“Let This Be a Turning Point”

Earlier this evening I joined with a number of my south Minneapolis neighbors to walk with lighted candles through our neighborhood.

We did this so as to honor the memory of George Floyd (right) and commit to the ongoing work of racial justice in the wake of the guilty verdict today in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former police officer who had been charged with Floyd’s murder last year. Sentencing is expected in about eight weeks.

(Update: “Chauvin Gets 22 1/2 Years for George Floyd’s Murder” – MPR News, 6/25/21)

Floyd’s murder took place last May not far from our neighborhood, parts of which were destroyed and damaged in the social unrest that followed.

Following are a selection of responses to today’s verdict. Some of these responses are from friends here in Minneapolis, others are from nationally-known figures. All convey the hope and need for this verdict to be, in the words of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), “a turning point” in the ongoing work of creating a society that truly reflects the belief that “all are created equal.”

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Today a jury in Minneapolis, Minnesota, convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on all counts in the death of George Floyd. On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds after arresting him for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. The jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He faces up to 75 years in prison, and will be sentenced in two months.

As we heard this verdict today, it was striking how many Americans breathed a sigh of relief. It stands out to me that, although a girl passing by, Darnella Frazier, had the presence of mind to record a video of the entire encounter on her cell phone so we could all see what happened entirely too clearly, we were not certain of the outcome.

. . . If Ms. Frazier had not captured the video, would Chauvin be in prison right now? Between 2013 and 2019, only 1% of killings by police have resulted in criminal charges.

How many of those deaths are like that of Mr. Floyd?

– Heather Cox Richardson
via Facebook
April 20, 2021

Here’s my question for white folx: what would you have done had Derek Chauvin been acquitted?

Whatever your ideas were, please do them anyway.

– Rev. Tara Parrish
April 20, 2021

Despite today’s guilty verdict, true justice for George Floyd and the other Black lives snuffed out by police has yet to be done. . . . Derek Chauvin will now serve a penalty for acts deemed exceptional. But his behavior was not exceptional, and treating George Floyd’s murder as a consequence of extraordinary acts neither protects Black people nor captures the unreformable depravity of our system of policing. His murder is the predictable outcome of policing’s origin in slave patrols and the ongoing, constant threat to Black people of arrest, incarceration, violence, and death.

– Center for Constitutional Rights
April 20, 2021

The jury’s verdict delivers accountability for Derek Chauvin, but not justice for George Floyd. Real justice for him and too many others can only happen when we build a nation that fundamentally respects the human dignity of every person. The trauma and tragedy of George Floyd’s murder must never leave us. It was a manifestation of a system that callously devalues the lives of Black people. Our struggle now is about justice – not justice on paper, but real justice in which all Americans live their lives free of oppression. We must boldly root out the cancer of systemic racism and police violence against people of color.

– Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
April 20, 2021

Artwork: Nikkolas Smith

Of course, true justice for George Floyd would require him to still be alive. . . . Not only did Derek Chauvin deny George Floyd his human rights, he also showed utter disregard for George Floyd’s humanity. We must acknowledge the racist roots of law enforcement in this country if we are to address the systemic failures of policing and bring about meaningful public safety for those that have been historically overpoliced. This must include shrinking the size and scope of law enforcement in daily life, eliminating qualified immunity that creates a barrier to redress for victims of unlawful policing, demilitarizing law enforcement, and enacting strict limits on the use of force altogether.

– Kristina Roth
Amnesty International USA
April 20, 2021

It’s hard to celebrate because George Floyd’s life was callously extinguished to bring us to this moment. It’s impossible for this verdict to singlehandedly end systemic injustice. But perhaps today is one small step toward the comprehensive healing we must undergo to confront white supremacy and fashion a new world. Trying to remain firmly grounded in reality, while maintaining my unshakeable idealism for a more just future.

– Phillip Clark
April 20, 2021

I think this is less about justice and more about accountability, but the sound of an overwhelming sigh of relief was very welcomed today.

– Carrie Chillman
April 20, 2021

This conviction must mark the beginning of true change in our country, where the criminal justice system has consistently failed to hold police officers accountable for the unwarranted killings and brutality that have disproportionately taken the lives of Black people and other people of color in traumatized communities. . . . Although today's verdict marks an important step forward, we call on leadership at every level of government to advance urgently needed policing reforms that bring about true racial justice and equality.

– Abigail Dillen
Earthjustice
April 20, 2021

While this verdict brings a certain rare form of accountability for police, achieving this outcome for Mr. Floyd is only one step in addressing police abuse of power, disparate treatment, and excessive force against Black and Brown communities. We still must radically change policing in Minnesota and across the country, increase accountability and transparency, and create policies that combat racism in policing. The jury's decision to convict Derek Chauvin does not negate the fact that Mr. Floyd’s tragic murder is part of a horrifying local and national pattern of officers using excessive force against people of color.

