The Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project was founded three years ago to shine a light on police misconduct. But who now speaks for the organization remains unclear amid its implosion.
RTAP loomed as a valuable data engine in policing the police as the Black Lives Matter movement revved up in Richmond following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd. But this multiracial coalition of academicians, nonprofit leaders and activists appears to be fraying.
Competing social media accounts have emerged amid accusations that RTAP has become “a lot of white people trying to take the mic” from Black people and “failing to shrug off their moderateness” and step aside.
RTAP is not without its Black defenders; conversely, some of its harshest Facebook critics were white posters. All of which points to how confusing this Black Lives Matter movement can be as Black and white activists seek a proper balance of leadership and alliance.
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Eli Coston, an assistant professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, was instrumental in the founding of RTAP in 2017.
Contacted Tuesday, Coston, who is white, referred me to a statement on RTAP’s Facebook page, which cited a GoFundMe fundraiser it says was not authorized by RTAP, purportedly for the family of Marcus-David Peters, who was slain two years ago by a Richmond police officer while in the throes of a mental health crisis.
The organizer who launched the fundraiser refused to provide RTAP and the family with access to the GoFundMe account. On July 31, RTAP learned that the former member had updated the account to make a single individual a beneficiary. The listed beneficiary has been unresponsive to RTAP. “We are working to have the money returned to the donors,” the statement said.
But Peters’ sister, activist Princess Blanding, said on Facebook that her family never requested access to the account, “nor do we endorse any public statements regarding this matter.”
Contacted Tuesday, Blanding said: “For the sake of the movement, I will not respond.
“We have a much bigger picture, and that is the Black liberation movement [and] making sure that the Richmond demands are met. And that’s what I’m going to be very, very focused on.”
Those demands include an independent civilian review board and the reopening of the investigation into Peters’ death, which previously was ruled a justified use of force.
But the divisions come through in an Aug. 9 piece on the Medium platform, bearing the byline of the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project.
“We get bogged down by internal fights fueled by the fragility of white organizers and their supporters who claim to have authority over Black Issues,” the article said.
It said RTAP “is being reclaimed” by Black Richmonders “and their committed comrades,” and adds: “This project is no longer associated with white-led non profit organizations and Dr. Coston of VCU effectively immediately.
“White folks who were pent up in their luxurious townhouses due to the pandemic began to speak in ways they never had before on virtual meetings,” the piece states, adding that “they began pushing back and claiming authority in ways that are offensive and racist” while deflecting and victimizing themselves when called out.
“We were told that now is not the time to push elected officials towards abolition of policing — that it was a process that will take a long time. We were told to display professional decorum in the face of representatives who put our families in constant danger.
“We must move past those who chose to be a barrier in this moment in history,” the piece states.
I’m not in the room where this is happening. But white activists who flex their privilege in a Black social justice movement are part of the problem, not the solution.
Movements are hard enough, even if we account for different personalities and philosophies. Why would we think that the interiors of a social justice movement would somehow be inoculated from the divides that currently are swamping this nation?
This movement is different, as we witnessed the emergence of Portland, Ore., one of the whitest major cities in America, as an epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement. That filled me with hope.
But this discord threatens to create a level of mistrust that can undermine Richmond’s social justice movement as it seeks a do-over of our criminal justice system. Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith might conclude this movement is not to be taken seriously.
We don’t have minds and talent to waste in battling the injustices that ail Richmond. Any divide only strengthens the status quo.
If a movement is battling racial conflict on two fronts, racism will win.