“Red touch yellow, legless fellow. Red touch black, legs they lack.”
Remembering that neither coral snakes nor scarlet kingsnakes have legs.

“Uplifting. Star-spangled. Anthem.”
Remembering the letters in “USA.”

“A caT has two. A dOg has one.”
How many horns common household pets would have if those household pets had horns, and also if cats had two of them while dogs only had one.

“Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. The largest nation, Russian Federation.”
Distinguishing between a coral snake and the country of Russia.

“An airplane takes you up to a different plane. A submarine goes in the water.”
Determining whether a vehicle is an airplane or a submarine.

“ER = Eating Rounds. ING = Inside, Normally Garments.”
Remembering whether plates go in a dishwashER or a washING machine.

“Red sky in the morn, a day is born. Red sky at night, a day takes flight.”
Distinguishing between sunrise and sunset.

“fLoors are Lower.”
Telling the difference between a roof and a floor.

“Radical scientists invent time machine so they won’t read spoilers about next show death.”
Recalling the words to the mnemonic, “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”

“Points are three, then feel free. Point is one, flee and shun.”
Remembering which end of a fork to bite down on.

“Big cats terrify antelopes.”
Remembering the standard aging process of baby to child to teenager to adult.

“All tigers can bite.”
Remembering the aging process for literary character Benjamin Button.

“A terrible cardiologist thoughtlessly told Terence to taste thirty thermometers.”
Remembering the aging process for literary character Benjamin Button if his reversed aging was fixed partway through the story, but then he got caught in a time loop and kept living his teenage years over again.

“Red touch gray, get away. Blue touch green, be serene.”
Distinguishing between coral snakes and scarlet kingsnakes if they had different colors, but also one of them was still poisonous and the other wasn’t.

“All good boys deserve fudge.”
Remembering the notes on the lines of the treble clef musical staff slightly wrong.

“See from their view? Then that’s you. See from afar? Someone else they are.”
Determining whether someone is yourself or a different person.

“Ripping up a rare artwork, Edward realizes Friday Raphael paintwork biting afternoons aren’t really acceptable socially.”
The first word of every previous mnemonic in this list.

When Nex Benedict’s death was conclusively determined to be suicide, media more or less stopped covering it. That scares me, because the story is not yet over.

Benedict’s death initially presented itself as a neat narrative: He was beaten by three girls in a school bathroom, he lost consciousness, he sustained a brain injury, he died, the local authorities covered it up. That narrative understandably upset people. Lots of people refused to believe anything but this version of events. When it was proven false, they moved on. 

True evil – institutional, structural evil – doesn’t put on a mask and stab people. It just makes certain people’s deaths a foregone conclusion. It’s the evil of the cop in the leaked body camera footage as he tells Nex’s clearly enraged and frightened mother that, even if three girls had jumped her kid, pinned him to the floor, and beaten him unconscious, Nex was equally at fault for squirting them with water. It’s the bland pleasantness in his voice as he says that Nex could try his chances in court — of course, of course, he would never tell them not to do that — but the cop would be forced to arrest Nex for “starting” the fight if they tried that, and gosh, isn’t that just too bad? 

At the end of that video, the cop, who worked at Nex’s school, assures him that he’ll see him again. “I hope not,” Nex says. He was dead of suicide less than a day later. A brain injury is a neat narrative. But the hopelessness of a teenager who was told — politely, warmly, with a smile — that he would be arrested if he tried to resist being beaten at school is also a profound and horrific injustice, one that deserves redress. 

Nex Benedict’s death is a story about structural failure. That story is harder to pitch because it sounds dry and technical. It has to do with Title IX, the civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded schools. Basically: If Owasso Public Schools failed to protect students from being bullied on the grounds of their gender and sexual identity, they violated Title IX and can have their funding yanked. Classes will be cut, resources will be lost, people will be laid off. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights can use the threat of yanked funding to mandate changes in how the school operates: "do X, Y and Z or the lacrosse team gets it," that sort of thing. 

