Abstract
This manuscript is an interview of a local activist in NJ, Ms. Retha Onitiri. We asked her a series of questions that caused her to reflect on her life and journey as an activist. She is a notable activist that has forged immense change in the NJ Juvenile Justice System. She is also an experienced community organizer and mobilizer. She has organized around issues pertaining to the criminal legal system, economic inequality, accessibility, and other social issues. In this paper, Retha unpacks her life story and how that journey has influenced her work today. Her experiences as an activist is revealed, and she closes the interview by foregrounding the need for elders to embrace and prepare the next generation of activists.
Jason Williams’ reflexive statement
I am a critical criminologist, and my work explores matters of racialized and gendered social control. As a qualitative methodologist, my work is deeply grounded in the lived experiences of marginalized people, especially those in the Black diaspora. This disposition had me front and center during the Ferguson resistance, participating in demonstrations and speaking to Black residents about their experiences and perceptions of their police department.
My community work consists of the same, particularly as I sit on community-facing committees within the NJ State Judiciary, serve on community organization boards, and my broader work outside the academy. My radical positionality as an academic has much to do with my upbringing in a housing project under the guardianship of my grandmother. Navigating and surviving the belly of the beast has turned me into a ferocious warrior for justice, and this context and standpoint govern my work in and outside of academia.
As an activist scholar and editorial team member for this journal, I took leadership over a new initiative that our editor, hephzibah, pitched to the team. This project serves to seek out and highlight activists worldwide. I am a critical criminologist, and my work explores matters of racialized and gendered social control. As a qualitative methodologist, my work is deeply grounded in the lived experiences of marginalized people, especially those in the Black diaspora. This disposition had me front and center during the Ferguson resistance, participating in demonstrations and speaking to Black residents about their experiences and perceptions of their police department.
My community work consists of the same, particularly as I sit on community-facing committees within the NJ State Judiciary, serve on community organization boards, and my broader work outside the academy. My radical positionality as an academic has much to do with my upbringing in a housing project under the guardianship of my grandmother. Navigating and surviving the belly of the beast has turned me into a ferocious warrior for justice, and this context and standpoint govern my work in and outside of academia.
For this first entry, we interviewed Retha Onitiri. She is an activist and social policy and strategic management expert based in NJ and has worked with many community-based organizations to enact policy change. Her focus areas are largely aimed at addressing structural racism and economic injustice. Her recent work addresses inequalities children of color face navigating state institutions in NJ. She recently headed a campaign with the NJ Institute for Social Justice that brought about the passage of the Restorative and Transformative Justice for Youths and Communities pilot program. This bill put aside 8.4 million dollars for the Juvenile Justice Commission to give out to qualified community-based organizations that deal with youth and restorative justice. The effort is largely aimed at ensuring that returning youth are reintegrated into their communities efficiently upon release from prison. It was crafted with the understanding that the community best knows how to restore its residents and remedy harm. The hope is that this bill will go a long way toward addressing racial justice, given that NJ disproportionately incarcerates youth of color (NJ Institute for Social Justice 2022). The interview below details Retha’s thoughts, experiences, and suggestions for the next generation of activists.
Please read her biography, which provides a context for her interview:
Retha Onitiri is the principal consultant at Driven to Empower Strategies, an organizational development consultancy for nonprofit and community-based organizations serving under-resourced Black and Brown neighborhoods in New Jersey. She provides support in a variety of areas, including strategic planning, new program development, and project management and implementation. Retha utilizes change management methodologies, process improvement, and relational approaches to exceed organizational targets and uplift communities.
Presently, Retha serves as the Restorative Justice Fellow at Salvation and Social Justice (SandSJ), a non-partisan Black faith-rooted organization and a racial justice leader in New Jersey. SandSJ’s advocacy has led to the statewide adoption of racial impact analysis for sentencing, voting rights restoration for people on probation and parole, the independent prosecutor law, and restricting solitary confinement. At SandSJ, Retha provides strategic planning support, new program development, and project management and implementation support. In 2021, she spearheaded an effort for SandSJ, which resulted in the organization receiving a grant from New Jersey’s Office of Attorney General to create a community-based restorative violence intervention program and establish a Restorative Justice Hub in Trenton.
Prior to establishing DTE Strategies, Retha served as the Director of Community Engagement at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ) for six years. At the Institute, Retha was responsible for building a coalition for change on issues pertaining to criminal justice, economic mobility, democracy, and justice. She led efforts to establish local advocacy coalitions in major cities across New Jersey, hosted community events, and identified issues and community-based solutions. Moreover, she successfully led a statewide community-engagement initiative to create and introduce the Restorative and Transformative Justice for Youths and Communities Pilot Program bill (S2924), signed into law on August 11, 2021. The legislation appropriates $8.4 million to create a two-year pilot program in four cities in New Jersey (Camden, Trenton, Newark, and Paterson), creating Restorative Justice Hubs for young people of color whose lives have been devastated by our broken youth justice system.
