Punished for Dissenting: Fort Worth’s Economic Retaliation Against Black Advocates Must End. By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr.

 

Punished for Dissenting: Fort Worth’s Economic Retaliation Against Black Advocates Must End. By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr.

In Fort Worth, Texas, standing up for justice can cost you your livelihood. I know this not as speculation, but as lived experience. For decades, I have worked in the trenches of policy reform, ministry, and grassroots community development, demanding better education, healthcare, and housing for Black residents. I have challenged excessive use of force by police, called out food deserts, exposed economic inequalities, and spoken truth to power. My reward? Economic retaliation, social exclusion, and systemic suppression.

It is a quiet war—waged not with bullets or batons, but with the calculated denial of funding, strategic silencing, and the blackballing of partnerships that might otherwise empower and uplift our most underserved communities. The injustice is not just unethical. It is immoral. It is illegal. And yet, it is allowed to persist in broad daylight.

We challenged the City of Fort Worth on its shameful failure to address the fact that Black men in the 76104 ZIP code—the neighborhood I grew up in and now pastor—have the lowest life expectancy in the entire state of Texas. We didn’t come with complaints; we came with solutions. We presented a plan to create healthier food systems, economic opportunities, and culturally competent healthcare programs through initiatives like Farm Fort Worth, the Inner City Coffee Exchange, and the MLK Hunger Bowl.

But instead of receiving support, we were met with hostility and resentment from city leaders. Instead of collaboration, we were given roadblocks. Instead of investment, we were economically punished.

Fort Worth markets itself as a city of progress, opportunity, and innovation. But for Black advocates who dare to dissent, it is often a plantation of punishment, a place where speaking out can cost you everything. I have seen institutions turn their backs on meaningful collaborations simply because I have held public officials accountable. They have chosen political comfort over community progress.

Let me be clear: these aren’t programs created in a vacuum. They are born out of need—urgent, generational need. Our neighborhoods face a manufactured scarcity of healthy food, living-wage jobs, and accessible healthcare. Our children attend underfunded schools, while their futures are criminalized before they are even fully formed. What we demand is not charity, but justice. And justice should never be punished.

What does it say about our city when telling the truth is seen as a threat? What does it say about our leaders when their instinct is to protect power rather than correct policy?

Economic retaliation is the new Jim Crow. It is a weapon wielded in silence, cloaked in bureaucracy, and justified with whispers. It tells the next generation of Black leaders that resistance has a price—that their dreams and dignity are negotiable. But I reject that message. I refuse to be silent or silenced.

The systemic pattern of marginalizing Black voices in Fort Worth must be exposed and addressed. We need federal oversight, state intervention, and local accountability. We need journalists to ask harder questions. We need foundations to support justice, not just safe bets. And we need citizens—of all backgrounds—to stand with those who have been standing for them.

If Fort Worth is to be a city of the future, it must reconcile with its present and repair the damages of its past. That means listening to those who dissent. That means funding ideas born in Black neighborhoods, not just studying them. That means understanding that dissent is not a disruption—it is democracy in action.

Freedom should not have to beg for funding.

And truth should not have to fight for a seat at the table.

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About the Author

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. is a civil rights leader, community pastor, and founder of initiatives like the Inner City Coffee Exchange and the MLK Hunger Bowl. He serves as president of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas and has worked for over four decades to address racial and economic injustice in Fort Worth.

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