Rapper DaBaby’s event inspires former Panther to donate $100,000 to bailout fund
A line formed Friday outside the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture, on the corner of South Tryon and Stonewall, with people at the front of it being checked by security.
Though the center normally draws visitors from all over, something different brought this crowd out.
“Is he in there already?” someone in the line asked.
Rapper and Charlottean DaBaby drew this crowd out for a discussion called “Black Lives BEEN Mattered” with city officials and leaders. It was in response to events that have unfolded in Charlotte and around the country surrounding the police killings of unarmed black people.
According to a press release by Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment, DaBaby and his guests were to discuss the topics of “police reform, systemic racism, and the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement in North Carolina.”
“I have had my own experiences with the police. It’s time to have a serious conversation about police reform and systemic racism in our city. Black lives been mattered and always will matter,” DaBaby said.
DaBaby, who grew up in Charlotte, has been arrested several times by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police in the past few years. In 2019, CMPD was accused of racial profiling after arresting him on a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
At the event, DaBaby said that although he could speak on negative experiences with police, he wasn’t there to tell his story, but to give a space for community members and officials to speak.
“Getting those voices heard, those statements heard, those opinions heard, in a room full of respected individuals, I just feel like it was important,” he said.
The panel included officials such as Mayor Vi Lyles, Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, former Carolina Panther Thomas Davis and community organizer Kristie Puckett-Williams, statewide campaign for smart justice manager for the ACLU.
Alisha Brown, executive director of local nonprofit group For the Struggle, was the first member of the audience to ask a question of the panel.
She said she had requested to meet with Lyles and Winston when they first got elected to talk about policies that the city could implement to support the Black community. She said she wasn’t given a receptive response. At the event, she posed the same question to Lyles and Winston.
“What have you done, in particular, to advance Black people and to help the Black community here in Charlotte?” she asked.
Winston said the city has focused on budget, municipal services and land use to deconstruct perpetuating racist systems. Lyles emphasized the need for civic engagement in order to bring about change.
“You’ve got to show up, speak out and vote,” she said.
Later, Pucket-Williams said she’s tired of holding meetings with officials that haven’t brought much change to the system.
“At one point do we acknowledge that the system is illegitimate?” she said. “It was founded on white supremacy that has been perpetuated, and we have to burn it down. We need to stop prosecuting people who are peacefully protesting to burn it down. At what point do we acknowledge the system is more violent and harmful than any individual person has ever been?”
Toward the end of the event, Davis pledged to donate $100,000 to a Father’s Day bailout fund sponsored by the ACLU of North Carolina, Emancipate North Carolina, Forward Justice and the North Carolina Community Bail Fund, an action that brought Puckett-Willams to tears.
DaBaby closed the event by calling for conversations like this one to happen regularly.
“I want to end this by extending an offer to try to put something together routinely like this. Where we can bring blank notebook paper and pens and clipboards and try to move forward.”
Torie Wheatley, a UNC Charlotte doctoral student who attended the event, said although she thought it went well, she agreed that these conversations need to happen frequently.
“We’re tired. We’re tired,” she said. “As a black woman I am tired, and I really want this to bring systemic change and not just something that is once in a blue moon. Just keep up with the fight. Keep going. We need that momentum.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 5:46 PM.