If the assault happened the way Nex and his mother say it did, Owasso probably wasn’t complying with Title IX. However, we also know for a fact that Owasso will not comply to Title IX in the future. We know this because, last week, Oklahoma state superintendent of Ryan Walters went on the record to say that Oklahoma state schools will not follow Title IX guidelines, which the Biden administration recently revised to (even more explicitly) protect trans students. Four other states — Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina — have also refused to comply. As I wrote in my last piece for Xtra, this is likely to end up in front of the Supreme Court soon. 

We are fighting over whether trans students count as students, whether trans people count as people, whether trans children count as children who are entitled to an equal education under the law. We are also still fighting about Nex Benedict, because his death is a clear example of what happens when the system breaks down. 

In the course of reporting that Xtra article, I contacted the office of Ryan Walters, the Department of Education, and the principal of Owasso High School, Tiffani Cooper. (Unbelievably, the school’s website lists Cooper as not only the principal, but the “bullying incident coordinator,” a title she seems to have wildly misread.) The Department of Education couldn’t comment on an investigation in progress, Walters’ office never got back to me, but Cooper kicked me over to the Director of Communications for Owasso Public Schools, Jordan Korphage.

I expected Korphage to issue a bland PR-person statement — so sorry about the dead kid, what a tragedy, doing everything possible to cooperate, etc. — that I could run in the article. That’s mostly what I got – a series of canned statements, sometimes obviously cut-and-pasted into the body of the email — but I also got part of their strategy: Korphage told me that there was no record of Nex Benedict being bullied at Owasso High School. 

To be precise, Korphage claimed that “to the district’s knowledge,” Benedict had not filed an incident report to the correct people in the 2023-24 school year, and that no-one had filed a report for him. Since the substance of the investigation concerns Nex being unable to report, because the adults at school refused to respond appropriately even if and when he was beaten unconscious, that was an obvious lie — Korphage and whoever else wrote the statements were avoiding the subject so hard that they actively bent the truth. It’s like saying “we can’t know for sure that John fell down the well because no-one asked him about it.” John can’t answer our questions. We can’t ask them, because he’s down the fucking well. The school denied Benedict and his mother a voice, then claimed there was no problem because they hadn’t said anything. 

You can make a case that Owasso were just doing their jobs, avoiding liability, but here’s the other thing that stands out about the exchange: The “so sorry a kid died” part? The what-a-tragic-loss, we’re-all-so-sad, performative-grief bit that I expected them to include just so that they didn’t sound like total monsters? It wasn’t in there. I spent a week emailing with Jordan Korphage and the Owasso school district, and in that entire time, he expressed not a bit of regret that this child had died. 

So I’ve decided to print the whole exchange. Here are the thirteen questions I asked Jordan Korphage and the Owasso Public Schools, along with the answers I received. The answers are under the questions, in italics, for ease of reading. Especially relevant bits are in bold. I include this not because it’s a revelatory interview — it’s a non-interview, until the very end, when Korphage seemingly gets angry at me — but because these questions matter, and there are no answers. 

Nex Benedict is still dead. The investigation of Owasso Public Schools is still ongoing. To the queer kids of Owasso and to their allies: If you saw anything, if you witnessed anything, if anything happened to you or to anyone you know, come forward to the DOE as soon as possible. The adults are already talking, and you are the ones who can spot the lies. 

Hi Jordan — 

Great! Thanks so much for getting back to me. Here are my questions, which I'll try to keep brief: 

1) What steps have been taken to address or remedy the bullying of LGBTQ+ students since the death of Nex Benedict? 

As outlined in our district’s strategic plan, our objective is to create a safe and nurturing environment. As part of our process to review our policies, curriculum, and programs, district leaders have begun meeting and collaborating with parents, community members, and teachers to seek feedback. Moving forward district leadership remains committed to listening and collaborating with our students, families, staff and community and look forward to receiving input from our stakeholders. 

