The Reno Gazette Journal interviewed four Black Renoites who protested in Reno on Saturday, May 30 during the Black Lives Matter protest. We asked them about how race affects their lives and experiences in Reno.
KaPreace Young, 23
Outreach coordinator at the University of Nevada, Reno and co-founder of Shades of Queening, a local empowerment group for women of color and a member of the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Society.
Why do you protest and what are your goals?
My goal was to let other Black men and women know that their lives do matter. I was marching because we need to be seen and we need to support each other. My being there was acknowledging that this wasn’t just a one-time thing. If the media is silent, there are still these things going on. This is isn’t where it ends.
Protest is about fighting inequities, racism, discrimination, and Black people need to speak with people in positions of power and get into positions of power to change these issues.
What has it been like for you to be Black in Reno?
Part of it means that growing up, I was the only, if not one of the few, that was Black in the class and getting the stares when we were learning about slavery.
One of my friends said your name is written in the bathroom on the stall and it said, “KaPreace is a (racial slur). I realized that my Black pride was not valued by others and was being reduced to a racial slur.
That is the reason why I do speak up. That one reason is why I speak up, because I know that I am worth more than one racial slur. If I remind another Black person that they are valued, then I know my purpose is being served.
What are some of the uniquely Black female experiences you’ve had over the years?
I was a teen mom at 16. I try to stand on the fact that I’m not another stereotype. There are all these stereotypes about teen moms and Black teen moms, but I was the vice president of the student body and I graduated with my undergraduate degree in two and a half years. I just graduated at 23 with a master’s degree and I am completely debt free and I have no college loans.
There are some stereotypical Black experiences that people will want to portray but any experience I have is a Black experience.
There’s the Black girl magic. There’s the fact that we had Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in the White House, but I think there’s the family gatherings, the laughs that we share, the diversity within being Black. Just because I appreciate one experience in the Black community, my Black is different from someone else’s Black but we can all appreciate that.
Being Black isn’t just one thing. Being Black can mean you’re African American. It can mean being biracial. As much is going on in the world, I would never not wish to be Black.
When did you first confront the idea of race?
I think probably kindergarten. I remember at home that we talked about Black culture and figures but in school we only talked about it in February. When that month is over, that child realizes that we only talk about Black history for 28 days. You only get to talk about it when it’s on the calendar, but I’m Black every day.
In school, I always chose Black figures to research when we had to learn about someone. I always tried to choose someone who wasn’t Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks; they’re great but everyone knows about them.
A lot of times when you talk about Black figures, you talk about civil rights, but you don’t talk about the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs. My favorite was (American entrepreneur) Madame C.J. Walker. She was incredible. I think it’s amazing that she was producing products for her hair type.
What were some of the conversations you had with your family about being Black?
Hair. I wanted to have sleek, straight hair like the other girls, but my mom and dad said, ‘They can’t do to their hair what is naturally done to your hair.’ I’m constantly seeing ideas of what Eurocentric beauty is. It’s one way of being beautiful, but my beauty is beauty too.
My mom always encouraged me to speak up, use my voice. Now that I’m a mom, it’s amazing. A part of me struggles with keeping my son’s innocence, but I can’t afford to not teach him. My mom taught me how to be a woman, but I am trying to mother a young Black man. I was a mom at 16, so I wasn’t ready to be a mom, but I really wasn’t ready to be a mom at this time.
If you were able to sit down with three people in the world right now, who would you sit down with and why?
Michelle Obama. She’s just amazing. She’s definitely somebody who chose not to stay in the background. Some say it was her husband’s time, but… she was not in the background.
(Rapper) Tupac Shakur because the way that he expressed himself and the topics he chose. I’d want to verify what his lyrics meant because sometimes they’re contradictory. Some say his lyrics are uplifting and some say his lyrics are degrading.
I’ll have to think on a third person.
Norris DuPree Jr., 46
Licensed psychologist, alcohol and drug abuse counselor, marriage and family therapist who’s lived in Reno since he was 2 years old. He helps organize an annual law enforcement and race symposium in Northern Nevada.
Why do you protest and what are your goals?
I protested this particular time because I wanted to support our youth. It was the youth leading this march, and I wanted their voices to be heard. Their voices were being hijacked by a lot of subgroups who were posing as Black Lives Matter and they were really there to implement their own agenda.
My goals: When law enforcement engages in a shooting, I think we should expedite the case, which means the investigation should be expedited, the releasing of documents should be expedited and the officers need to be held accountable. And if things go awry then they need to publicly say what went wrong and what they’re doing to correct it.
The next thing I would like to see is independent investigations done by the attorney general. Sister police investigations are doing the investigations, and I don’t think there’s ever been one shooting locally that’s been non-justifiable. I think sometimes there’s a conflict of interest. Also, to have a community review board that is familiar with police practices so there’s another layer of police accountability. There should be psychologists, doctors, lawyers, people that see these issues from different perspectives.
What has it been like for you to be Black in Reno?
