June Content Achievement Award: Josie Danz

When I walked alongside Fargo-Moorhead Black Lives Matter leaders May 30 to protest the senseless and brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, I wasn’t thinking about my business as a freelance writer. 

A week later, just ahead of another planned protest, I posted on Facebook a rather scathing and regrettable remark about a local development company’s decision to “arm” their construction sites with third-party security officers to protect their properties. 

I took some major heat for my post. I listened and learned from those who responded about why the development company was right to guard their property just in case “credible reports” of riot threats were, indeed, correct. 

Although I believed (and still do) that any credible threats of violence that weekend were mostly fomented by social media scare tactics in order to keep people safe at home, it was totally wrong of me to assume this business was thinking only of their bottom line when they announced hiring a temp security outfit just in case. 

I realized my post was fueled by my desire to be a strong ally to the Black Lives Matter movement, but what I said about the company was wrong. I ended up deleting the post and apologized to the company’s director. 

My intentions were good, but my action was bad. I was not writing with reflection; I was writing as a reaction.

And that’s when I started thinking about my business as a freelance writer. 

Would I lose business for sharing my impassioned thoughts about the BLM movement? Was I now a less desirable professional to work with because I made a very human mistake on my personal Facebook feed? 

Moreover, was deleting the post a form of self-censoring to protect my reputation as a female, white business owner in a largely white and conservative business environment? 

I asked around. Some colleagues said it was right for me to delete the post, while others said I should have kept it up — that even the mistakes we make trying to have conversations about white privilege are still important conversations. 

Since then, I stopped posting anything “controversial” to my personal Facebook page because, like many of us white people, we don’t know what the hell we’re talking about when we’re talking about race. 

But then there are people in the community who truly get it, like Josie Danz, whose family owns Zandbroz Variety, a downtown Fargo business and the only place I buy my books.

Josie is a board member on the Fargo Downtown Neighborhood Association, an avid distance runner and incredibly talented writer. A Forum of Fargo-Moorhead columnist, Josie writes often about some of the community’s most contentious topics, most recently the George Floyd protests and ensuing conversations about racism. 

In a June 19 column titled “We Must Maintain Momentum,” she writes, “There’s no easy set of directions or clear-cut path that leads to radical change. The work before us will be riddled with missed steps and wrong turns, but we must maintain momentum. To move toward equality and work to dismantle racism, we have to dive into discomfort, but also make space for self-care and grace.”

Aha! 

Missed steps and wrong turns have always been where the real learning begins, and Josie understands that we all need to forgive ourselves for being temperamental toddlers (me) when faced with tough discussions around systemic racism, especially if we’re white (also me). 

No matter where you fall on the race-issues spectrum, it would be difficult to argue against Josie’s belief that growth requires sitting with discomfort.

Unlike myself, who hastily wrote an offhand comment on my personal Facebook feed and quickly regretted it, Josie’s family also uses their company’s Facebook page to continue to spread a message of compassion and community.

From the Zandbroz Facebook page: “Zandbroz welcomes protesters to Downtown Fargo for today's Juneteenth march. We support their right to assemble. We do not see them as a threat, but rather, a much needed call to action. We are listening. We hope that City of Fargo leadership, as well as the entire FM community, takes this opportunity to engage in compassionate conversation, challenge perspectives, and make space for those who have been under-served or wrongly served so that we can pave the way for much needed change.”

Of course, not everybody agrees with Josie’s opinion, and I’ve heard rumors she gets prank phone calls in which people call her a “Communist bitch.” But agree or not, she’s at least opening herself up to having a conversation, making some mistakes along the way, and creating a community that’s all the better because of it. 

Josie’s not afraid of her reputation as a business leader. In fact, I bet she’s more afraid of not saying anything at all. 

The thought she puts into her columns and social media posts are evidence that Josie doesn’t hastily create content in a moment of passionate rage. Her commentary comes from the heart and the mind. 

So, that’s why Josie gets the June 2020 Content Experience Award: Because this is a woman who gives zero F$%KS if some suit in the c-suite decides not to shop in her store anymore because she stands up for the kind of justice she believes in. The kind of justice millions of us believe in. 

Her carefully crafted messages are a great example of how to carry on the conversation using reflection, not reaction.

Thank you, Josie.