– John Gordon
ACLU of Minnesota
April 20, 2021

Today’s verdict is an acknowledgement that police officers cannot get away with murder, but we still have a long way to go to achieve the justice demanded by so many protesters in the last year. . . . The fact that justice was done in this case cannot allow us to forget about the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, among many others. But this case galvanized a movement for justice that has expanded across the country, rooted in longstanding demands for a reimagining of a criminal legal system built on anti-Black racism and white supremacy. Lawmakers at the state and federal level must begin holding officers accountable for police violence.

– Margaret Huang
Southern Poverty Law Center
April 20, 2021

Today, so many people are exhaling with relief for the thousands who cannot: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Duante Wright, Adam Toledo, and so many more. A legal system that has been over-applied to Black and brown people and dramatically under-applied to law enforcement has now convicted one police officer. The verdict is deeply meaningful for being so rare. But we cannot mistake this for a transformative moment. We still pour billions more dollars into policing than into proven health-based violence prevention. Black people are still not safe when they're pulled over, jogging, even surrendering. And our nation has not been accountable to the harm of centuries of racist policies embedded in our justice system and far beyond it.

– Shari Silberstein
Equal Justice USA
April 20, 2021

We cannot let today’s verdict allow us to become complacent about the challenges we face. We have to do better. Black people in America are exhausted with fear and anxiety every single day. Today's verdict is appropriate punishment for a single crime. But to honor the memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Adam Toledo, and so many others whose only 'crime' was being Black, we must work with greater effort and urgency than ever to bend the arc toward racial justice.

– Lee Saunders
AFSCME
April 20, 2021

While today’s conviction is a necessary condition of justice, it is not sufficient. For centuries, Black people have faced violence at the hands of the state in our country. For centuries, systemic inequalities in the form of housing, income, education, and criminal justice have plagued our country – holding us back from our creed of liberty and justice for all. Let this be a turning point, where we finally create a society that reflects the belief that all men and women are created equal. Let this be the moment where we implement a broad anti-racist agenda to root out the inequalities that continue to plague us.

– Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
April 20, 2021

Today’s verdict doesn’t mean we don't have a problem in law enforcement, but it does mean that a very important institution of American justice held today. . . . We all know that one decision in one murder trial is not going to fix everything. The problems are gargantuan. But when we see any aspect of our system hold then it can give all of us hope and faith in what we do. We can get it right. . . . We can demonstrate that every human life matters.

And today our system said George Floyd’s life mattered.

– Marianne Williamson
April 20, 2021

Related Off-site Links:
Derek Chauvin Found Guilty On All Charges in George Floyd’s Death – Sara Boboltz and Hayley Miller (The Huffington Post, April 20, 2021).
“An Important Step Forward for Justice”: Reactions to Chauvin’s Guilty Verdicts – MPR News (April 20, 2021).
Tears and Relief Sweep Intersection Where George Floyd Died – The Associated Press via MPR News (April 20, 2021).

UPDATES: Guilty Verdict in the Chauvin Trial Is Not Enough for Real Change – LZ Granderson (Common Dreams, April 21, 2021).
Chauvin Gets 22 1/2 Years for George Floyd’s Murder – Jon Collins, Riham Feshir and the Associated Press (MPR News, June 25, 2021).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “I Can’t Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
• He Called Mama. He Has Called Up Great Power
• Honoring George Floyd
• “New and Very Dangerous”: The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration of the George Floyd Protests
• Mayor Melvin Carter: “The Anger Is Real, and I Share It With You”
• Emma Jordan-Simpson: “There Will Be No Peace Without Justice”
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• A Very Intentional First Day of the Year
• Bearing Witness
• “And Still and All, It Continues”
• The Problem Is Ultimately Bigger Than Individuals. It’s Systemic
• Minnesota Governor Tim Walz: “We Need to Make Systemic Changes”

Minneapolis images: Michael J. Bayly.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz: “We Need to Make Systemic Changes”

Yesterday I lamented that government authorities in Minnesota seem to be reacting to the effects, rather than the underlying cause, of the social unrest we’re seeing in Brooklyn Center in response to the recent police killing of Daunte Wright and the social unrest many fear may erupt after the verdict comes down (perhaps as early as tomorrow) in the trial of former police officer Derek Chavin for the murder of George Floyd last year.

Earlier today Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (left) joined with Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul for a press conference, and I have to say I was impressed with what all three had to say.

All three acknowledged the systemic racism at the root of the social unrest we’re currently both witnessing and fearing, and which caused such upheaval and destruction last May in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

Right: St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minneapols Mayor Jacob Frey survey the damage in the aftermath of the social unrest and destruction of last May.

All three want to see systemic changes made.

And all three recognize that unless such changes are made in relation to the racial injustice that undergird and permeate our economic, political, healthcare, and criminal justice systems, we’re going to be, in the words of Gov. Walz, “right back here again. . . . And we cannot continue to live this way.”






