Grantee Partner Spotlight: Not Me We with Dixon Romeo, Executive Director
Not Me We, founded in 2020, is a grassroots community group building power for Black, poor, and working-class people in South Shore and adjacent neighborhoods. We believe Black people should have self-determination to decide what happens in our own lives and communities, so we work to build grassroots infrastructure that allows for collective and individual reclamation of resources and power in our community. We do housing justice and education justice organizing and monthly mutual aid. Dixon Romeo serves as the executive director.
Kelly: Dixon, Happy New Year — if I can still say that — and Happy Black History Month! In celebration of the latter, we wanted to spotlight new grantee partners like Not Me We that are Black-founded and/or led. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. What does Black History Month mean to you personally and what, if any, significance does it have for the Not Me We team?
Dixon: Kelly, what up! Black History Month to me is a really cool thing… an opportunity to highlight impactful people, moments, and ideas from the Black diaspora. That's special. I think for me I always think about the little wall posters/cards we used to get in school/church with Black figures from Frederick Douglass to Mae Jemison. I was a big reader when I was a young person, so I enjoyed and learned a lot about history through these figures and their lives. I think for Not Me We, the overwhelming majority of folks in the group are Black, and the rest are people of color, so there is a similar appreciation for the month. We bounced around the idea of doing a teach-series during Black History Month this year, but with our South Shore CBA referendum and Catalyst Tenants Union organizing taking up a lot of capacity, we weren't able to pull it off, but plan to next year!
Kelly: The teach-series is a great idea for next year. Clearly you all have a lot on your plate, and there are only so many hours in a day. Would you share with us what inspired you to become a community organizer, and what inspired the creation of Not Me We?
Dixon: I can't point to one moment or one thing, in particular. For me it’s a constant process of being radicalized by things myself and others experience. The center of it boils down to justice and fairness. I have a general ‘what's right is right’ mentality. And this shit, the world we live in now, ain't right. As a young person, I struggled because my parents struggled. That's systemic. My friends had similar struggles, and my neighborhood did as well. This extended through high school, college, and my young adult life. After working in social service, civic, and political institutions, it was clear to me that if the process was systemic, then the solution needed to be systemic. The difference between organizing and social services or self-help or other areas of social change is that it's seeking to address the systemic nature of these issues we face — not work within them (shoutout to whoever let me borrow that Midwest Academy manual that I never returned. I will return it, I promise…. as soon as I recall who you are). So that's why I am a community organizer.
The origin of Not Me We is honestly a really organic, necessary, and messy process that started in September 2020 when a group of folks in Hasan Park had concerns around housing, education, and mutual aid work in South Shore and wanted to be serious about doing something about it. I think there was a collective understanding that there needed to be an organizing approach to this work and a collective understanding that we all were not as skilled or knew as much as we needed. So there was also a commitment to learn and grow through the work with each other. No other group or special individual was coming to save us and fix these issues. Folks either didn't work in the area or were at capacity (remember this was six months into the Covid lockdowns), or did not have a grassroots organizing approach that wasn’t anti-Black. So we talked to folks at other groups whose work we admired on the South Side, like Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Southsiders Together Organizing For Power (STOP), and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center (LBHC).
Most importantly we spent months grounding ourselves in a theory of change around organizing and building power, which really helped us have clarity around how we approached this work. Then from there we got to work, and here we are.
Kelly: I love this. Thanks, Dixon. I enjoy listening to people share what sparked their curiosity or passion for the work they do. What are the different areas of Not Me We’s work, and how do you work in communities to build collective power and create change?
Dixon: Not Me We currently works on housing and education organizing, as well as mutual aid. We are also in coalitions, one with STOP in our Cops Out of Hyde Park Campaign — fighting to remove all police officers from Hyde Park High School — and the other coalition is the Obama CBA Coalition, where we lead the fight for a South Shore CBA housing ordinance to prevent further displacement that will be exacerbated by the Obama Center. Change won't happen in schools without young people, parents, and teachers. And change in housing shouldn’t happen without tenants. Folks need to be fed in order to focus. Working with these understandings, we were able to organize with tenants, parents, young people, and teachers. Community organizing community.
