June 25, 2022
I was honored to be invited by the Hop Brook community to speak at their second annual Juneteenth celebration on behalf of BRIDGE’s Towards Racial Justice and Equity in the Berkshires campaign (est. 2009) and to curate an event amplifying the voices of local Black leaders working for equity and justice. I was so glad that Shirley Edgerton (Rites of Passage and Empowerment), Dennis Powell (NAACP Berkshires), AJ Enchill (Berkshire Black Economic Council), and Dr. Leticia Hayes, JD (Williams College). Please read my opening remarks below.
Thank you Tyringham for Racial Justice and Hop Brook for inviting me and my colleagues here to this important discussion today on protecting the right to vote in honor of Juneteenth. The recent attacks on voting rights is essential to acknowledge and to protect, so thank you for centering your action and our conversation today. This and many other civil rights have been under attack for some time. It is so important to have conversations like these in our Berkshire community.
As a BRIDGE representative, I am honored to serve both as the moderator and facilitator this afternoon as well as share the BRIDGE perspective. I have invited a panel of community leaders, my colleagues, whom you will hear from shortly and also we are actively inviting you all to engage in this dialogue this afternoon.
I have to take a moment and say, yesterday was sobering. The almost unprecedented reversal of Roe v. Wade. An article from The Guardian just hours after the Supreme Court decision states:
Twenty-six states are expected to do so immediately, or as soon as practicable. This will make abortion illegal across most of the south and midwest.
In these states, women and other people who can become pregnant will need to either travel hundreds of miles to reach an abortion provider or self-manage abortions at home through medication or other means.
However, anti-abortion laws are not national. The US will have a patchwork of laws, including restrictions and protections, because some Democratic-led states such as California and New York expanded reproductive rights in the run-up to the decision.
Even so, new abortion bans will make the US one of just four nations to roll back abortion rights since 1994, and by far the wealthiest and most influential nation to do so. The other three nations to curtail abortion rights are Poland, El Salvador and Nicaragua, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. More than half (58%) of all US women of reproductive age – or 40 million people – live in states hostile to abortion.
While our country is making decisions like celebrating Juneteenth as a corporate holiday, it is also distinguishing itself more and more as a country full of hypocrisy and fallacy. Freedom and justice for all has not been and continues to not be the values by which this country runs. It is our job to confront the inherent, planful misrepresentation, miseducation, and continued repressive and oppressive institution in all of the overt and covert ways it maintains white supremacy over Black liberation.
I want you to see this anti-abortion law passing as not only a reproductive issue, but also as a Black Liberation issue as much as any reparations policy, criminal justice, and police reform policy, the social equity in cannabis policy, supplier diversity policy, immigrant reform policy, etc. The reason it is so important is because seeing these issues separately serves heteropatriarchal, white supremacist structures. Meaning the laws and practices of our country were built and continue to be built to preserve and continue entitlements for a small and shrinking group with power, just by keeping us separate. Be mindful that this political move of reversing Roe v. Wade is exerting power that impacts us all, as it keeps us separate and divided on issues of equity and liberation.
Right now we are in the middle of a reckoning where we must be very careful because we have been here in history before with some seemingly progressive movements and some terribly harmful policymaking in the background running concurrently–from the beginning and eventual demise of Black banks and another example being the start of the mortgage system and redlining at the launch of the Four Freedoms Propaganda movement. The investments in our Berkshire Black Community have seen a lift since 2020 for sure, but if you haven't read The Color of Money, please read it (!) so we can all make sure that we don't repeat the cycles of history that always end up with a reset to white dominance in health and financial security and stability.
So easily we can repeat the oppressive behaviors of our predecessors giving and taking back; stealing and hoarding resources; obliterating/gentrifying neighborhoods; criminalizing those living in poverty, women, and Black people; pitting marginalized groups working to build and heal together against one another; putting up museums, statues and plaques as tokenistic symbols while disregarding the humans (and humanity) of those of us living the same oppression and trauma of anti-Black racism today right in our midst; and writing voices, people and actions out of history that make us uncomfortable or our history inconvenient. I implore us all to remain eyes wide open. Take the wins and hold each other accountable to what comes next and most importantly !prepare!. In preparation of this event, we posted (and shared with our panelists) an article, Catch -22 for Black Voters, that I invite you all to read on the predicament of the Black Voter. Again, let's not repeat history!
In this case of abortion, California and New York got to work when they could see what was coming down the pike policy-wise. A part of protecting our vote is getting policies in place to protect those whose interests have not been protected historically. Protecting our vote during this campaign and upcoming election is holding incumbents, uncontested, and new candidates accountable to repairing harm and building new structures (i.e. removing harmful policy, creating repair, and reconciling policies, and being held accountable to each move that perpetuates harm even (especially!) when it is you in the driver’s seat!) No one can deny the racism that exists so how will our electeds be held accountable to holding themselves and their colleagues accountable to outcomes and impact?
My exemplar after the Buffalo incident was Rachel Rollins, our first Black female US Attorney in Massachusetts. That evening after the Buffalo massacre, she immediately wrote a personal note to her staff about her own dismay and devastation and made a commitment to change systems. Then she got on the horn with her colleagues, regional US Attorneys, and her sphere of influence including police chiefs in New England. They had a week of calls, day after day with Black leaders acknowledging the shock, pain, and harm and committing to us over and over again to do their duty, protect our rights and our people. Rollins didn't miss a beat in being the leading voice. She takes her job seriously when it comes to protecting our civil rights. Additionally, Springfield, Mass. is the first city to have a pattern or practice finding for use of force with now an accountability decree binding Springfield Police department and the City to be answerable to outcomes, transparency, and reform. Rollins’ leadership is unique in this country. I have said it before, but watch her! A Black woman in leadership, taking all of the risks and taking the lead with her counterparts in the justice system, holding up accountability measures for the nation to follow!
As I have been preparing for this panel, I shared with my colleagues here with me today (of the anti-racism collective as we call ourselves), the questions I have for each of us.
What is the call for Black voices (our votes) that will lead us down the path to liberation
Whose voices are we calling and to answer or demand what?
Who are we voting for? What does real change look like?
Yes, indeed shift the resources, but for sustainable change in power and access to resources and for immediate positive impact on the Black community (and other marginalized identities because none of us are just one identity) and Black lives around us right now.
Where do Black voices need to be amplified, and where do our votes and actions need to be focused for our liberation, joy, and access to thriving as we define in our communities, businesses, and families?
One recommendation I have in using our vote wisely is to diversify our political representation in age, gender, race and ethnicity because that will only make us stronger. That is what is most needed. And again, once elected as a community we must keep our accountability conversations active in our spheres of influence. Voting and policymaking as we saw yesterday is a matter of life and death in the reversal of Roe v. Wade or days earlier in the right to carry.
Today, we will talk about what impact protecting the vote can have in pay equity, farming, land access, education, and economic development, public health, and safety… and wherever else the spirit brings us in the honor of Juneteenth, (i.e. Jubilee Day) working towards Black liberation and joy that brought us here today.Thank you and welcome to my colleagues: Shirley Edgerton, Dennis Powell, AJ Enchill and Dr. Leticia Hayes, JD.