NEXT: “Let This Be a Turning Point”

Related Off-site Links:
Chauvin Trial: Case Goes to the Jury; Deliberations Begin – Jon Collins, Brandt Williams, Riham Feshir and Matt Sepic (MPR News, April 19, 2021).
Lawmakers Tussle Over Public Safety Practices as Chauvin Verdict Nears – Brian Bakst (MPR News, April 18, 2021).
More Than 100 People Arrested on Sixth Night of Brooklyn Center Protests; Journalists Detained – MPR News and the Associated Press (April 17, 2021).

UPDATES: Investigation Shows Minneapolis Police Show Pattern of Violating Rights, Attorney General Merrick Garland Says – Steve Karnowski and Jim Salter (PBS NewsHour, June 16, 2023).
Department of Justice Finds Minneapolis Police Had a Pattern of “Unconstitutional Policing” – Martin Kaste and Don Gonyea (NPR News, June 17, 2023).
8 Takeaways From the Justice Department Probe of Minneapolis Police – MPR News (June 17, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Problem Is Ultimately Bigger Than Individuals. It’s Systemic
• Mayor Melvin Carter: “The Anger Is Real, and I Share It With You”
• “And Still and All, It Continues”
• Bearing Witness
• “I Can’t Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
• He Called Mama. He Has Called Up Great Power
• Honoring George Floyd
• “New and Very Dangerous”: The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration of the George Floyd Protests
• Emma Jordan-Simpson: “There Will Be No Peace Without Justice”
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• The Language of the Oppressor
• A Very Intentional First Day of the Year

Remembering Elisabeth Sladen, Ten Years On

The death [ten years ago today] of Elisabeth Sladen was one of the saddest events to ever rock the Doctor Who universe. She was such an incredible actress – and, I hear, woman – it is tragic that she left us so soon. To think of all the wonderful adventures, she and the Bannerman Road Gang could have had. All the times she and the Doctor could have met up and regaled about past exploits. The passing of Elisabeth Sladen occurred too soon but there is nothing that can be done now. All we can do is keep her memory alive by revisiting all her amazing episodes and stories.

– Patrick Kavanagh-Sproull
Excerpted from “Heroes of Who: Elizabeth Sladen”
Doctor Who TV

Personally, I think that [Sladen’s] Sarah Jane Smith is an amazing woman and character, but it is the personality from Elisabeth Sladen that I adore. For a character to be so loved in the 1970s, and now still loved by generations of children and adults is very special. Despite being a huge fan of Amy and Rory, Donna, Martha, and Rose, I have to say that Sarah Jane is the top of my list for Who-related characters. For me, I see so much of the Doctor in Sarah Jane. Her use of sonic lipstick, her super-computer Mr Smith, and her gang of companions. From the Doctor she has learnt so much, and as I look back on her legacy, I can see that her character has many lessons to teach us. The virtue of humility, the beauty of sacrifice, the essence of everlasting love, and the mindset of a Time Lord are all characteristics that I see in Sarah Jane.

– K-CI Williams
Excerpted from “The Legacy of Sarah Jane Smith”
Doctor Who TV

See also the previous The Wild Reed posts:
• Blast from the Past: Sarah Jane Smith Returns to Doctor Who
• What Sarah Jane Did Next
• She’s So Lovely
• Impossible! . . . It Can’t Be!
• She’s Back!
• Too Good to Miss
• The Adventures Continue
• Remembering Elisabeth Sladen
• Quote of the Day – April 20, 2011
• Mourning Lis, Farewelling Sarah Jane
• As Doctor Who Celebrates its 50th Anniversary, Sarah Jane Smith is Voted #1 Favorite Companion
• Nine Years On, a Poignant Farewell to Sarah Jane

The Color of Love

In the green morning
I wanted to be a heart.
A heart.

And in the ripe evening
I wanted to be a nightingale.
A nightingale.

(Soul, turn orange-colored.
Soul, turn the color of love.)

In the vivid morning
I wanted to be myself.
A heart.

And at the evening’s end
I wanted to be my voice.
A nightingale.

Soul, turn orange-colored.
Soul, turn the color of love.

– Federico García Lorca
“Ditty of First Desire”
From Selected Verse, 1921-1924
(Translated by Alan S. Trueblood)

NEXT:
What We Crave

See also the related Wild Reed posts:
• What We Crave
• Skylight
• “So You Can Only See Beautiful Things”
• November Musings
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – November 18, 2020
• Today I Will Be Still
• Adnan in Morning Light
• It’s You
• The Landscape Is a Mirror
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland
• Somalia Bound
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – July 14, 2019
• Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green
• Adnan . . . with Sunset Reflections and Jet Trail
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – April 16, 2019
• In This In-Between Time
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – March 29, 2019

Image: Saaxiib Qurux Badan (“Beautiful Friend”), Minneapolis, MN – Michael J. Bayly (4/18/21).

