Protests following the murder of George Floyd have focused national attention on the systemic racism and police brutality in the United States that Black activists and scholars have been discussing for decades. One of the most prominent voices in these discussions is educator, activist and Washington University class of 2006 alumna Brittany Packnett Cunningham.

In 2015, Packnett Cunningham co-founded Campaign Zero, a “comprehensive platform of research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America.” Nine days after Floyd’s murder, the organization released the #8cantwait initiative, which offered eight goals for police reform, such as banning chokeholds and strangleholds.

The campaign received criticism from activists across the country who questioned its data and argued that it distracted from a larger goal of reimagining public safety through defunding the police and investing in marginalized communities.

“The initiative was rushed, and despite calls from myself and Brittany Packnett Cunningham to slow things down, it went out anyway,” co-founder Samuel Sinyangwe wrote in a statement released on Twitter on June 9.

The organization has since issued an apology, but it was enough for Packnett Cunningham to walk away. Although she declined to comment on it to Student Life, she released a statement on June 9 announcing her departure from Campaign Zero.

“I have listened to the frustrations regarding the rollout generally and the questions raised about the data analysis specifically,” Packnett Cunningham wrote. “My experience is not in data science and these concerns were new to me — but given what I have now become aware of, I chose to resign and to focus on other important work, for and with our most marginalized communities.”

Defunding the police

Packnett Cunningham has been vocal in support of defunding the police on social media and in interviews by outlets such as MSNBC, where she is a contributor. In 2014, Packnett Cunningham served on the Ferguson Commission, a group appointed by then Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to study the “social and economic conditions that impede progress, equality and safety in the St. Louis region” as well as former President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

“Public safety is actually not guaranteed by the size, power and force of the institution of policing,” Packnett Cunningham told Student Life. “There is so much data that shows us that it is the prevention of crime through the investment in communities that need it most actually keeps people safe and not the punishment of suspected crime after the fact by an institution that is rooted in very dangerous philosophies and dangerous practices that go beyond your lifetime or mine.”

Rather than only pushing for police reform, activists including Packnett Cunningham argue in favor of reinvesting funds previously meant for law enforcement into programs that have been proven to improve public safety, such as social services, education and housing. Acknowledging that the idea of defunding the police seems drastic and frightening to many, Packnett Cunningham stressed that “because the world evolves, movements evolve.”

“I think that people picture Gotham without Batman there to protect it,” she said. “They picture utter lawlessness, they picture chaos in the streets, they picture a very dark and gloomy time. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about bringing communities together to engage in the thoughtful and intentional process of redesigning what public safety looks like for that specific community.”

Reassessing policing at WU

Wash. U. students are actively involved in the push to defund police departments, both across the nation and right on the Danforth Campus. In response to Chancellor Andrew Martin’s May 31 email to the University community, titled “On racial equity and justice,” a coalition of Black Wash. U. students created a petition demanding that the University “reevaluate WUPD (Washington University Police Department)” and “acknowledge that law enforcement institutions are inherently anti-Black and violent to our communities.”

The petition, which has gained more than 4,300 signatures, calls for the University administration “to reassess relationships between students and officers, the demilitarization of WUPD as an armed force, and the procedural aspects of how officers escalate situations.”

Additionally, as part of their platform for their “Juneteenth March for Black Lives” on Friday, June 19, the Washington University Undergraduate and Graduate Workers Union (WUGWU) and Black Law Students Association (BLSA) urged the University to “disarm, defund, and disband WUPD” in order to reallocate funds to support mental health services.

Packnett Cunningham made use of mental health counseling offered by the University during her undergraduate career, but noted that wait times to see a counselor often ran long, a criticism still echoed by students today.

“What if we took funds from [WUPD] and put them into those mental health services so that the support that students needed across campus was much more readily accessible, right? These are precisely the ideas that we’re talking about,” Packnett Cunningham said. “And we have to always remember that putting the people first is not radical, it is simply the right thing to do.”

Racism on campus

In addition to calling for changes to campus policing, Black college and high school students across the country are using social media to highlight the racist treatment they’ve received by peers, faculty and administrators. One example is the Instagram account @BlackatWashU. Despite being created earlier this month, the page now has over 3,000 followers.

Packnett Cunningham, a John B. Ervin Scholar and African and African-American Studies major at Wash. U., recalled experiencing racism during her time on campus, often carrying the burden of being expected to represent all Black people in discussions.

“I still remember sitting in class and actually having professors engage all of us in a debate around the iconography of the Confederate flag, as if it is not a symbol of enslavement in this country. There are not two sides to that conversation,” she said. “And being one of two Black faces in that class, I had to deal with not only the confrontation of that moment, which made me deeply uncomfortable, but I also had to deal with the fact that other students were looking to me to represent an entire race while they were able to be seen as individuals for their perspective.”

Formerly serving as the executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis, Packnett Cunningham noted that Wash. U. is not the only college “subject to all of the system’s cultural problems and systemic oppression.” Still, she stressed Wash. U.’s unique position in being in St. Louis, which is home to a great deal of Black history and activism.

Getting educated and active

Packnett Cunningham recommended Wash. U. students support groups such as grassroots racial justice organization Action St. Louis, which runs the Close the Workhouse campaign, and legal advocacy organization Arch City Defenders. She also noted the historical resources “uniquely at the disposal of Washington University students,” such as a 35,000 item film collection by Wash. U. alum and esteemed civil rights era documentarian Henry Hampton.

While serving on the Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Packnett Cunningham and fellow members traveled to cities across the county to listen to community members in order to gather testimonies for the Task Force’s report and recommendations. She expressed the importance of engaging with elected officials at all levels of government in order to fight for change.

“The idea that as citizens we are not taking our own office seriously is a challenge to all of us, to make sure that we are, wherever we find ourselves, both in our hometown or and in the city that you might be going to college in, that you are taking seriously the responsibility you have to lift your voices to the people who are paid to listen to you,” Packnett Cunningham said.

In a video posted to her Instagram on June 2 that has since gained over 7.5 million views, Packnett Cunningham warned people against #BlackoutTuesday, a day when users posted black squares to their accounts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. She argued the hashtag led to the suppression of Black voices and important information. Packnett Cunningham explained to Student Life the questions non-Black allies should ask themselves when using social media to speak on issues.

“One, ‘Does this require any sacrifice of me?’ So putting up a black square probably doesn’t require a lot of sacrifice of you,” she said. “Deciding for an entire week or an entire month that you are only going to post content from people from marginalized communities, that is something very different… The other question is, ‘How does it activate people to be helpful?’… Ultimately, what you do should be leading people to take different actions, expand their mindset and engage in different behavior that changes the world for the better.”