Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly claimed Monday that white supremacy caused fear of Indian reservations and Tucson’s Southside area – not the high crime rates.
One way that white Supremacy impacts organizations is when the [people] in charge are scared of certain locations [because] the residents don’t look like them and/or their communities are structured differently. ‘It’s not safe to go on the Southside.’ ‘The reservation is kinda scary.’ A decision is made at the top because of an individual’s comfort level and the priorities to engage or not engage with that community stop before any attempt can ever be made. ‘We’ll, [sic] they don’t even vote.’ Those sentiments are transferred to staff and opinion can become a practice or policy. ‘We don’t do outreach in this region because it’s not considered safe.’ ‘We require two staff members to travel there and we can’t spare anyone right now.’ ‘We don’t usually do outreach there.’ The fear of engaging in certain areas populated by Black, Indigenous, People of Color is then justified by the concept that those regions are dangerous or unsafe. The white Supremacy is believing that communities must look a certain way before they can be engaged.
One way that white Supremacy impacts organizations is when the ppl in charge are scared of certain locations bc the residents don’t look like them and/or their communities are structured differently. “It’s not safe to go on the Southside.” “The reservation is kinda scary”
— Gabriella Cázares-Kelly (@GabriellaCKelly) July 26, 2021
In 2018, the local jail rate for Native Americans was double the national average. A 2008 study on reservation land crime revealed that murder rates for American Indian and Alaska Native women reached up to 10 times the national average, with violent crimes reaching anywhere from 2.5 to 20 times the national average.
Similarly, Tucson has consistently had crime rates greater than the national average. According to the latest FBI data, total crime ranked at 50 percent above the national average, with violent crime at 55 percent above the national average and property crime at nearly 50 percent above the national average. These numbers are based on the city’s 2019 reported crimes versus census population, compared to the total crimes nationally per 100,000 people.
Cázares-Kelly’s election received significant attention because she was the first Native American elected to a countywide seat in Pima County. Cázares-Kelly describes herself as an elected official that writes about “voting, culture, 21st century native things, and dismantling white supremacy.”
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Gabriella Cázares-Kelly” by Gabriella Cázares-Kelly.