Reacting to the Effects, Not the Cause, of What Ails Us

It’s an act of desperation – if not outright cowardice – to spare no expense in military might while investing in the cheapest plywood, all in an effort to protect this state’s investment in whiteness. If power has to be maintained through overwhelming force, or even hastily built barriers, those of us standing in trauma on the other side have to wonder who’s really being protected.

– Justin Ellis
Excerpted from "Minnesota Values White Comfort
More Than Black Lives"
The New York Times
April 16, 2021

Driving into Minneapolis from my workplace in Coon Rapids Friday afternoon, I was shocked to see the number of National Guard soldiers, all heavily armed, and their military vehicles on the steets. I mean, I get it . . . to a degree. There is still much unrest in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center over the recent police killing of Daunte Wright, and tomorrow, Monday, the jury in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, charged in the killing of George Floyd while in police custody last year, begins its deliberations. A verdict could be reached as early as tomorrow.

Clearly, city officials and many residents are nervous about a repeat of last year’s urban unrest and destruction if Chauvin is not found guilty. Yet for others, the presence of such a strong militarized force on the streets of Minneapolis is unsettling and problematic.

The corporate mainstream media maintain that Minneapolis is "on edge." Well, certainly many white Minneapolis residents are on edge, especially for their businesses and property. Again, I get it. But at the same time I also recognize that Black residents throughout the country are exhausted and on edge all the time, given the stress around the economic disparity the vast majority of them have to deal with on a daily basis, and the perpetual threat of state-sanctioned violence at the hands of law enforcement, a threat that’s all too real regardless of how well they might be doing financially.

I think we need to be very clear: The military presence we’re seeing in Minneapolis is a response to the effects of our economic and political system. The cause of these effects, namely the long-standing racial injustice that undergird and permeate these same systems, remains largely ignored by those in authority and many of those white citizens nervously awaiting yet more of the effects to make themselves known. And yet . . .

Seeking to solve a problem merely on the level of effect is not a true solution but only a temporary fix. Only when we address the level of cause – most fundamentally the thoughts that caused the original deviation from love – do we produce fundamental results.

– Marianne Williamson

I don’t have the answers or solutions, though I’m pretty sure where and how we can start. In addition, there are many people – Black and white – who have spent years, in some cases decades, thinking about, researching, and community-building around a range of responses and solutions. I long for their voices and perspectives to be lifted up in both the political and mainstream media arenas.

I lift up four of these voices in this post: Marianne Williamson and Justin Ellis (whose words open this post), Rabbi Michael Adam Latz (whose words are shared below), and social justice activist, scholar, and public theologian Ruby Sales (right) who features in the video embedded at the end of this post. All speak of – or to – the need to "create a new story" for our world, a story of healing and justice in our time.

We have now criminalized public grief. We are living in a war zone. National guard tanks throughout the city. Guard members in fatigues and combat gear dressed for Bagdad or Fallujah, not Minneapolis or Brooklyn Center.

Imagine instead of spending millions of dollars on national guard troops and criminalizing blackness, what if instead public leaders invested those dollars into communities? What could we do if people – especially Black and Brown and Native and Asian and Immigrant and Muslim and poor people – had vast public parks, quality education, affordable college, clean drinking water, fresh affordable food within walking distance of their homes, vast public transportation, health care that includes mental health care and trauma care, high speed internet everywhere, and vast resources for mental health, parental respite, and thick communal support?

Policing – as it currently exists – is fundamentally broken.

We don’t suffer from a lack of resources, only a lack of imagination. We must radically transform public safety. Our neighbor’s lives depend on it. And so does our humanity.

– Rabbi Michael Adam Latz
April 17, 2021

Above: Members of the National Guard patrol behind a security fence perimeter surrounding the Hennepin County Government Center, where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin is being held – Minneapolis, March 31, 2021. (Photo: Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images)

The following reflection by activist, scholar, and public theologian Ruby Sales is part of the Healing Our City Virtual Prayer Tent, a daily time of prayer and meditation during the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. This virtual prayer tent is inclusive of all faiths, colors, genders, and orientations. You can be part of it each day at 8:00 AM Central time by clicking here..





NEXT: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz:
“We Need to Make Systemic Changes”

