Equity Lab: Visit Sacramento chief of diversity interview + Review of Oscar-winning movie
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Good afternoon, Equity Lab readers:
Today is Wednesday, April 28, 2021, and this is Alex Yoon-Hendricks.
I took last week off for vacation. Well, it was really a kind of staycation, largely spent on the couch watching TV and playing Animal Crossing.
But it got me thinking about what vacations — and tourism more broadly — might look like as California begins to ease restrictions further and thousands are vaccinated every day. (Unhygienic Instagrammable ice cream sprinkle pits are, I hope, a thing of the past.) Specifically, how can the benefits and impacts of tourism be distributed more equitably across Sacramento’s diverse neighborhoods?
To learn more, I talked to Sonya Bradley of Visit Sacramento, who has recently moved into the newly created role of chief of diversity, equity, and inclusion after serving 15 years as the tourism bureau’s chief marketing officer.
Before the pandemic, the region saw 15 million visitors annually, with the tourism and hospitality industry generating $3.4 billion in economic impact each year, according to Bradley. As hotels, restaurants, attractions and venues try to recover, Bradley said the organization will prioritize ensuring the benefits of tourism reach all corners of Sacramento.
Here’s our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about Visit Sacramento, your new role, and what was the catalyst for its creation?
We’re the tourism bureau for this region, booking events, driving tourists to Sacramento. We often say those visitor dollars — sometimes directly like with the hotel (transient occupancy) tax — goes into city funds, funding police and fire and streets. By bringing more people into hotels and the city, the better the coffers are for residents.
The catalyst for this position is not unlike the catalyst for hundreds of thousands of companies and people: After the murder of George Floyd, it opened up people’s eyes not just to police violence or what is happening to the Black population and policing, but racial inequality broadly.
There was a lot of self-reflecting happening last summer about what is our role — we have a big voice representing the tourism and hospitality industries. How can we use our voice to push diversity, equity and inclusion, and what does that mean? What did our events look like over time? Were we being as inclusive as we can? I don’t think we were being intentional about diversity in what we do. Sacramento is one of the most diverse cities in the country. I don’t know if we’ve always capitalized on that.
Why did it take so long for a position like this to be created?
I think we get comfortable. We get busy and don’t think about it. To be fair, other destination marketing organizations have these types of positions.
I think it’s also sort of this false belief in California as the most welcoming and inclusive state. We’re certainly better than most, but I don’t know if we’re as open and inclusive as we think we are.
One of your stated goals is to bring the impact of tourism to neighborhoods, businesses and individuals that may not have fully benefited from tourism before. Do you have some examples you could share?
We’re looking at a couple of areas. We do things like itinerary building for visitors, so how do we build a more cultural type of itinerary that might pull in some attractions and places to visit and stories that aren’t downtown or Old Sac or going to a museum. Maybe there’s a story in Oak Park we aren’t telling and that could drive a more diverse visitation.
On our most recent podcast, we talked to Councilwoman Mai Vang, and we actually asked her about places people would not know in the district. She named a few places, two or three I knew, but mostly I wasn’t familiar with. We can get people out of the downtown core, get visitors and locals to visit authentic mom and pop places to eat and see art.
LeVar Burton Park, especially as a Star Trek fan, is awesome. If that’s your passion, you can take a photo there. Those are the unique things I’m talking about. (In the industry) we particularly talk a lot about millennial traffic. They’re looking for not the same thing everyone goes to, but something new and authentic.
I get the sense that this conversation around race and social justice coming during the pandemic has provided an opportunity to kind of hit the reset button. Do you feel like that’s the case?
We are doing a lot more things now, but I believe this is going to be a 365-day deal for us. I think the whole industry has had to reset. We just have to look at our place in the community.
Eventually, we want to form an advisory group on what to know about here and to keep us accountable. We need to get buy-in, but we want to make sure we’re actually doing what we say we’re doing. This isn’t a sprint, but this isn’t a marathon either, this needs to be more like a 10K. It’s not like we haven’t been here before when it comes to social justice and race relations.
Here’s what else you need to know this week:
Must-Read Stories
‘RACISM IS THIS COUNTRY’S ORIGINAL SIN’: On a late February morning, more than 100 high school students were joined by teachers and parents as they gathered in East Portal Park in East Sacramento. Some held signs and others chanted, “No justice, no peace,” as they marched toward their destination. The last year has seen countless scenes like this play out in Sacramento and other cities as people marched by the thousands, demanding social justice and calling out racism. But on this morning, the focus of the demonstration was a new one: St. Francis High School, a prestigious all-girls private school. [Read more here]
MCDONALD’S WORKERS WANT MORE SAY OVER CALIFORNIA LABOR CONDITIONS: California passed several protections, from additional paid sick days to emergency workplace rules, aimed at protecting workers during the coronavirus pandemic. But many fast-food workers have not been able to take advantage of them, according to reports published this week, one by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and UC Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program, and another by the Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles. [Read more here]
RETURNING TO SACRAMENTO CLASSROOMS: Students in the Sacramento region have reported lower grades and higher feelings of anxiety about their future as they struggled with virtual learning during the pandemic. In a January 2021 survey, 65 percent said that their grades dropped as school campuses closed over the last year. [Read more here]
Watch Views and Voices: ‘How I Work With Domestic Violence Survivors.’ Live Q&A on Instagram
Orizo Hajigurban, The Sacramento Bee’s Equity Lab engagement reporter, talked live with Nilda Valmores, the Executive Director of My Sister’s House.
