‘Not leaving anybody behind’: Rio Vista strives to be first city to ‘eliminate’ racism

Rio Vista is a small community in the Sacramento River Delta, with a population of about 7,000. According to census data, it’s 83 percent white and close to 7 percent Black. It has the second-largest senior medical cannabis club in Northern California. And, according to resident Rich Lynn, it’s going to be the first city to “eliminate” racism.

“It’s not a hope. I don’t see that we’re hoping anymore,” said Lynn. “We’re expecting this, and you can expect something when you’re putting in the work to make it happen.”

It all started with a post on NextDoor, the popular app used for connecting with neighbors. After George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police officers, Lynn shared a poem about the fears he experiences as a Black man. He’d almost posted things like it before, he said, but deleted them. This time, he “agreed to push the button.”

“Can’t go for a walk because I am Black,” wrote Lynn. “Can’t get angry because I am Black. I am home and I am crying.”

Lynn received a flood of support from Rio Vista residents — ones that he had never even met. “This is not how I feel. So I’ll be happy to come and walk with you,” he said, echoing their sentiments.

Uplifted, Lynn resolved to sideline his fears and just start walking “because racism needs to end.” He was willing to walk every day by himself, if he had to.

The next morning, around 75 people met at the tennis courts to join him.

In July, the walks are still occurring — twice a day at 7:25, once in the morning and once in the evening. According to Lynn, the time is symbolic: Floyd died at 9:25 a.m., which, accounting for the time difference, is 7:25 a.m. in California. The attendees — ranging most days from a dozen to two dozen people — engage in five minutes of silent reflection and prayer, then take a half-hour walk through Lynn’s over-55 neighborhood. Many wear shirts that say “Death to Racism,” featuring a photo of Lynn’s father and brother at a minority contractors’ protest 44 years ago.

“ I wanted to put somebody on there that’s still alive,” Lynn said, referring to his father and brother, “because the movement is still alive.”

Jeanne Brown, a Rio Vista resident and participant in some of the walks, said that the community’s overwhelming response to Lynn blew her away.

“Truth be told, I was really trying to ignore a lot of (the Black Lives Matter events) since it was taking up so much of the media,” said Brown. “I’ve never felt that color was a thing for me. I didn’t see it as something that I needed to work on.”

While Brown said that her attention to racial issues has stayed “about the same” since the walks started, they nevertheless succeeded in giving her “goosebumps” — so much so that she nominated Rio Vista for the Reader’s Digest list of “Nicest Places in America.” This month, the city took home the title of “Nicest Place in California.”

“75 people saw the (NextDoor post) and just decided to show up there too,” Brown said. “How bizarre, how just incredible is that?”

Of course, even with its new title, Rio Vista still has its fair share of problems.

“This is the same city where last year, the police department body slammed an African American lady,” said Lynn.

Rio Vista’s chief of police came to the first walk, but, according to Lynn, the department has yet to confront its role in systemic racism. Half of the cops tell him that Derek Chauvin, the man charged with killing George Floyd, doesn’t represent them — when instead, they should be “starting with ‘I’m sorry,’ and moving onto ‘here’s what we’re doing to be different.’”

They even pull the age-old “My wife’s stepfather is African American” card, said Lynn, chuckling. “These are real conversations (we’ve had).”

He wrote another NextDoor post about the issue: “You know what, on the police department? Pass. Because they don’t get it.”

Tom Watson, a resident who has participated in the walks every day, recalled how he received a letter this year from his homeowner’s association (HOA) about a political sign in his front yard that included this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” He said he was told to remove it or be in violation of code — a ruling that he said was later determined to be incorrect.

“What was funny was, I put it on NextDoor and said, ‘Have sign, will travel,’” said Watson.

For him, this is where Rio Vista’s virtues shine through: He had several signs, and people in the community took all of them. Now they’re everywhere in the neighborhood.

Lynn, too, is adamant that the city’s goodness will override any resistance. And it has to — because, he said, “Whether you got a naysayer neighbor or naysayer brother or sister, they gotta get on the boat with us. We’re not leaving anybody behind.”

Since the beginning of the walks, Lynn has talked with people who’ve grown from “naysayers” to participants. Usually, they only come and walk a few times, he said, but they support his vision.

“You see the negativity kind of just evaporating right before your eyes in your conversation with these people,” said Lynn.

When it comes down to it, the walks are not spaces for negativity, or even anger, he said. They’re an “egalitarian retreat,” spaces for connecting with one another and holding each other up. And they’ll continue to serve that purpose until racism is gone in Rio Vista, whenever that may be.

“We can’t talk about anything negative, we can’t talk about Trump, because that’ll lead you down that rabbit hole,” said Lynn. “We focus on what a future is without racism. That is what we do for that half an hour.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 11:24 AM.