Related Off-site Links:
Lawmakers Tussle Over Public Safety Practices as Chauvin Verdict Nears – Brian Bakst (MPR News, April 18, 2021).
More Than 100 People Arrested on Sixth Night of Brooklyn Center Protests; Journalists Detained – MPR News and the Associated Press (April 17, 2021).
Shots Fired at National Guard Members in Minneapolis; Two Injured – MPR News (April 18, 2021).
Families Victimized by Police Violence Unite and Call for Higher Charges for Daunte Wright’s Killer – Mel Reeves (Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, April 17, 2021).
Critics Say Chauvin Defense “Weaponized” Stigma for Black Americans With Addiction – Brian Mann (MPR News, April 16, 2021).
The Money Story Behind Police Power: Civil Rights Attorney Lee Merritt Explains – Morgan Simon (Forbes, April 16, 2021).
Podcaster Chronicles Racism, “Resistance” and the Fight for Black Lives – Terry Gross (Fresh Air, April 15, 2021).
Brooklyn Center Renters Blame Police for Chaos at Daunte Wright Protests
– Logan Carroll (Sahan Journal, April 13, 2021).
Chauvin Trial Again Casts Spotlight on Minneapolis Police Department’s Training Program – Libor Jany (PBS News, April 3, 2021).
How We Can Start to Heal the Pain of Racial Division – Ruby Sales (TED.com, September 2018).
Ruby Sales – Where Does It Hurt? – Krista Tippett (On Being, January 16, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Problem Is Ultimately Bigger Than Individuals. It’s Systemic
• “And Still and All, It Continues”
• Bearing Witness
• “I Can’t Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
• He Called Mama. He Has Called Up Great Power
• Honoring George Floyd
• “New and Very Dangerous”: The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration of the George Floyd Protests
• Emma Jordan-Simpson: “There Will Be No Peace Without Justice”
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• The Language of the Oppressor
• A Very Intentional First Day of the Year

Minneapolis images: Michael J. Bayly (except where noted otherwise).
Image of Ruby Sales: Nikki Kahn/Getty Images.

Where You Take Me

Let the sun turn into earth
and earth all turn to ice;
the seasons stop right in their tracks
and day turn into night.
I will be untouchable,
I will feel no pain.

’Cause I’ve had you,
I’ve had you.

Do you see that star?
Way up there is where I place you.
We have been so far.
Way up there is where you take me.

– From “I’ve Had You”
by Jenny Morris and Paul Kelly
(from Jenny Morris’ 1991 album Honeychild)

NEXT:
The Color of Love

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• It’s You
• Skylight
• “So You Can Only See Beautiful Things”
• November Musings
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – November 18, 2020
• Adnan in Morning Light
• The Landscape Is a Mirror
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland
• Somalia Bound
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – July 14, 2019
• Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green
• Adnan . . . with Sunset Reflections and Jet Trail
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – April 16, 2019
• In This In-Between Time
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – March 29, 2019

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Remembering and Celebrating Dusty

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the birth of the late, great British pop/soul vocalist Dusty Springfield (1939-1999).

Dusty’s been in the news lately as a compilation album, Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971, has topped various charts for both reissued material and R&B/soul music, and garnered widespread and positive praise.

My interest in and admiration for Dusty is well documented here at The Wild Reed, most notably in Soul Deep, one of my very first posts.

Other previous posts worth investigating, especially if you’re new to Dusty, are Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon, which features an excerpt from Laurence Cole’s book, Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere; Celebrating Dusty (2017), which features an excerpt from Patricia Juliana Smith’s insightful article on Dusty’s “camp masquerades”; Celebrating Dusty (2013), which features excerpts from Annie J. Randall’s book, Dusty!: Queen of the Postmods; Remembering Dusty, my 2009 tribute to Dusty on the tenth anniversary of her death; and Remembering Dusty, 20 Years On, my 2019 tribute on the twentieth anniversary of her death.

And, of course, off-site there’s my website dedicated to Dusty, Woman of Repute (currently only accessible through the Internet archive service, The Way Back Machine).

My website’s name is derived from Dusty’s 1990 album Reputation, and as I explain in Soul Deep, it was this album that introduced me not only to Dusty’s music but also to her life and journey – much of which resonated deeply with me. Indeed, my identification with aspects of Dusty’s journey played an important role in my coming out as a gay man.

Above: Dusty, amidst the flowing streams, standing stones and picturesque Celtic ruins of County Clare and the Galway coast for the making of the music video for “Roll Away,” a track from her last album, 1995’s A Very Fine Love. The liner notes of the 2016 2-disc expanded collector’s edition of A Very Fine Love include my reflections on this beautiful song, reflections which are also shared in the previous Wild Reed post, Time and the River.

In honor of today’s 82nd anniversary of Dusty’s birth, I share “Don’t Forget About Me,”* a track featured on The Complete Atlantic Singles and first released on Dusty’s landmark 1969 album, Dusty in Memphis. It’s followed by NPR’s Oliver Wang’s review of Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Recordings 1968-1971.





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In 1968, Dusty Springfield – then an established pop star in the U.K. – flew across the pond to conquer the U.S. by signing what was meant to be a long-term deal with Atlantic Records. The label sent Springfield down to American Sound Studio in Memphis, Tenn., hoping to impart some of the Southern soul magic that had worked so well for Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. Those sessions are now collected in the new anthology Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971.

One of the first songs Springfield recorded at American Sound Studio – “Son of a Preacher Man” – had literally been written for Franklin. But when the daughter of a preacher man initially passed on it for being a bit too on the nose, it went to Springfield instead, becoming one of the defining songs of her career. It cemented her reputation as a so-called blue-eyed soul singer, a rather awkward industry euphemism for “white artists recording black music” – never mind that Springfield’s eyes were actually brown.

