Nate Morris

According to the Harvard Global Institute of Health’s ‘The Path to Zero’ effort, all of Oklahoma is designated as “having accelerated spread” of COVID-19, with several counties (including Tulsa and Oklahoma counties) being rated as having reached a “tipping point.”

What happened last Saturday night is not unusual in Tulsa, but that does not mean that it is something to accept and embrace. Instead of more upstream solutions like the Rapid Response Team being there to serve as a bridge to services, the police, an entity downstream of many systemic oppressions and failures, was present and did what they could to help in the moment, while ultimately arresting her later. 

“The learning line is the difference between people who have access to educational opportunities that push them forward — towards their promise, and for the group of people who do not have access to educational opportunities, this LevelUp initiative actually pushes families from below the learning line to above the learning line, so that they now have the opportunity to make it to their place of promise,” Pastor Dr. Ray A. Owens of the Met Cares said.

Regardless of where you live, it’s incumbent upon us ― especially white people, who benefit from the same system that allowed this attack to occur, protected its perpetrators from legal action, precluded its victims from receiving compensation, and hid it from view of the masses for generations ― to seek out the stories that have been purposefully hidden or misrepresented in order to continue perpetuating false, placated narratives of our country’s true past.

The Sheriff indicated he would not meet any of the family’s requests and Regalado’s office issued no public apology to the Crutcher family.

Before the “Work the Contract” initiative began on March 12th, Cameron would spend time before and after school (and on weekends) making lesson plans, grading, calling parents, making copies, planning activities, organizing group work, and meeting with his coaches, principal and data team.  Now the time to complete these duties is confined to his 55 minute planning period (contractual time afforded to allow teachers to attend to business outside of their classroom) each day.  His regular 80/hr work week has been reduced to forty. “I am having a hard time not bringing any work home,” said Cameron. “It feels like a slap in the face that we have to prove to our legislators how much work this takes.”

The SPLC’s report chronicles the timeline of the namings and finds that there are two distinct time periods wherein these schools were named.  The first was during the rise of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws throughout the south and at the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Greenwood. The second was immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision of Brown v. Board.