My Sister’s House is the Central Valley’s only shelter for abused Asian/Pacific Islander women.
Nilda discussed the journey that led her to her position today, what it’s like to work with domestic violence survivors and what resources are available for those in need.
If you missed it, you can watch it here.
More Interesting Reads
Vaccinated people can now do these things safely, CDC says in updated COVID guidance | The Sacramento Bee
A new California law tells companies to diversify their boards. It isn’t working for Latinos | The Sacramento Bee
QAnon is obsessively watching for the Arizona recount to bring Trump back | VICE News
Fully vaccinated people can ditch masks, sometimes, under new CDC guidelines | BuzzFeed News
What we’re listening to (and you should, too!)
Hello, Equity Lab faithful! Let me tell you about a short film I watched on Netflix last week that turned out to be Oscar-worthy.
No literally, ‘Two Distant Strangers’ just recently won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. The film is executively produced by current NBA players - Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Jr. - and is approximately 30 minutes long. Literally, I was watching it while planning the weekend with some friends.
Two Distant Strangers is set in New York, starring Brooklyn-native, rapper Joey Bada$. The film begins with his character - Carter - waking up in the morning following a rendezvous the night before with a woman he just met. The only thing on his mind is getting home to his dog. Dog owners should understand this all too well: When you’ve been out all night or away for too long, a realm of possibilities creep into your mind about the predicament your furry friend could have found themselves in. Or you could just feel bad that you left them alone in the dark with no food to eat. Needless to say, there was a certain level of urgency that he had to return home.
Carter goes through a series of events that lead up to his death by a cop who profiles and accuses him of defiance. It turns out to be pretty traumatic, and for that reason I was hesitant to continue watching. With the number of police shootings we’ve been accustomed to seeing on the news, why would l want to watch a movie depicting this same scene? Personally, it got cringe to me because they decided to have the concept that he dies every day in different encounters with the same police officer. After his fatal moment, he wakes up again, in the same bed with the woman from the night before as if it all was a dream.
He goes through this same cycle of being shot and killed by police at least 100 times before asking himself: “Is this just my fate, my destiny? Is this my reality to be killed at the hands of law enforcement?”
I saw an image from one of the scenes of the short film on Twitter, that I initially believed to be unnecessary. Carter was laying on the ground, dead, in his blood - which was in the shape of the African continent. I wondered what the significance of that scene was intended to be. Truth be told, I just wasn’t a fan of that particular scene.
Over the course of the film, I realized that there was no way that this could be produced for entertainment purposes. The film was meant to be seen and heard to educate the audience of Black people’s interaction with police and how quickly things can go left. I referenced earlier that the character went through this same “dream” about 100 times. What I really appreciated and took away from this was the scene where Carter tells the cop about what’s happening and how it continually occurs. He pointed out every word the cop would say, as well as the actions of bystanders and people around the scene. The cop believes him and asks what he can do to help. Joey Bada$’s character simply replies, “can you just take me home?”
That scene is what moved me. How come cops don’t just take people home, specifically children? How come it can’t be as simple as “where are your parents, let’s take you to them” rather than four bullets to the chest?
Back to the film: In this scene, as the cop is taking him home, they have a conversation to learn more about each other. They discuss each other’s backgrounds, upbringings and values. I wasn’t a fan of the ending because the cop still ended up shooting and killing him. However, what I took from the film was, why can’t we have a conversation between sheriffs, police, etc., and Black communities to come to a place of understanding? My favorite part was when he asked the cop why he became a cop. The cop responded with the political, typical police oath response. Carter even called him out on it and asked what’s the real reason. The cop admitted he was bullied and was tired of being bullied and picked on. Carter sarcastically responds “so you became one?”
That was one of the more powerful scenes of the film that has me asking questions about police recruitment and what goes on throughout the interview and hiring process. It dawns the question, why do people CHOOSE to become police officers? Taking from the film, I wonder how many were mistreated in middle school, high school, or even college - although being a cop doesn’t require a college degree.
If you’re like me, you may not like the initial idea of it, but remove yourself from involving your feelings in the film. Watch the film intellectually - for educational purposes - and tell me what your thoughts are! Let’s connect on Twitter or Instagram, I may just post about it - @sirmarcussmith - on both platforms.
Marcus D. Smith, Black Communities Reporter
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Thank you for reading, and we will see you again next week!
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This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 12:33 PM.