Atlantic followed with a more scattershot approach to her recordings. Sure, there were naked attempts at reproducing the same soulful vibe as “Son of a Preacher Man,” like the laid-back “Willie and Laura Mae Jones.” But the label also kept Springfield in the same crossover pop lane she’d paved in the U.K., with the familiarity of “In the Land of Make Believe.” There were also a few funky dance tracks, such as “Haunted,” that never quite caught the right groove.

To be clear, Springfield had her share of gems with Atlantic as well. One of the last sides she recorded for the label, the bluesy ballad “I Believe in You,” was released as a stand-alone single late in the fall of 1971.

Springfield begged out of her contract soon after, but even if the Atlantic years didn’t create the kind of chart-topping success either party wanted, it wasn’t a footnote. Not only did it yield her most acclaimed album, Dusty in Memphis, but Springfield would enjoy a prolific career up until her death in 1999. Along the way, her American sojourn also set a marker that generations of British singers have sought to follow since. Springfield managed to do all this with understatement, not by belting her way to the top, but with the coolest of croons.

– Oliver Wang
"Dusty Springfield’s Take on Southern Soul Gets Another Look"
NPR News
January 21, 2021

* About “Don't Forget About Me,” Paul Howes writes the following in his book, The Complete Dusty Springfield:

Although it wasn’t widely known at the time, “Don't Forget About Me” had already been recorded by Dusty in a London studio a year before she cut the track with Jerry Wexler for the Memphis album. The two versions differ considerably, not only in arrangement and production, but also in Dusty’s vocal styling. On the Memphis cut, Dusty’s sweet, husky vocals hover over the notes, swooping down for the harsher refrain surrounded by horns, funky guitars and, of course, the Sweet Inspirations. The arrangements and production is more polished than the British recording and is overall more exciting. The song had previously been recorded by Barbara Lewis and P J Proby but never sounded like this.

Related Off-site Links:
Revisiting the Tender Sounds of Dusty Springfield – Amanda Petrusich (The New Yorker, February 1, 2021).
Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971 – A Review – Alfred Soto (Pitchfork, February 15, 2021).
Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971 – A Review – Terry Staunton (Record Collector, February 25, 2021).

For more of Dusty at The Wild Reed, see:
• Soul Deep
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Remembering Dusty, 20 Years On
• Remembering and Celebrating Dusty (2020)
• Remembering and Celebrating Dusty (2019)
• Remembering Dusty (2018)
• Celebrating Dusty (2017)
• Celebrating Dusty (2013)
• Remembering Dusty (2009)
• Remembering Dusty – 14 Years On
• Remembering Dusty – 11 Years On
• The Other “Born This Way”
• Time and the River
• Remembering a Great Soul Singer
• A Song and Challenge for 2012
• The Sound of Two Decades Colliding

“And Still and All, It Continues”

Daunte Wright, 2001-2021

As I have followed the Derek Chauvin trial, I have watched as the Minneapolis Police Department has distanced themselves from their former colleague and sought to make him a “bad apple” as opposed to indicative of what the system was created to do. And now Daunte Wright has been murdered by Brooklyn Center police. And before George Floyd and Daunte Wright there was Philando Castile and Jamar Clark and hundreds more.

My friends, this is not a case of bad apples. This is a system whose point and purpose is to protect white supremacy and extractive capitalism. It isn’t just the Minneapolis Police Department or the Brooklyn Center Police Department or the Saint Anthony Police Department . . . it is rooted in the reality that police departments are the children of slave patrols and union-busting private squads run by industrialists.

We have to find a different way to dream about public safety. We have to find a way to move monies away from people with guns and into housing and water and food and jobs and abundant life instead of violence and death. As a Christian pastor, I want to offer my testimony that I dream of a world where the police have been abolished and I pledge to create the conditions for that to become a reality. #BlackLivesAreSacred

– Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
via Facebook
April 12, 2021

In the three weeks of Chauvin’s trial, the former officer’s defenders have noted that there was fentanyl in George Floyd’s blood, and suggested he expired not because of the knee on his neck but because he abused opioids. After Daunte Wright’s death yesterday, those defending the police officer who shot him argued that Wright had brought the deadly outcome on himself by resisting arrest.

But here’s the thing: Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wright are not on trial. Whether they abused drugs, or passed bad bills, or did something that warranted arrest, or did all of those things or none of them simply does not matter. They are not on trial.

What is on trial is the fundamental American principle of equality before the law. Our law enforcement officers are supposed to use the force of the state to deliver suspected lawbreakers to our criminal justice system. And yet, in both of these cases – and so many others in which a Black person has died at the hands of police – the officers apparently killed suspected offenders instead of delivering them to the legal system guaranteed under our Constitution. Individual police officers appear to have taken the law into their own hands and become judge, jury, and executioner.

