engage the Venice Neighborhood Council, politicians, and other community decision making processes in Venice. It would also do well for our fellow Venice recent arrivals to educate themselves on how Institutional Racism works and how they might be perpetuating it.
• No more tokenizing People of Color!
• No more using LAPD to threaten community members at meetings!
• Include traditional Black, Brown, and traditional Venice residents on all VNC committees and community decision making boards!
• Mandatory Spanish language outreach and translation services at all board meetings!
• Check Your Privilege!
Support Us by Boycotting the VNC BBQ this Saturday July 30st.
Occupy Fantsyland – Not to say that the present change of Venice demographics brought by the uber-monetization of beach area is good for anything, I personally find it despicable that this once again equates homeless people with longtime Venice residents “of color.” GET THIS STRAIGHT TROLL, THE HOMELESS ARE JUST THAT, FUCKING HOMELESS! They do not have the right to say shit about how the neighborhood is run. There is nothing “TRADITIONAL” about them. They are vagabonds at best, living on our doorsteps because of an activist lawyer (Who doesn’t even live in Venice) and Councilman Bonin and City Attorney Frewer, who just let people languish on the beach and streets of Venice while embarking on long term projects that will help few, while transferring millions to nonprofit developers who will build on the most valuable city-owned land in Los Angeles. The ploy of gluing the “Unhoused” with any minority population is what the Venice social service Mafia has been doing for over 20 years – As for the “whiteness” of the present VNC, want to change THAT??? Get out the vote amongst people who are able to vote – and find some candidates who understand the difference between progressive and regressive, as well as how to compromise and do more at meetings than yell, dance around, and piss off people who took the time to go to meetings, get information and make their own conclusions – GROW THE FUCK UP!!!…
how to compromise and do more at meetings than yell, dance around, and piss off people- Rick Feibusch, Author of “Pot Meet Kettle”
Waaaa?
Just throwing your own words back at you, you hypocritical obese asshole. You don’t even live here anymore, yet you’re still dancing around and pissing people off with all your anti-homeless claptrap. You’re a crackpot. And a really obnoxious one too.
“Without due process, there is no justice”. Peace.Rick Selan
Uh Rick, do you OWN Venice? No, you do not.
And neither do the “unhoused.”
It’s the residents (both renters and homeowners) with families and young children that are the future of Venice. And they deserve a safe environment in which to raise kids and live. You transparent mental gymnastics to equate the homeless transients (many of whom are criminals at worst, and opportunistic rabble rousers at best) with rights of residents is disgusting. You need to get a life Rick. And yes Venice is changing and gentrifying and nothing you can do will stop that. It’s called progress.
Exactly. Well said.
Hey moron, Just because you don’t have a place to live anymore doesn’t mean you forfeit your residency in the city you reside in. With rents as astronomically high as they are here in Los Angeles, for people like you to continue to disrespect homeless people like they’re inferior to you just because you can afford a roof over your head and they can’t just outs you as the elitist asshole that you are. I ever catch you out in public disrespecting a homeless person in any way shape or form I will beat the living hell out of you. And that’s not an idle threat. It’s a promise.
Delete your account!
Graham, I’ve sent a copy of your post to an LAPD detective. You are a hypocrite. You have just threatened me with imminent harm and that’s illegal. It’s shows your disrespect for the 1st Amendment and free speech that the instant someone disagrees with YOUR view of the homeless in Venice, that you promise violence to silence me (and presumably others who agree with me). You will be investigated and registered as potentially violent with the LAPD. You should be banned from this site for your violent threats.
And by the way, you just might be the one who is of low intelligence here, not me. By definition, you’re wrong. Being homeless DOES by definition mean that “you forfeit your residency in the city in which you live” – in fact, that’s why it’s called residency – if you’re not renting or a homeowner, you’re no longer a resident and you don’t have the same legal rights, benefits (and responsibilities) of tax paying residents. Sorry, that’s the facts of life in America. Venice is not a commune.
You are absolutely wrong “Anonymous.” I know that all of you elitists think that homeless people by the mere act of being homeless forfeit legal rights but you are wrong. They have the same legal rights guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution as anybody else. And that is why the courts continue to rule in their favor whenever people like you attempt to deprive them of any of their legal rights.
Totally love this site. For anyone in Venice reading Venice Update please boycott The VNC BBQ and tell your friends in Venice about the boycott.
Check this out, totally makes perfect sense: https://medium.com/@YawoBrown/the-subtle-linguistics-of-polite-white-supremacy-3f83c907ffff#.wi0s33c5d