Kelly: Election season is upon us, and candidates are making their rounds to neighborhoods and community groups across the city. Not Me We was the lead organizer for the 5th Ward Aldermanic Candidate Forum in January at the South Shore United Methodist Church. I attended this forum and was struck by the high energy and the incredible turnout. Congratulations! What are urgent policies and priorities that community members are raising this election season?
Dixon: I am glad you were able to make it. I think the high energy and turnout of over 250 people was a testament to the leaders in Not Me We, as well as the CBA Coalition taking ownership of the event and the moment. Folks had high energy because they knew this was their neighborhood and that the issues they work on daily are important. Our folks felt empowered to speak up and say when they thought candidates were ducking a question or just giving bad answers. That's discourse, and I loved it. I think people give a lot of deference to elected officials and others wielding institutional power. It was nice that folks felt like they could flex their collective people power in those moments.
At the forum, we spent the first half talking about housing and CBA issues. The second half covered other issues that members of the group and audience submitted prior. It was clear that for folks inside and outside the group, housing is a top issue. We know South Shore is a community at a crossroads. We can be the site of what equitable development looks like or another cautionary tale of what happens when folks who are starved for resources get pushed out in the pursuit of them. We know that won’t be the case because we are going to win this fight, but all other issues we care about from mental health to public safety to education and to food sovereignty are centered on folks having some place to live to access these things.
So of course, we know that a comprehensive ordinance around housing in South Shore is key. We have presented demands to those that can address the issues that you can find here. We also heard from folks pretty clearly around not supporting cops in schools, wanting mental health clinics open, treatment not trauma, and also Bringing Chicago Home, which is centered around obtaining a dedicated revenue source to address homelessness in the city.
Kelly: You’re right that communities realizing they have collective power, and then building and tapping into that power is what it’s all about. Are there additional campaigns and/or initiatives, as well as aspirations and priorities for this year that you’d like to share?
Dixon: Our current tenant organizing campaign is the Catalyst Tenants Union. We were on WTTW’s Black Voices segment talking about what is going on in Catalyst-owned buildings in South Shore. Essentially the owner Catalyst Realty is actively, through neglect and other means, attempting to displace tenants in order to profit. Tenants went without heat for two months and then came home to their buildings being boarded up by the City. It turned out the boiler was broken, which made the space uninhabitable. Catalyst paid for hotels for a few days and gave tenants no next steps. Folks were hours away from being homeless. Through organizing work and putting pressure on the landlord and the City, tenants got their stays at hotels extended until Catalyst was forced to put them in new units or their old units. This happened because tenants came together and formed a tenants union and stood with each other until everyone got placed. The tenants have existing demands around larger things across Catalyst buildings and in South Shore that we are continuing to organize around. This ongoing campaign speaks to our neighborhood-wide campaign for a South Shore CBA. We know that with the Obama Center coming, investors like Catalyst will buy buildings and neglect them with the intention of getting tenants out in order to sell or court new tenants to make a profit. It is impossible to have a stable, thriving community without stable housing. But the housing situation in South Shore is growing increasingly unstable. Our CBA demands, if enacted, would increase affordability, help prevent displacement, and stabilize our neighborhood — not just for tenants, who are the most affected — but for condo and homeowners as well.
Right now, Not Me We’s goals and priorities are around developing leaders in the organization through tenant organizing, parent and youth organizing, and the CBA Campaign. We have goals this year about raising enough funds to hire more staff and expand our issue areas beyond housing, education, and mutual aid to environmental and public safety work.
Kelly: How can people learn more about Not Me We and support your work?
Dixon: If people want to learn more about Not Me We and support our work, they can check us out on Instagram @notmewe_, email us at notmewechicago@protonmail.com, or give us a call 312-880-7265.
Kelly: Thanks so much for speaking with us, Dixon. Much respect to you and the Not Me We team for the housing organizing and economic justice work you’re doing in South Shore and the city. We’re proud to partner with you. I look forward to seeing you in the community soon!