Either Floyd and Wright had the right to due legal process, or police officers could condemn them to death without the due process of the law. If the former, it is imperative to defend the principle of equality before the law against those who would undermine that principle. If the latter, Floyd and Wright are not equal to white Americans, and we need to revisit exactly what sort of government we have.

– Heather Cox Richardson
via Facebook
April 12, 2021

The sheer incompetency of the police officer in the Daunte Wright situation should have everyone angry.

The weight of a loaded gun is usually around five pounds while a Taser is less than a pound. It is also required that an officer’s gun and Taser be carried on separate sides from each other. There are zero excuses that can be brought to defend the officer. The biggest shame is that Daunte Wright died, the second biggest shame is that the officer will most likely only be charged with manslaughter, if that.

Those who are supporting the officer’s side in this case and those choosing to not speak out are showing how biased they really are. Those who cannot call out injustice when it is so clearly presented cannot claim to seek justice.

Those who support the police and those who do not, need to come together to demand changes to police training starting with mandatory bachelor’s degrees for all new officers and intense stress and situational training for all officers taking place every couple of years.

This case is not about Daunte attempting to get in the car and flee; it is not about any warrant for his arrest. It is solely about a police officer being so poorly trained and so incompetent that a Child of God lost his life.

– Parker Kantos
via Facebook
April 12, 2021

Daunte Wright’s son is not much older than mine. . . . They kinda look alike too. . . . I cannot imagine being taken from my son. I cannot imagine the pain Daunte’s family feels right now. I cannot understand how Black children “accidentally” get murdered by police at a rate exponentially higher than anyone else.

I cannot. . . .

#DaunteWright. Say His Name.

– Nikkolas Smith
via Facebook
April 12, 2021

It feels like May 26, 2020 all over again. In these moments of injustice and uprising, I can lean only on our ancestors’ wisdom. MLK words are with me tonight as they were last May.

“I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? . . . It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.”

– Robin Wonsley
via Facebook
April 12, 2021

Man, it just never ends. Even as another cop pointlessly kills another black guy in Minneapolis – this time for having air fresheners in his car, reportedly accidentally mistaking a gun for a taser – harrowing video has surfaced showing a pair of yahoo, frantic, racist, inept small-town cops in Windsor, Virginia stopping, tasing, harassing, pulling guns on and otherwise terrorizing a black and Latino lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, in uniform yet, for . . . NOTHING.

The police bodycam footage from December – yes, it took four months for anyone to notice, and only after the video went viral, because duh, America, racist police, so nu? – shows model victim, except for the black and Latino part, 2nd Lieut. Caron Nazario getting pulled over by fat white bozo cop Joe Gutierrez and his young punk partner Daniel Crocker for the crime of pulling into a brightly lit gas station before stopping, having tinted windows on his new SUV, and not having tags displayed on the back except actually he did, with a temporary dealer plate plainly visible in the video, which makes it kinda a mystery why clueless itchy-fingered redneck cops in Virginia would pull over a black dude in a nice new SUV: “In the car: professional soldier. Outside the car: ragebeast with a GED, a few months of half-assed training, and a gun.”

At first, Nazario is calmly curious, chewing gum and repeatedly asking, "What’s going on?" Evidently because he wasn’t acting suitably intimidated, Gutierrez goes ballistic, whipping out his gun and hysterically screaming at the scary black guy in uniform – Stars and Stripes infuriatingly visible on his sleeve – both to “Get out of the car!!” and “Keep your hands outside the window!!” as he tells Nazario, “What’s going on is you’re fixing to ride the lightning, son,” understandably referencing . . . the electric chair.

Things escalate quickly. Crocker keeps his gun on Navario as Gutierrez yells, rages, snarls at Navario, “You received an order – obey it!”, pepper-sprays him in the face, yanks him from the car, kicks him to the ground, and handcuffs him. Navario grows ever more distraught: “Why am I being treated like this? . . . I’m serving my country and this is how I’m treated? . . . This is fucked up, this is fucked up.” Once he’s cuffed, the cops search his car and find . . . nothing, except Nazario’s dog suffering from the pepper-spray. Cue classic, shameless, oh-shit-what-did-we-do bullying that passes for cop remorse as Gutierrez threatens Nazario with repercussions if he complains about being brutalized.

After higher-ups viewed the footage, Gutierrez was fired; Crocker remains on the force. In early April, Nazario sued both officers, seeking $1 million for violating his rights through excessive force and unlawful search and seizure, part of what his attorney Jonathan Adler calls “a disgusting nationwide trend of (police) who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage (in) racially biased, dangerous, and sometimes deadly abuses of authority.” Like many before him, he cites the need “to stop this conduct . . . to hold these officers accountable.” Others fiercely argue we must “revolutionize police accountability” so that ordinary people of color don’t have to live in terror of racist, ill-trained, “hair-trigger” police whose violence is “fucking outrageous.”