2) What were the bullying policies prior to Nex's death? Were those policies actively being followed, and if so, how was it possible for Nex's assault to occur? 

The district’s bullying policy is #5.13 (Prohibiting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) and can be found on page 420 of the district’s policy manual. 

As a district, the safety and security of our students is our top priority and we are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Bullying in any form is unacceptable. We take reports of bullying very seriously and have policies and procedures in place to address such behavior. All reported bullying accusations are investigated by administrators at the school site in which they occur, and are reviewed by the district’s Director of Safety and Security.

We encourage anyone who witnesses or experiences bullying to speak up and report it to a parent, teacher, coach, administrator or any trusted adult. Individuals can also share their concerns and report bullying, even anonymously, by visiting the district’s Bullying Prevention page, which is located under “Quicklinks” on the district’s homepage. It is important for students to know that they are not alone and that their voices will be heard. All reports are investigated by district administrators.

To the district’s knowledge, there were no reported bullying incidents by Nex or on Nex’s behalf during the 2023-2024 school year.

3) The Owasso school district is currently under investigation from the Department of Education. How is that investigation proceeding? Are you in contact with the OCR? Have they recommended any steps to take, and what are they?

The district has cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation and continues to believe that the complaint is not supported by the facts and is without merit.

Hello Jordan – 

Thanks so much for your quick response. I just wanted to loop back around with a follow-up, to make sure I'm totally clear on a few key points. 

You've told me that "to the district’s knowledge, there were no reported bullying incidents by Nex or on Nex’s behalf during the 2023-2024 school year." Part of this lines up with my understanding of the incident. In the released body cam footage, after the assault, Benedict says that he did not report his bullying to the school because he believed nothing would be done. The part that stands out to me is that there was one incident the school was definitely aware of. In the released body cam footage after the assault that preceded Nex's death, Nex's mother says that she was told by principal Tiffani Cooper that there was no need to call the police and that they would "talk about it in a couple of days;" the officer says that Cooper was supposed to have called him if an assault happened, and that the school was at fault. 

1) Does Cooper deny any part of this account – not calling the police, telling Benedict's mother that she would not call the police, or that, according to school policy, she was supposed to have called an officer if an assault took place on school grounds?

OPS District policy 1.69 states:

Parents have the right to receive prompt notice if their minor child is believed to be the victim of a crime perpetrated by someone other than the parent, unless law enforcement or DHS officials have determined that parental notification would impede the related investigation. These notice provisions do not apply to matters which involve routine misconduct typically addressed through student discipline procedures.

Even when matters involve routine misconduct typically addressed through student discipline procedures, it is a parent’s right to involve law enforcement. Should they choose to file a police report, school resource officers are made available to the parents/guardians either at that time or they can schedule an appointment, if they choose, at a later date. These practices were followed by our administrative team after this incident. 

2) Other LGBTQ+ students have come forward to say they were bullied at Owasso schools – for instance, one student says that he has intermittently had to attend classes online rather than in person, due to bullying over his sexuality, including being called "faggot" on school grounds. Was the Owasso school district aware of these incidents, or of any other incidents of students being bullied on the basis of sexual and gender identity? 

Without the names of the specific students to whom you refer, the district cannot determine what specific actions were taken as to any complaint made and/or whether those specific actions can be disclosed in conformity with state and federal privacy laws.

[VISIBLY COPY-PASTED TEXT:] As a district, the safety and security of our students is our top priority and we are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Bullying in any form is unacceptable. We take reports of bullying very seriously and have policies and procedures in place to address such behavior. All reported bullying accusations are investigated by administrators at the school site in which they occur, and are reviewed by the district’s Director of Safety and Security.

We encourage anyone who witnesses or experiences bullying to speak up and report it to a parent, teacher, coach, administrator or any trusted adult. Individuals can also share their concerns and report bullying, even anonymously, by visiting the district’s Bullying Prevention page, which is located under “Quicklinks” on the district’s homepage. It is important for students to know that they are not alone and that their voices will be heard. All reports are investigated by district administrators.

