As City Council President Mike Russell Pledges to Listen and Formulate Solutions
Mike Russell easily admits he is not a politician.
He is a retired military officer with a background in law enforcement who moved to Atlanta, in large part, due to its civil rights history.
But last summer, after people took to the streets to march and riot in cities across the country, Russell found himself increasingly upset as he watched what has been described as an uprising in downtown Atlanta.
“It was really upsetting,” he told the Reckoning. “So much so that I started yelling at the television. My husband kept saying to me, ‘You do know they cannot hear you. If you are really this upset, get involved.’”
He did but started out slow.
“As I started expressing my ideas and frustrations on social media, people took notice and began suggesting that I run for office,” he said.
But Russell wasn’t trying to be the one responsible for solving the issues he felt were easy and natural fixes. He wanted someone else to do it. As far as he was concerned, and based on his background, there were obvious solutions. However, he couldn't understand why the issues weren’t being addressed.
“I lived the first half of my life in the closet, mostly because I felt I had to. Today, however, I present myself as I actually live. This is who I am. I do not wear it on my sleeve, yet I am also not trying to hide it.”
Russell is seeking to replace Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, who is one of more than a dozen qualified candidates in this year’s mayoral race.
Joining Russell is the former CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center and the National Center for Civil & Human Rights Doug Shipman, Atlanta City Councilmember Natalyn Archibong, Atlanta School Board member Courtney English, as well as a seemingly unknown by the name of Samuel Manuel.
If elected, he would be the second open member of the LGBTQ+ community to serve as council president and the first Black.
However, he does not want any of that to define him as a person or a candidate.
“I lived the first half of my life in the closet, mostly because I felt I had to. Today, however, I present myself as I actually live. This is who I am. I do not wear it on my sleeve, yet I am also not trying to hide it,” he said. “I have always taught my kids to not allow anyone to put them in a box or define them based on what they think they see or believe about them. When people do that, they are not trying to help you. When people do that, they are trying to control you.”
Common-Sense Conservative
Since he declared his candidacy in June, Russell said many have labeled him as a Republican candidate. But that characterization is not actually accurate. He sees himself as more of a common-sense conservative.
“Party labels are ineffective. When people hear them, they stop listening,” he said. “When it comes to personal responsibility, I am more of a conservative. When it comes to social issues, I am more of a liberal. I have voted in both parties. I am a supporter of the police and believe we must look at things from a human perspective no matter what the issue is. I speak from experience. I know what works and have seen what works.”
As it pertains to the police, Russell said he understands the topic is a touchy subject. Over the summer, Russell placed an open records request of the city’s crime data. Previous crime reports show that most crimes committed in the city are committed by young, Black men and that most of the victims of those crimes, somewhere around 90%, are also Black.
That means that for the last five years, almost every single armed robbery in the City of Atlanta is committed by a Black male against someone else Black. The statistic is a concerning one for Russell.
“Party labels are ineffective. When people hear them, they stop listening. When it comes to personal responsibility, I am more of a conservative. When it comes to social issues, I am more of a liberal. I have voted in both parties.”
“Let’s quit name-calling and virtue signaling,” he said.
“Let’s dig down and figure out why. We, as a city and society, need to come together to alter reality.”
Even though he is a supporter of the police, Russell does not believe the solution is exclusively to just put more police on the streets. While he does believe there are consequences to the crimes committed, he is more interested in discussing what those consequences are. He also believes there needs to be more of a focus on prevention.
“Once a person commits a crime, prevention is too late. Prevention must be when they are five and six years old, instead of 15 and 16 years old. We have to reach these kids when they are very young, before they commit a crime, and provide for them alternatives to give them hope before they become desperate.”
He also believes there needs to be some sort of path to restitution, a pathway of sorts, where those that commit crimes are willing to work their way back into society, resulting in preventing the cycle of crime and poverty.
He also suggests cancelling virtue signaling.
Virtue signaling, the attempt of some to portray their actions as moral and virtuous, happens quite often in city politics. Before he got into the city council race, Russell said he would attend council meetings virtually, due to the coronavirus pandemic. He especially paid close attention to the performative aspect of some when it came time to discuss issues, like public safety and defunding the police.
“A lot of people, mostly from Midtown, read from the same script; declaring that ‘we need to stop putting our Black and brown people in cages.’ But their complaints sounded very different from the women who sounded like my mother, grandmother, and aunt.”
These women, according to Russell, talked about how they lived in homes with burglar bars because they didn’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods. They would get emotional, almost to tears sometimes, sharing how when they called for the police to come help them, no one would come.
“For me, those who read from that script never had the experience of living behind burglar bars. They have never taken the time to help those in the community crying for help in real-time. They are only trying to prove they are moral or virtuous, using the right kind of buzz words to show their commitment to their causes.”
Russell isn’t promising to have all the answers. He isn’t promising that all the city’s problems will be solved in three easy steps. Neither is he trying to be all things to everyone.
“But at the end of the day, those that come into contact with me can say they know where I stand on the issues,” he said. “I do not know everything, but I will listen. And I will learn and then I will formulate a solution set. I will listen and hear what you feel needs work and needs to be fixed. And I will go searching for a solution.”
Mashaun D. Simon is an equity and inclusion advocate who centers his preaching, writing, and scholarship on cultural competency, identity, and equity.
He has written for NBC News and the Atlanta Daily World, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Black Enterprise, Bloomberg News, TheGrio.com, Ebony Magazine, BelieveOutLoud.com, and Essence Magazine. He has also created and managed cultural competency and affirmative action programming and training and in 2018, Mashaun organized and facilitated Kennesaw State University’s Faith and Sexuality Symposium on behalf of KSU’s Presidential Commission for LGBT Initiatives. In 2021, Mashaun was selected as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Rising Leaders Fellowship.
He holds a professional writing degree from Georgia Perimeter College, a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Kennesaw State University, and a Master of Divinity from Emory University's Candler School of Theology.