On a voluntary basis, Commissioner Retha Onitiri sits on the Millstone Township Historic Preservation Commission, co-chairs the Grants Committee, and was instrumental in securing a New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund in the amount of
$50,000 for fiscal years 2022-2023. Retha is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has a Master of Science degree in Organizational Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Finally, Retha is an avid reader, loves historical nonfiction books, and enjoys all forms of the arts.
We began the interview with Retha unpacking her work: Retha: Jason, thank you so much for asking me to participate in this project. We have been working together for such a long time, and I have admired your work. You know, I should be interviewing you, but I'm very honored that you selected me to be here today. Thinking deeply about my work, I would say I do community activism; engaging impacted communities to develop and advance community-led solutions and advocating for social justice. Retha: My advocacy work focuses on youth justice, criminal justice, restorative justice, and peacekeeping (violence prevention/intervention). I am committed to engaging people most impacted by these issues in solution development and implementation. Our primary objective is to seek tangible results and radical transformation through collective action. Jason: I love your emphasis on the community and the streets. That's very important because these are the most affected individuals. And part of your activism is at least ensuring that they don't have to depend on you, but that they can do it themselves. Retha: Absolutely. Affected individuals must be at the table driving solution development, identifying resources and talent, and devising implementation/sustainability strategies that they can do themselves. I typically help in community engagement and organizing, project management, and strategic planning. Jason: What would you describe as your biggest activist accomplishment? Retha: I was very fortunate to work with Salvation and Social Justice
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on a campaign to free thousands of incarcerated people from New Jersey’s prisons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Retha: It was the most important decarceration event in NJ’s history. During the height of the pandemic, NJ led the nation in prison deaths. We advocated for legislation that saved lives. Initially, there were concerns about public safety and incarcerated peopled reoffending. But that simply did not happen. The prison system released thousands of people and there was no major impact on public safety. Most importantly, we helped to significantly reduce the youth prison population, which are now 80% empty. Jason: Yes, that was a huge accomplishment, Retha: The only thing we did not accomplish was to move resources and funding back to underserved communities. Sending folks home requires shifting funding away from prisons to community-based programs and services. This leads me to my second major accomplishment; passing significant Restorative Justice legislation in New Jersey. Retha: On August 11, 2021, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver signed into law the “Restorative and Transformative Justice for Youths and Communities
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” a $8.4 million pilot program, which will operate in Camden, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton. Seventeen percent of the youth incarceration budget was moved away from incarceration into youth programming. Now, the important work is to ensure that implementation is done properly. We need to track whether the funding is going where we envisioned it to go when we started on this journey. Jason: Absolutely. What might you consider to be the biggest social justice issue today? Retha: I believe poverty is the biggest social justice issue because it is at the root of all the issues we see in underserved communities. Specifically, in under-resourced Black communities, poverty, and the wealth gap are the root causes of many social justice issues, such as criminal and youth justice, economic justice, etc. And, of course, voting is important. Jason: I agree. Poverty and economic depravity, alongside racism, help to lay the foundation of so much we have seen and see today. Retha: Yes. Jason: Now, who, or what has inspired you to pursue activism? Retha: My mother is a phenomenal person. She raised five children. And with a high school diploma, she helped so many people and moved into many leadership positions. She started out working in a factory and became the first Black woman to become a union officer in the early 1970s. She served on a School Board and opened a small business, a card shop. Also, part of it is driven by my own goal to make this place a little bit better. Jason: That's awesome. Retha: Yes. Jason: Wow. That background story on your mom and how that has influenced you is powerful. Retha: Yes! Jason: That's powerful. Given what you've witnessed, you know, being young, watching your mom, and then, of course, everything that you've done, in New Jersey and elsewhere, why is it important for citizens to be engaged? Retha: It is our responsibility, as citizens, to be engaged and build healthy and safe communities for all of us. We are responsible for the government. We are responsible for the people elected to office. We are responsible for the laws that are passed to govern us. Jason: Yes! Retha: We absolutely need to be educated and active citizens. Jason: Building on this notion of active citizenship, what are your thoughts about youth engagement? Retha: Youth engagement is critical. Youth are largely impacted by every social justice issue we discussed. Young people should be at every table as we develop and implement programming that impacts them. I'm not talking about window dressing. They should be engaged at the very beginning. To fully understand what's happening in the