Hey everyone,
To everyone who has supported Dualisms so far: thank you so much! Your support means the world to me. I have a long update incoming.
The short version is: I’m redirecting fundraising efforts for my recent Dualisms release from Campaign Zero to the Detroit Justice Center. You can read on to find out why. If you’d rather your purchase go toward Campaign Zero, I completely respect that and will honor that. Just let me know.
Here’s the long version:
I selected Campaign Zero as the beneficiary of 20% of all revenue from my album on Sunday, May 31. I went to their website and was impressed with their data driven approach. It seemed to me that that was the kind of approach that was going to make tangible change.
On Wednesday, June 3, Campaign Zero launched their #8cantwait initiative, which includes 8 steps that mayor offices and police commissioners can take right now, without city council approval or legislative action. They claim these steps would reduce death at the hands of the police by 72%. Campaign Zero sees this a the low hanging fruit; easy steps to take on the way to police abolition or massive structural reform.
My project launched on Friday June 5, and I wasn’t really yet aware of 8 Can’t Wait. I certainly wasn’t aware of the conversation that has sprouted up around 8 Can’t Wait, which has just intensified over the weekend as statisticians, academics, and activists have dug deeper into their data and their claims.
I began hearing grumblings about 8 Can’t Wait on Friday. One person was brave enough to comment on a Facebook post that they thought I should consider donating to another organization. I suspect that many people saw my posts and felt the same way, but held their tongues.
I’ve been reading and researching all weekend, and It turns out:
There are some big problems with the data. (link)
There are some big problems with the methodology of the study that underpins the campaign, and some of the assumptions it makes. (link)
Many of the 8 policies are already nominally in place in police departments around the country, to little or no effect. (link)
City governments around the country are swiftly moving to implement these policies as a way of ending the police reform conversation. (link)
I do think there’s a place for a harm reduction model in the larger discourse of what to do about police in America. And I think that the database that Campaign Zero has built over the last 6 years is a remarkable achievement. But with the quickly evolving conversation about 8 Can’t Wait in mind, I can’t in good conscience continue to support an organization that seems to have thrown in all its chips on this deeply problematic campaign.
We’re in a place right now where the marketplace of ideas is evolving really quickly. Just this weekend, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council signed a pledge to dismantle the current police department and rebuild community-lead public safety solutions from the ground up. The mayors of Los Angeles and New York have both pledged to cut funding to their police departments. All of this would have been absolutely unimaginable even two weeks ago.
Now is the time to boldly imagine new worlds. And that ethos is baked into the concept behind Dualisms. To quote the Dualisms zine, the music “invokes angels, ghosts, protectors, and amulets — from worlds past and worlds never known.” I have to live up to that, even if it means undergoing the messy work of doing an about-face.
So, why am I donating to the Detroit Justice Center?
- They tout a three-pronged approach: what they call “defense, offense, and dreaming”—to serve individual clients, build power, and catalyze systemic solutions.
- Defense: provide legal services for Detroiters to help keep people out of jail, and to assist with property tax assessment appeals. They’re working with The Bail Project to pay bails for people in need, directly fighting mass incarceration at the front end of the system.
- Offense: their Economic Equity Practice provides legal support for community land trusts, housing and worker cooperatives, and enterprises led by returning citizens
- Dreaming: their Just Cities Innovation Lab focuses on introducing alternatives to punitive justice. They’re doing the visionary work of imagining a world without prisons, focusing on restorative justice, and engaging the community and youth in these conversations.
The Detroit Justice Center is an incredible organization right here in my own backyard. They blend real-world change with visionary imagination. They’re black-led. I can’t imagine a better organization to support.
To relay a quote that I recently saw George Lewis attribute to Lester Bowie: “Artists teach people how to live.” A great maxim to live by is giving oneself permission to fail and try again. I failed; I’m trying again. Part of my promise with Dualisms was to set aside a budget for donating to social justice causes, not just with this release, but with every future self-release of mine. So that gives me an opportunity to do better in the future. I’m working to reimagine my role here, and hoping to continue to grow.
Thanks for your continued support. Please reach out if you have any questions; I’m happy to talk.
Sincerely,
Michael