Also fucking outrageous: It’s been 75 years since another infamous attack on a black soldier; 50 years since Marvin Gaye asked what’s goin’ on; a year since George Floyd cried he couldn’t breathe. “This is racism," wrote Julian Castro. “It’s about domination and humiliation of a black man because he asked questions and ‘didnt comply.’” And still and all, it continues.

– Abby Zimet
“What’s Going On?”
Common Dreams
April 12, 2021

Related Off-site Links
Protests Erupt After Police Kill Black Man During Traffic Stop Near Minneapolis – Kenny Stancil (Common Dreams, April 12, 2021).
Brooklyn Center Police Chief: Officer Meant to Use Taser, Not Firearm, on Daunte Wright – Liz Navratil and Stephen Montemayor (Star Tribune, April 12, 2021).
How Does an Officer Use a Gun Instead of a Taser? – The Associated Press via MPR News (April 12, 2021).
Night of Unrest Follows Fatal Brooklyn Center Police Shooting – Evan Frost (MPR News, April 12, 2021).
Curfew In Effect In Metro Area – Matt Sepic, Nina Moini, Peter Cox and Tim Nelson (MPR News, April 12, 2021).
Why Black People ‘Resist Arrest’ – Mike Muse (Level, June 18, 2020).
There’s a Growing Call to Defund the Police. Here’s What It Means – Scottie Andrew (CNN, June 17, 2020).
Six Reasons Why It’s Time to Defund the Police – Mary Zerkel (AFSC.org, June 11, 2020).
Defunding the Police Will Actually Make Us Safer – Paige Fernandez (Cosmopolitan via ACLU.org, June 11, 2020).
It’s Perfectly Fine to Call It “Defunding” the Police – John H. McWhorter (Slate, July 18, 2020).
“Policing Is Fundamentally a Tool of Social Control to Facilitate Our Exploitation”: An Interview with Alex S. Vitale – Micah Uetricht (Jacobin, June 8, 2020).
Media Acknowledge Drive to Defund Police – But Seek to Blunt Its Radical Edge – Julie Hollar (FAIR, June 11, 2020).
What America Can Learn From Nordic Police – Ryan Cooper (The Week, June 5, 2020).
How a Minnesota Paper Is Covering the Chauvin Trial From the Black Perspective – Ari Shapiro (NPR News, April 8, 2021).

UPDATES: Daunte Wright’s Death Ruled a Homicide by Hennepin County Medical Examiner – Adrienne Broaddus and Keith Allen (CNN, April 12, 2021).
Police Officer Who Fatally Shot Daunte Wright Identified as Kim Potter – Rebecca Falconer (Axios, April 12, 2021).
White Cop Who Shot Daunte Wright Named as Hundreds Defy Curfew – Justin Rohrlich (The Daily Beast, April 12, 2021).
Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon Resign; Mayor Wants Attorney General Keith Ellison to Handle Wright Case – Matt Sepic and Tim Nelson (MPR News, April 13, 2021).
Officer Who Shot Wright to Face 2nd-Degree Manslaughter Charge – MPR News (April 14, 2021).
Kim Potter Found Guilty Over Killing of Daunte Wright – Joanna Walters (The Guardian, December 23, 2021).
Investigation Shows Minneapolis Police Show Pattern of Violating Rights, Attorney General Merrick Garland Says – Steve Karnowski and Jim Salter (PBS NewsHour, June 16, 2023).
Department of Justice Finds Minneapolis Police Had a Pattern of “Unconstitutional Policing” – Martin Kaste and Don Gonyea (NPR News, June 17, 2023).
8 Takeaways From the Justice Department Probe of Minneapolis Police – MPR News (June 17, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Bearing Witness
• The Problem Is Ultimately Bigger Than Individuals. It’s Systemic
• “I Can’t Breathe”: The Murder of George Floyd
• Something to Think About – May 28, 2020
• Honoring George Floyd
• “New and Very Dangerous”: The Extreme Right-Wing Infiltration of the George Floyd Protests
• He Called Mama. He Has Called Up Great Power
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 2, 2020
• Emma Jordan-Simpson: “There Will Be No Peace Without Justice”
• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Quote of the Day – June 9, 2020
• “An Abolitionist Demand”: Progressive Perspectives on Transforming Policing in the U.S.
• Something to Think About – July 21, 2020
• Rallying in Solidarity with Eric Garner and Other Victims of Police Brutality
• In Minneapolis, Rallying in Solidarity with Black Lives in Baltimore
• “Say Her Name” Solidarity Action
• “We Are All One” – #Justice4Jamar and the 4th Precinct Occupation
• Nancy A. Heitzeg: Quote of the Day – March 31, 2016
• “This Doesn’t Happen to White People”
• Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
• Photo of the Day, 5/3/2015: “Black Is Sacred”
• “And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part I)
• “And Still We Rise!” – Mayday 2015 (Part II)
• Something to Think About – March 25, 2016
• Thoughts on Prayer in a “Summer of Strife”