3) How many cases of bullying aimed at LGBTQ+ students have been reported in the Owasso school district in 2023 - 2024, or (if you have access to the data) in the past four years? 

The district does not maintain a database of which students identify as LGBTQ+. 

4) Presumably it's not just children who witness bullying on school grounds. Adult staff, such as teachers, would also be able to see some of this take place, or hear about it. Does the school have a policy of encouraging teachers to intervene, or to prevent and/or discipline bullying? Or does the school only take action on bullying if a student files a report to the correct person? 

As I shared with you yesterday, OPS Policy 5.13 (Prohibiting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) outlines the responsibilities of a staff member:

An important duty of the staff is to report acts or behavior that the employee witnesses that appear to constitute harassing, intimidating, or bullying. Employees, whether certified or non certified, shall encourage students who tell them about acts that may constitute intimidation, harassment, or bullying to complete a report form. For young students, staff members given that information will need to provide direct assistance to the student.

Staff members who witness such events are to complete reports and to submit them to the building principal. Staff members who hear of incidents that may, in the staff member’s judgment, constitute harassment, intimidation, or bullying, are to report all relevant information to the building principal.

5) You say that "The district has cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation and continues to believe that the complaint is not supported by the facts and is without merit." Can you clarify for me which part you deny -- that Benedict was bullied, that the school neglected its responsibility to Benedict, or that there was a hostile climate for LGBTQ+ students overall? 

A letter dated March 1, 2024 from OCR indicated that it was “opening the following issues for investigation: (1) Whether the District failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title IX, and (2) Whether the District failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students in a manner consistent with the requirements of Section 504 [of the Rehabilitation Act] and Title II [of the Americans with Disabilities Act].”

[VISIBLY COPY-PASTED TEXT:] The district has cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation and continues to believe that the complaint is not supported by the facts and is without merit.

6) Finally: In regard to the incident before Nex's death, Sue Benedict says Cooper promised to "talk about it in a couple of days." What disciplinary measures, if any, were taken against the students who assaulted Nex Benedict? 

Due to state and federal privacy laws, the district does not disclose disciplinary action taken against any student. That information can only be given to the parents/guardians of the student being disciplined.

Hello Jordan --

Once again, thanks for your responsiveness. I'm sorry to be a pest, but while we were speaking, Ryan Walters has told reporters that Oklahoma public schools will no longer follow Title IX guidelines. (https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-ryan-walters-title-ix-rule-transgender-school-bathrooms/60592615). As you can imagine, this changes the direction of my reporting. A few more follow-ups for you: 

1) You describe the assault on Nex Benedict as "routine misconduct." The account from Nex and his mother was that three girls attacked him, held him down, and beat him unconscious. How routine is it for students to be beaten to the point of losing consciousness? How many physical assaults on that level of severity does the Owasso public school district have on record in the last school year? Were law enforcement officers contacted in any of those cases?

We did not, at any time, describe the incident involving Nex as “routine misconduct”. [NOTE: In the last round of questions, when I asked why the principal had not contacted law enforcement, Korphage responded by telling me that schools did not have an obligation to call law enforcement in cases of “routine misconduct,” a phrase he used twice.] Our previous response simply reiterated that according to our policy, it is a parent’s right to involve law enforcement at any time - even when matters involve routine misconduct typically addressed through student discipline procedures.

To be clear, should a parent/guardian choose to file a police report, school resource officers are made available to the parents/guardians either at that time or they can schedule an appointment, if they choose, at a later date. These practices were followed by our administrative team after this incident.

2) You further say that you can't provide records or numbers on LGBTQ students being harassed for their gender and sexual identity because "the district does not maintain a database of which students identify as LGBTQ+." If Owasso does not recognize or keep records on students being harassed or bullied for gender and sexual identity, how can it maintain its obligation to treat those students as a protected class under Title IX? 