My dad worked hard. He worked 12 to 14 hours a day. We lived in a certain part of town, and my parents just got a new car. I had just finished playing a basketball game, and the police pulled us over for no reason and they wanted to check our car and my mom said, “We don’t have anything.” The police got the dogs out and the dogs were all over the new leather seats and I was so upset, and I kept trying to tell my mom that they were being racist. They were pulling her over because she was Black in a new car. She just wanted it to be over.
Another time I had just finished a movie, “Dismissed.” The cops stopped me and said, “You look like someone who just robbed a store,” and they said, “Hold on,” and luckily I had some Caucasian brothers and sisters with me and they said, “No, we’re not going to let you hold him so you can say he robbed some store.”
What are some of the uniquely Black male experiences you’ve had over the years?
My family history. My great aunt’s twin sister was beheaded by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi. They used her head as an ornament on a tree stump. My grandfather had to dress up as a woman to escape Mississippi. He and a bunch of other Black boys. They were hunting down Black men and lynching them. This was the 1930s. Dressing up as a woman was a camouflage to get out of the city. Between the midpoints of the train stations, the white train conductors dropped them off in the forest so the young Black men could escape and they survived.
My family rose to the occasion and still was able to pass down a legacy. The pressure for me to succeed is what they passed to me. I have responsibility to uplift the nation and build a better tomorrow because, like the phoenix out of the ashes, we rose.
When did you first confront the idea of race?
I remember at 5 years old driving downtown. My mom was driving, and I remember a truck passing by us and people calling us (racial slur). I can show you exactly where we were. It’s right in front of that clown at Circus Circus.
She said, “Don’t say nothing.” My mother got nervous. That was my first time when I understood that my experience would be different because of my skin.
In school too, they just put all of the Black kids in special education, they didn’t even test you or anything. My parents pulled me out. They tried it with my siblings too. With all the (Black) kids.
What kind of conversations did you have with your family about race?
My dad saw Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech in South Carolina and someone recently showed me pictures of the rally. Growing up my father was very Christian and he loved everybody. He did not allow hate to saturate him, but because of that he endured and he suffered a lot, and kept a lot from us, but he gave us wisdom and just listened to us when we wanted to talk about racism and he guided us when we needed him.
If you were able to sit down with three people in the world right now, who would you sit down with and why?
I would sit down with Harriet Tubman to understand what it’s like to put your life in danger so others can have freedom.
Malcom X because he spoke truth about power. A lot of people look at when he was radical, when he thought all white people were devils, but he kept transforming and started looking at how to create bridges between people. He had a special love of his people.
And probably, last, the Apostle Paul because I think Paul really was called to the Gentiles. He was Jewish in descent but he specialized in adjusting and adapting in culture. He specialized in communicating and including people that were not like him and he confronted his brothers when they got out of line. He spoke out. He confronted the biases, racism and religiosity. He had this ability because of the love in his heart.
Monique Andrea, 38
Licensed behavioral therapist with master’s in social work. She is on the board of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, is a co-founder of Women of Color+Coffee, and volunteers with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
Why do you protest, and what are your goals?
One reason is to let it be known, across the country, the injustices that are happening. We’re here, we’re showing a presence and we’re fighting back. Also, protesting brings people together instead of grieving at home. You feel unified with the community and like people care. The goal is to push for action.
What it’s been like for you to be Black in Reno?
I’ve often felt like a minority within a minority. I’m originally from Las Vegas. Las Vegas was very diverse. There was a little bit of everyone that went to my high school. In Las Vegas, there is segregation, there are Black communities, there are Hispanic communities. In Reno, our Black population is pretty small. I didn’t really know that when I moved here. I have been reaching out to some of the other populations, like migrant communities and helping look at indigenous murders, but I haven’t been able to do as much around the Black community.
No matter where I work, I’m often the only Black person in the room. When I go back home, to places that are more diverse, it’s like a shock, I forget this is what I’m used to. I’ll never not navigate that as long as I live here.
However, I have found a lot of ways that I have grown up here, as far as organizing and connecting community because Reno is very heavy on community. You can kind of get lost in Las Vegas. It’s harder to connect sometimes. In Reno, it’s got a hometown feel. I feel very connected to the people I work with. People have given me love, and I do love Reno and I feel like real change can occur here because people are so connected.
What are some of the uniquely Black female experiences you’ve had over the years?
When I was a student in a class at University of Nevada, Reno, we were picking a project or an issue that people didn’t know a lot about. We had to pick a topic. I went inward and I thought let’s talk about colorism and how that can separate people. Pretty much everyone in that group, they were all white, and they were like, “What? No, we have to pick a broader idea.” And talking to other people of color, they have similar experiences. A lot of times, you just don’t feel validated. We actually started a women of color coffee group, and that was actually why. A lot of Black women feel like they can’t really say what’s really on their mind.
When did you first confront the idea of race?
I’ve always noticed race even in my own family. My dad’s family is part Creole, so I have cousins that are lighter and so they have wavy hair and they’re treated differently than me.
