Worthington Racial Justice - TRUTH RACIAL HEALING TRANSFORMATION

Worthington was founded by descendants of British colonizers who lived in Connecticut. They brought much of their culture with them to central Ohio in 1803 and created a planned community with a charming town green at its center.

As Columbus became the state capital and grew, Worthington became a northern suburb, eventually surrounded by the city of Columbus and doubling the area of our school district to include many Columbus neighborhoods.

The white flight from Columbus in the 1980's solidified the predominantly white suburb where property values and the taxes from them ensured a top rated school district.

Today we find ourselves isolated from many problems caused by the inequity in our county. WRJO is eager to bring equity to the community by exploring our role and complicity in systemic racism.

The Anti-Racism Education Committee brings you this website to help you on your path to help with this effort. Start wherever you need: Basics, History, Policy or Activism. Learn however you do best: Watching, Listening, Reading, Experiencing. Keep up with media stories and take action whenever you are ready.

Basics

How do I get started? Just the basics please!

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History

How did we get here? I'm a bit of a history buff!

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Policy

What are people proposing? I'm interested in public policy!

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Activism

What can we do now? I'd like to take action!

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Worthington, Ohio, United States

worthingtonrjo@gmail.com

Worthington Racial Justice Organizing Anti-Racism Education Committee will send you updates when new content is added to the site. We will not give your address to anyone else.

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Editorial cartoon depicts disparate treatment of Black and white drivers (Columbus Dispatch)

4/19/2021

The cartoon describes the officer who pulls over the white motorist as "polite." The officer who pulls over the Black motorist has no descriptor. What the cartoon misses is that this is the same officer on different stops. It perpetuates the myth that the problem is with specific cops who are bad. The problem is with the specific behavior of each cop that changes when they encounter Black motorists.

Washington Post editor shares his personal exhaustion with racism (Washington Post)

4/19/2021

When Black people achieve professional success, move to a nice home, and put their children in nice schools, white people can often assume that the racism in our world doesn't follow them. It is exhausting to experience it and impossible for Black people to explain it daily.

White students not arrested for property damage at OSU area street party (The Lantern)

4/19/2021

Systemic racism in policing is not only disclosed by actions against Black communities. It is also disclosed by actions not taken against white communities. We can imagine the amount of force and the number of arrests that would have happened immediately during an event like this in a Black neighborhood.

Connecting protests to larger systemic racism concerns (Columbus Dispatch)

4/18/2021

The Dispatch interviews academic experts on systemic racism to help us understand the connection between the protests spurred by police violence and the ongoing struggle against multiple racist institutions felt by the Black community.

Black Lives (Still) Matter Rally at the Ohio Statehouse (Columbus Dispatch)

4/17/2021

Several local activist organizations came together to raise up the lives of young men recently lost in central Ohio and elsewhere to police violence. Members of WRJO joined the rally which was less than a week after the police killing of the 27 year old Black father, Miles Jackson, at St Ann's Hospital in Westerville. The organizations represented included: Black Liberation Movement of Central Ohio, People's Justice Project, Food not Bombs, Columbus Freedom Fund, and Showing Up for Racial Justice.

Miles Jackson killed while at St. Ann's Hospital for care (NBC News)

4/15/2021

After being transported to St. Ann's Hospital by Westerville police to be checked out for possible drug use, Miles Jackson was shot to death by officers who discovered a gun in his pants. The incident was caught on multiple body worn cameras. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, part of the Attorney General's office, is investigating and promises several weeks of waiting for answers.

An Inside Look at Ohio Police Reform's Race Problem (The Appeal)

8/13/2018

A quick summary of the police brutality and discrimination happening within CPD prior to mid-2018. Most of these actions/episodes have not been resolved with any satisfaction to the victims, families, or employees involved.