OPS investigates and responds to any reported incident of harassment or bullying, regardless of a student’s sexual identity. Because OPS does not maintain a list of students who have been identified as LGBTQ+, the only time OPS becomes aware of a student’s sexual identity is when the child or parent/guardian determines it is relevant to disclose this information. 

3) I understand if you can't provide me with records of disciplinary action for minors. How about disciplinary actions for adults? Has Tiffani Cooper received any disciplinary warnings or action after the assault on Nex? If so, what were they? What is the typical penalty for a principal who has a student die on her watch? 

Due to confidentiality and privacy concerns, the district does not discuss personnel matters. 

4) You've maintained that Owasso has not violated its Title IX obligations. Will Owasso continue to uphold Title IX if instructed to disobey it by State Superintendent Ryan Walters? What [effect] will the order to disobey Title IX have on your procedures going forward? 

Your question asks the district to speculate as to the occurrence of some possible future event, and OPS does not believe it is appropriate to do so.

Although the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) sounds like it only applies to large corporations, it affects you as an independent consultant if your business is structured as anything other than a sole proprietorship. If your business is an LLC, C-corporation, or filing taxes as an S-corp, you are legally obligated to fulfil the reporting requirement that kicked in at the start of this year. This article tells you what you need to know and how to comply so you can avoid unnecessary fees and penalties.

What it is

The CTA requires small businesses, their owners, and those involved in creating LLCs and corporations (for example, companies like LegalZoom) to clarify who has substantial control in the company. Also known as “a beneficial ownership information reporting requirement,” the purpose of the CTA is to help the government detect, prevent, and prosecute money laundering, terrorism, and other illicit activity. (Enforcement agencies often “follow the money” to root out criminals.)

The Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) requirement of the CTA exists to identify the individuals who own or control the company either directly or indirectly. If you’re a solopreneur, you’re probably the only owner of your business so it will be easy to comply, unless, of course, you’re involved in money laundering or other shady business. 😉

What you need to do to comply with the law

If you are doing business as a sole proprietor, you don’t need to do anything; you’ll be exempt according to this more detailed article by the International Association of Commercial Administrators.

If your business is not a sole proprietorship, you need to report your ownership information to the government. The process is free and straightforward; you don’t need to pay LegalZoom or anyone else to do this for you, though they’ll happily do it for $99 or more.

Here’s how to submit the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR) to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in about 15 minutes.

1. Be prepared to provide the following information: your email address, phone number, tax ID number (EIN or SSN), and either your passport number or driver’s license number plus a copy of whichever document you’re using to verify your identity.

2. Go to the filing site at https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/ and select “File BOIR.”

3. Look for the questions marked with a red * and ignore the others unless you do not own your company. If someone else or another entity owns any part of your company, you will need to supply that information in Part III of the form.

Need more information? Go to FinCEN’s BOI homepage.

Filing deadlines

If you started your business before January 1st, 2024, you have until 2025 to complete the online form. Companies started after January 1st, 2024 have a much tighter time frame: you have just 90 days from the date of your company's registration to complete the online BOIR form. (Per the filing instructions: “If a reporting company is created or registered to do business in the United States on or after January 1, 2024 and before January 1, 2025, it must file its initial BOIR within 90 days after receiving actual or public notice that its creation or registration is effective.)

Legal challenges to the CTA

Now that you’re aware of the CTA, you may see headlines in the press about it being fought in the courts. Small business associations assert that the law is "bureaucratic overreach” as well as a constitutional infringement. For example, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) filed a lawsuit to overturn the CTA, claiming it forces small-business owners to disclose sensitive personal information to a government database. While it’s true that you have to submit your information, it’s data the government already has in other places anyway.

Don’t wait to comply with the law; it will take years for any court challenges to be resolved. Take fifteen minutes and fill out the BOIR now before you forget!