community, you must include young voices. We will not be in leadership positions forever. Every advocacy organization should do succession planning. Retha: Social Justice activism is a marathon, not a sprint. Seasoned leaders must recognize that we will solve all problems during our lifetime. In addition, it's not only about young people coming to our tables. Young people should create their own tables. They have power and should advance and make their own agenda. They may have better ideas than we do. Jason: Do you think today's politics are accommodating to social justice advocates? Retha: I'm not sure politics has ever been accommodating to social justice advocates. History shows us that activism will always be required. You must organize, organize, organize, no matter who's in office. I don't care who's in power. We must organize and figure out how to influence politics We must work and fight no matter who's in office. Jason: That's right! When we look out at the landscape today, with the reversal of Roe, and perhaps the reversal of marriage equality, there is a constant need to be on call for action. Retha: I'm glad you mentioned Roe. Forces are always working to roll back our accomplishments. The GOP implemented a plan 50 years ago to overturn the Roe decision. And sadly, advocates have not been able to maintain critical wins, including voting rights and perhaps Affirmative Action. And we are still fighting school segregation. It is important to build organizational structures that look forward and safeguard accomplishments. Jason: As an activist, surely you find yourself negotiating at times with the state. Do you ever reach blockades during this process, and what keeps you going? How do you persevere? Retha: Baked into moving legislation are blockages and potholes. In advocacy and activism, relationships matter. You must build a broad network of friends to help you move legislation through the political process. Jason: So true. Retha: You have to be skillful at managing relationships so that they are not tattered at the end of the process. This is truly a balancing act, but important to master. You try not to create permanent enemies. As an advocate, we must be strategic and avoid kneejerk actions. We must understand why a politician may choose not to take up your cause. And when they agree to champion an issue, we must do the groundwork to support their efforts to push legislation through. Jason: That’s some important knowledge. Retha: Activism and advocacy are nothing but roadblocks. Utilizing soft and hard skills will enable us to make lemonade out of lemons. And most of all, we celebrate the hard-fought wins and move on to the next fight. Jason: Can it be a tiring journey, right? I mean, what do you do for self-care? Retha: Good question. I love to read biographies and historical books. I like to walk because it relaxes me, and I take time to do deep thinking while I walk. I love watching foreign movies because they have very interesting plots that you don’t typically see in American-made films. Jason: Yeah. I love that. It's like, even in your self-care, you look for ways to grow and learn about different perspectives. Retha: Yes. That's probably not always a good thing. Jason: If it works for you, right? Now, my final question would be, what advice would you give to the next generation of activists? Retha: In advocacy and activism work, we must pace and take care of ourselves. We must be a student of history and learn from the past. A few months ago, I attended a conference, and a young man said, “out with the old and in with the new” regarding older leadership. Some of the older folks were rattled. I believe young people should be allowed to speak their minds; however, they should be open-minded. They should recognize that we all can learn something from people who paved the way for us. Retha: That’s why I love history books because you gain insight from the past and learn ways to avoid pitfalls. Young people bring energy and fresh ideas to an issue but should not disregard older folks that may help them gain new skills and move forward. They can then put your creativity to work on top of the old stuff. Jason: Yeah. Especially because what we're seeing and going through today isn't anything new. Retha: A few years ago, I read Martin Luther King's book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? the last book he wrote in the 1960s. I felt as though he wrote that book today. He outlined the same problems we are fighting today. And he said, whenever there's progress, there's always a backlash, period. Jason: Mm-hmm Retha: Over the last 50 years, we have made incremental progress to the degree that President Obama ended up in the White House. That progress sparked the latest backlash period. You can see how our past can help direct advocacy strategies and solutions today. Jason: Mm-hmm Retha: And, we haven't made much progress. Jason: It’s unfortunate, but we have to keep up at it. And I think your advice, your back story, and how you foreground young folks, are the way to the future. Retha: Listening to young people and understanding that their journey is different from our generation is important. We ran around our neighborhoods freely as long as we were home when the sunset. But it is very hard to allow our kids to run freely today. Parents and young people must deal with the constant threat of gun violence. I do not look lightly at what it takes for young people to stay safe and healthy today. Jason: Wow. Great points. Retha: It's very difficult. I’m not one to say our young people are soft because their life experiences are different. Adults must do a better job addressing social justice issues, and working to make our environment safer and trauma-free. Jason: Thank you for this wonderful interview and all that you do. We at Humanity & Society are very grateful for you taking the time to speak with us, and we know this interview will be inspirational for those who read this transcript.
To reach Retha, email her at:
