BOP’s Malaika Parker Talks Building Power and Ending Policing in Schools

Our President Ray Colmenar sat with Black Organizing Project’s Malaika Parker to discuss mobilizing directly impacted people to win police-free schools.

For the last twenty years, Akonadi Foundation has invested in the power of people to make change and build a racially just Oakland. As the new president of Akonadi, it has been my privilege to join a community unyielding in its quest for freedom and liberation. Akonadi’s All in for Oakland initiative continues this tradition by investing in people of color-led organizing, base-building and policy advocacy to end the criminalization of Black youth and youth of color in Oakland. The All in for Oakland grantee partners are leading transformative work in Oakland and throughout the state, from fighting for police-free schools to closing youth prisons.

This year, we are spotlighting leaders from our All In for Oakland grantee partners, and I am thrilled I had the opportunity to speak with Malaika Parker, Executive Director of Black Organizing Project (BOP). In 2020, after a ten-year campaign, BOP and organized parents, students, and community members achieved a historic victory when Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) eliminated the Oakland Schools Police Department and promised to redirect those resources to student support positions, including school-based social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners, or other mental or behavioral professionals. The passage of the George Floyd Resolution marked a critical step forward in the fight for education justice and Black liberation.

Read my interview with Malaika to learn more about her and BOP’s work to mobilize leaders and power in Black communities. Their efforts are helping equip those closest to the issues with the tools to fight against oppressive systems and create real, transformational change.

— Ray Colmenar, President of Akonadi Foundation

What if we imagined safety as the basic human right to housing, food security and employment? What if safety meant all children having access to schools that value them and their communities? What if safety meant an investment in joy and sanctuary?

Malaika Parker, Executive Director of Black Organizing Project (BOP).

Q: What lessons did you learn from BOP’s campaign to pass the George Floyd Resolution?

A: My biggest lesson learned is the ability of a community to hold a vision for what’s needed and wanted and their ability to stick with that dream and make it a reality even when other people aren’t on board.

Unfortunately, there are lofty goals in the resolution that have not shown up in the lives of real people and the systems we’re pushing against. We’re living in the practice of what it means to push and make sure that it’s not just words but that an actual change happens. It unlocks a deeper understanding of the work that is still needed to be done and the dysfunction in systems.

Q: We are seeing pushback on some of the wins achieved during the racial awakenings in 2020, especially around policing. Why do you believe this is happening, and how are you responding to it at BOP?

A: Anti-Blackness remains strong in our culture, as is our reliance on systems of harm. Conversations around safety – even in our own communities – often immediately turn to the need for policing. Our internalization of anti-Blackness allows us to unknowingly uphold white supremacist systems that criminalize Black and brown youth. Instead of questioning our belief systems and where they stem from, we tend to fall back and rely on the things we’re accustomed to, especially when we are not the ones being directly impacted. Unfortunately, the folks who are making the policy and practice decisions around police in schools continue to default to what they know even when it has negative consequences for our children.

One of the ways we’re pushing back is by presenting the People’s Budget, a common sense approach to address the needs of young people by making sure schools have counselors, restorative justice practitioners, and culture keepers to maintain a culture of safety by providing staff members with a living wage and training support. It is an investment in violence prevention instead of over-dependence on reactive policing so that young people can feel safe and grounded, and so that safety can be focused around resources needed for children, especially those who experience oppression. Because there have been no viable alternatives to policing offered to our communities, we now have an opportunity through the People’s Budget to reimagine safety and introduce solutions that actually address the root causes of violence.

Q: Could you tell us about your work on the People’s Budget? How can others learn more or support?

A: The People’s Budget is focused on engaging the community in their own created vision of what safety means by turning that vision into real action.

BOP and community members are pushing for the OUSD school board to make true on their commitment to police-free schools and pass the People’s Budget because it is what the community wants. The People’s Budget prioritizes the support needed to create safer school environments that are truly free from policing or punitive alternatives.

I would love for everyone to learn more and support us by signing the People’s Budget pledge.

Q: How can we create safe spaces for Black communities to feel seen, heard, and valued while expressing their needs and concerns?

A: At its foundation, it’s about being grounded in the humanity of Black folks, which sounds basic but it’s true. A lot of what happens in our schools and communities is a result of the dehumanization of Black folks. Even policing in schools is sacrificing Black and brown children to make white communities feel safe.

The hyperfocus on crime rates and youth is a not-so-subtle dog whistle, speaking directly to this society’s inherent belief that Blackness is itself criminal. What we need instead are resources that meet the needs of communities that have been historically under-resourced and a deep reframing of safety. What if we imagined safety as the basic human right to housing, food security and employment? What if safety meant all children having access to schools that value them and their communities? What if safety meant an investment in joy and sanctuary?

Our current narratives around safety leave Black people locked out of free and just futures. I believe that Black folks are joyful people but the amount of time, energy, and resources needed to navigate all of these harmful systems chips away at our access to that joy and spaciousness and people’s ability to feel safe and connected. It’s time for us to remove spaces that encourage violence and policing and create new spaces for Black folks to experience humanity, radical love, and community.

Q: What is your philosophy around healing and wellness in social justice? Why is it important in Black organizing?

A: Black folks being able to care for themselves and rest is a major part of healing and reclaiming our humanity. Our fight to stand in community and push back on policies that negatively impact our lives is also healing. For children, it’s crucial for them to see people standing up to protect and support them. Otherwise, pushing back can seem scary. Our work to build people power is long-term, and if we don’t invest in organizations that are caring, considerate and compassionate, it’s not strategic. We’re burning out generation after generation as opposed to building up people’s work in a sustainable, healthy, and connected way. Claiming humanity in the system of capitalism is an important way to crush that system that churns so many of us out.

Q: Black liberation is composed of many facets and intersectionalities. Given your work with Hummingbirds Urban Farming Collective, can you share why supporting environmental justice is an important component of Black liberation and racial justice?

A: I see environmental justice as a place of relearning history and reclaiming wisdom and assets that existed and traveled with Black folks to this country. So much of our lives is spent with us being told that our people were slaves. Our historical anchors reinforce a deficit frame of who we are. Being connected to land, for me, has been a powerful way to look beyond that and go really deep into the knowledge Black people had and still have. It’s a rewriting of what most of us have been taught about Black folks and looks at our relation to healing, ancestral knowledge, joy and connection.

As someone who is parenting, deepening our connection to land provides an opportunity to be in conversation with my children and the children in my community about how to care for the land they will inherit. They develop a respectful relationship with a planet in trouble and learn tools for how they can participate in generating hope. It’s a way to have those conversations that aren’t rooted in devastation and educate children about their own mortality and agency. There is hope and connection to building an urgency not rooted in the end times but in a beautiful planet that we have the opportunity to be caretakers of.

Q: Do you have any other projects or events coming up you’d like people to know about?

We will be restarting a program called Baby BOP, a week-long summer camp for children in grades K-6 that focuses on arts, leadership, and literacy. The goal of the camp is to create a unique and safe space to build our community, affirm young voices and minds, and develop young leaders.

On the last Thursday of every month, we also hold political education sessions for community members. We are in the middle of building out our membership, so if you’re interested in joining or volunteering, you can reach out to us at [email protected].