Welcome to May, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month. As you celebrate this month please make sure you honor the diversity within the AANHPI communities.

I’ve been reading the book Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. It isn’t a book about race, and it is written by a white male author – not that great on the diversity scale, but it is a quick read and I’ve been extracting themes and ideas from it for other work. As I’ve been reading the book, I’ve been thinking about race and how comfortable we often feel or not feel regarding race.

The main premise of the first 100-ish pages (that is as far in as I’ve gotten) is we design our lives around being comfortable. Human evolution leads us to comfort. Being uncomfortable shakes us out of our known patterns which helps us learn. Being uncomfortable is important to growing in new ways. I’m oversimplifying the text, but those universal truths hold true.

For most of us in the Western world, we live in comfortable ways. We live in temperature controlled environments, we have access to basic needs – water, food, sanitation, we have access to information, and so forth. For many of us who are even more privileged we rarely are bored or without something to do. All of this leads to a very comfortable lives.

We also curate our comfort around identity.

How often are we with people who make us uncomfortable? Not very often. Many people choose who they associate with because it is comfortable — I don’t want to be with people who keep me on edge all of the time, no thank you.

Earlier today I listened to the keynote address given by Stacy Abrams at the Collective Impact Summit (a really good online conference, check it out next year). She talked about the power of diversity and how challenging it is to embed diversity into our work. Diversity is tolerated as long as it is proximate to the dominate narrative. Diversity challenges our comfort zones. Being around people who are different than us makes our brains work harder. It also challenges the status quo of groups when you layer in different viewpoints, ways of communicating, and other forms of diversity.

I know a lot of people who claim to like diversity, but when true diversity arises, they shrink back. Explained another way – people move into gentrifying neighborhood but keep their same friend group, only visit the gentrifier coffeeshops, hire diverse people but don’t retain or promote them, and so on.

Democracy demands we embrace a bigger ‘we,’ a learning from the Collective Impact conference. Embracing diversity and working through the discomfort of diversity is important to enacting and thriving in a democratic society. This can be uncomfortable for many who are used to being catered to, having their needs met first, and overall comfortable.

We can challenge ourselves to being more uncomfortable around race. Maybe you need baby steps to being uncomfortable with race – start with changing your media consumption. Or if you’re ready for bigger steps, find a group where you will not be in the majority and join in – please do this carefully so you aren’t gentrifying the space. If the space is meant as a Black only space, don’t try to join if you’re not Black. Challenge yourself to find ways to be uncomfortable with race and be ok with having moments where you feel lonely, unsure, or even like you failed in the space – you haven’t that is the learning moment of what it is like to not being catered to.  

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“Equity is the driving force. Culture is the frame. Belonging is the goal.”

Last week I attended the 2024 Othering and Belonging Conference in Oakland, California. Roberto Bedoya shared these words by Vanessa Whang about his beloved city of Oakland. Bedoya is the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland. He was describing the Cultural Development Plan the City launched in 2018.

What is a cultural plan? “It gives voice to the idea that we all belong to each other as Oaklanders,” Mayor Libby Schaaf wrote in the introduction. It declares that a city’s “long-term artistic and cultural health” are the roots that keep it alive. Generally, a cultural plan informs how a city supports the arts in its city. The City of Oakland showed us it can also be something much more.

Before 2018, Oakland’s last cultural plan came out in 1988. Vanessa Whang was the lead consultant on the new plan. She wrote that early in the new plan’s life, they decided it needed to be more than a simple refresh. The 2018 Cultural Development Plan could go further. It could help the city reconsider and shape what culture means to Oakland today. So how did the Cultural Affairs Division do it?

building the cultural plan

In 122 pages, Vanessa Whang carefully outlined the plan and the path they took to get where they are. It started with research. They reviewed the 1988 plan, of course, and the current and past work of the Cultural Affairs Division. They met with City staff and advisors. They attended cultural events around Oakland to see how that plan matched up to reality. Through this research they launched the discovery. Facilitators began community engagement with Oakland artists and residents. They conducted surveys and hosted dialogues to learn the city’s broader cultural context. These weren’t stodgy academic events. Instead, they asked things like, “what are the best things about Oakland?” “How can the city help residents thrive in place?” They took these answers to tell a story of Oakland’s cultural life and how the city creates a sense of belonging.

developing the vision

Whang and the consultants involved began to create the new plan based on what they learned. They structured it around the tagline I opened with.