In kindergarten, we moved to a predominantly white area, and there’s literally me and an Asian kid and we were the only minorities in the class. The girls would ask, “Why do you always wear your hair in ponytails and braids?” They pointed out things that I didn’t notice about myself, and it wasn’t negative. They’re just curious, but when you’re little like that, you don’t ever want to be different. I would say, the first two years at that school – it really was hard. As I grew, I learned to love who I am. You say, “Black is beautiful,” and I wonder what white people are thinking, but you’re often told Black is at the bottom of the beauty spectrum. Even on dating apps, Black women get swiped the least.
What questions do you wish people would ask you or not ask you?
I guess I understand it, but I think people get nervous to use certain language or say certain things. People are weird about saying African American or Black. If you’re not sure about something, just ask. Then you’re coming from a place of understanding.
I haven’t gotten it lately, but don’t ask: What are you mixed with?
I would also add to that: Can I touch your hair? In doing that, you’re “othering” someone.
If you were able to sit down with three people in the world right now, who would you sit down with and why?
So many people. Part of me wants to say the president, just to sit and ask: Are you really this way? I really just want to sit down with him in room, and just try to understand him. What’s in his head?
Angela Davis. That would be really cool, I would love to hear how (the political activist) got started and what her life has been like. Ask for advice.
Last, I’m thinking about this social worker, her last name is Joy DeGruy. She wrote this book called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and it’s supposed to explain why things are the way they are in Black communities today and how our history has affected us generationally over time. I bought this book, and I started reading it and I stopped, but it’d be so great to pick her brain and see how she views everything going on now as a social worker.
I almost want to add presidential candidate Joe Biden because it’s going to be between him and Trump. He has this smug, ‘I got this in the bag ’cause the Black people are going to vote for me,’ way about him and I hate smugness.
Tony Montgomery, 42
Equity and diversity specialist for the Washoe County School District, Hug High School graduate. Began involvement in community activism after high school by working with youth mentorship and gang intervention programs.
Why do you protest and what are your goals?
I protest because I feel like it’s necessary to be a voice for those who aren’t heard. The way things are set up, sometimes the most marginalized are the most unheard and those of us who are able to be in rooms to make these decisions need to be present.
My capacity this past weekend in the protest was a lot of photojournalism, only because I knew there would be those who weren’t going to be a part of the protest but would have their opinions on it. I wanted – should things go downhill – to show that there was a small group of agitators and everyone else was there to peacefully protests.
What it’s been like for you to be Black in Reno?
It depends on how far you want to go back. The first big experience was definitely negative. My uncle, who I was named after, was killed by skinheads in Reno. His name was Toney Montgomery. The only difference was that he spelled his name with an ‘e,’ Toney. This was Dec. 10, 1988.
I remember the night vividly. We were all at my grandma’s house. We were playing Monopoly. One of my cousins came to get him because they were going to go out that night. He got ready to go, and it’s maybe five minutes to walk from my grandma’s house to my aunt’s house. It was 15 minutes later and my aunt came over and said he’d been shot. We didn’t know why. He was the most gentle guy always with a smile on his face.
It was essentially because he was a Black man in the right place at the wrong time. There was a young woman that said she’d been assaulted by a Black man at a party and these young white men at a party decided they’d go out to the Black neighborhood and exact justice. They found another man, but he had a child and that was the only reason he was spared. They found my uncle, and they took his life.
What are some of the uniquely Black male experiences you’ve had over the years?
I’ve had both good and bad. I’ve had situations where I’ve been stopped and I assumed the worse. But in the sixth grade, I met an officer and I formed a bond with him. This was the start of the D.A.R.E. program, and he was one of the first (local) officers in the D.A.R.E. program.
Thirty years later, we ended up working together. When I saw him some 30 years later, and I remembered him, I said, “I know you,” and I picked up from being a sixth grader.
He was authentic. We found commonalities. He didn’t try to pretend that he knew who I was or what my experience was. His job was to protect me from the world.
We even went to a baseball game in San Francisco as part of the D.A.R.E program. It was a bunch of sixth graders with the cops and we got on a bus. We talked on the way to the game, at the game, and coming home from the game.
When did you first confront the idea of race?
First grade. Nobody looked liked me. No one looked like me. The Black experience wasn’t spoke on.
The first time I realized people hated me was in third grade I got shot with buckshots because I walked past the wrong house.
What questions do you wish people would ask you, or not ask you?
I don’t think there’s a question I’d want people to come up and ask me because I don’t want to represent every Black man in America. We are not a monolithic group. I’d ask anyone that feels a certain way around a Black person, I’d ask them where does it come from?
If you were able to sit down with three people in the world right now, who would you sit down with and why?
Oh gosh. One of the people I think would be (American novelist and playwright) James Baldwin. The way he thought even for the 60s and 70s was way before his time. He asked: How do you expect me to change the system that wasn’t built for me, and it was not built in support of me?
Of course Nelson Mandela. The way that he maintained focus through Apartheid, being in prison, still being able to overcome and eventually being able to lead a nation.
The last one? It’s funny that I’m telling you this because, I could just call, but Colin Kaepernick. I just want to know what he’s thinking, and how he’s feeling, considering that the way he protested made so many people uncomfortable and now to see this. And now, people are starting to understand why he did it. He sacrificed his career.
Jenny Kane covers arts and culture in Northern Nevada.