Equity is the driving force. The push to create this plan began with the understanding of city leaders. Oakland residents experience the city in different ways. Their experience depends on their income and the color of their skin. Oakland was one of the first “majority-minority” american cities. But over time, Black residents decreased in population in Oakland by 25% since 2000. White residents increased their numbers by 28%. People who identified in the census as Hispanic or Latino increased by 22%. In the same 24 years, median property values increased by 137%.

Recognizing inequalities is the heart of equity. We need to make things fair for everyone. The only way we can make unfair systems fair is to change them. That includes changing the Cultural Affairs Division of Oakland city government. Changing how they operate, how they see their charge, and what they should do next.

Culture is the frame. Culture is a way of being for every person. As Whang writes, culture is a people’s “diverse practices, expression, and creativity.” The city plays a role in ensuring that people and their cultures feel at home in the city they call home. We know the inequalities above have impacts. Different cultures are not represented equally (or even proportionally) in civic life. Even in the context of cultural affairs can the city play a role. The arts are a major vehicle to bridge cultures, which can then help create equity.

The author notes that as we do this bridging, we have to be mindful about how dominant cultures show up. We don’t want to ignore their dominance and build inequity on top of the existing inequality.

Belonging is the goal. Where are we going with all these efforts? Our destination as a city is one where every resident can feel like they belong. We have all sorts of reasons to want the people who live in a city to feel like they belong. In Oakland, with belonging as a goal, we can help people “feel a part of something greater than themselves.”

A desire for equity is what’s motivating us to act. We will use culture as the vehicle to move forward. True belonging is what it will look like when we get where we’re going.

what happened after

After a full year of work, Oakland launched its new Cultural Development Plan in the spring of 2018. They enhanced the scope of what the city considers to be cultural affairs. Their priorities had long focused on exclusively “arts” spaces. But Oakland residents explained that there are cultural spaces all around us! Cultural spaces included places that generated arts and culture. Neighborhood places didn’t exist to be cultural spaces, but residents made them so. The civic commons are public places of belonging. Think parks, libraries, even school campuses. The plan changed how they award grants that advance culture.

Even better, the City continues to build on the recommendations in the plan. Their Cultural Strategists-in-Government program could be its own blog post! This program pays community culture-builders to embed into city government and civic programs. Now in its third year, it seeks to shape the city’s culture from within.

beyond oakland

What could this look like in other cities across america? What might it look like for places to adopt Oakland’s tagline? I’ll describe what I mean and ask a few questions to get started.

Equity is the driving force. Every american city has inequity baked right in. Most cities, even young ones like Seattle, came to be in a time of legalized segregation. This created inequality that we all still feel to this day. Some of us feel the inequity and it doesn’t hurt. For others, it casts a painful shadow of othering on everything we do.

• What do we know about the inequities in our city?
• How do those inequities show up in our area’s cultural spaces?
• What investments could we make (or re-frame) to support spaces that are not part of the dominant culture’s?

Culture is the frame. A city’s residents help shape its culture and what it’s known for. They make cities feel stable, make it desirable, make it pulse with life. The phrase “keep Austin weird” began as a descriptor from someone who contributed to the scene. Over time, the local business alliance adopted the slogan to support local business. Eventually, that weirdness became a draw to new residents and investors.

• How could cities encourage investment and support for aspects of a city’s culture?
• How could that investment expand to include the culture of newcomers too?
• How do we ensure that we’re not further entrenching dominant culture at the expense of others’?

Belonging is the goal. There are people right now, in every city, who feel true belonging. It’s most common that they align with the dominant culture in their area. This culture is well-funded and well-established. I heard this anecdote at the conference: inclusion is being asked to dance at a party. Belonging means helping to create the playlist. You can’t trust me with the aux cord in most situations but it’s still a great metaphor. It’s not unnatural for people to say, “what you have, I want to share with you.” I want to feel like I belong in the cities where I live. I want everyone to share that feeling. And I don’t want anyone to have to assimilate to feel that.

• When was a time when you felt like you belonged in the place where you live?
• What makes people feel like there’s not enough to go around?
• How have people countered that sense of scarcity in other places?

the plan for global belonging

Changing culture is an interesting approach to making a city more fair. Oakland is a unique and quite lovely city! There’s nothing structural that is stopping other cities from following their lead. The only obstacle is ideological. Belonging means belonging for everyone. It will not do to create outgroups of the people who enjoy the full glow of the spotlight today.

To me, the root question is really this: where do we want to go as a society? It’s now more than six months into Israel’s war on Palestinians. Students at campuses across the country are protesting this clear example of genocide. The universities they attend profit from their investments in this war and others. Al Jazeera reports on one example. Columbia University’s investments include “BlackRock, the asset management giant; Airbnb, which has offered rentals in the occupied West Bank; Caterpillar, whose bulldozers Israel has used; and Google, which has faced protests from staffers over Project Nimbus, which provides artificial intelligence services to Israel.”

My own alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, sent in riot police to silence the peaceful protests. I’m proud of the students who have taken a stand against this genocide. We need to keep raising awareness about the injustices in all areas of the world.

The Cultural Development Plan is one approach to creating belonging in a city. Some people claim that oppressed people would do the same to their oppressors if they had the chance. That’s isn’t true. We can create a world where everyone feels like they belong in the place where they live. This kind of global change will start at the local level. I’m grateful to have spent time in a city that’s trying something new.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Yeah, that’s 10 yeahs. And, yeah, that’s how Challengers makes you feel. That song, the third on the film’s soundtrack, is scored entirely by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and is simply called “Yeah x10.” But to be honest, every single beat drop—needle drop is too quaint for the pulsing, thumping, rhythmic club sounds that pervade Luca Guadagnino’s sports romance—makes you want to bob up and down and repeat “yeah” over and over again. The score is right up there as one of the central reasons this addictive, not-quite-summer-but-might-as-well-be romp about the shifting power dynamics in a love triangle between three tennis pros (played by Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) is not just about the game, but is itself a game. This is a film in which the tennis metaphor is so extreme that at one point the audience takes on the perspective of the ball as it’s slapped around the court. And the music—with its layered bleeps and trickles and claps and whoops and thwaps and wacks and smooth rumble towards soaring shimmering crescendos—is, excuse the pun, instrumental to pulling this off. Reznor and Ross are not just turning a game into music; they are sublimating the emotions of the players inside that game. 

I very rarely listen to film scores. I think it’s the secondary nature of them; the fact that they were conceived in service of a bigger piece of art, rather than simply existing on their own terms, somehow makes them seem insubstantial or incomplete to me. And yet I haven’t stopped listening to Challengers since seeing the film. Hoofing it like crazy to a hair appointment over the weekend with “The Signal” blasting in my ears, I felt like my frenzied lateness, channeled into those pedals and wheels, was being captured in real time and had perhaps become one of—if not THE—coolest moments of my life. And then, in the lull between tracks, hearing the actual squeak of the bike’s gears, the dull sound of the traffic beside me, the banality of my situation returned with a limp. That’s when I could tell how much work that music was doing to lift each scene of Challengers—even accounting for the stylish cinematography and editing beneath it—the same way a night club, even with the lights down, even with all those hot people in the dark, can only really hit you when the beat does.