Welcome to the Racial Justice Task Force Newsletter: 

Thank you for attending the event Moving Toward Racial Equity: Round Table and Dialogue. We have created this way of staying in touch with you all. Please unsubscribe if you would like to be taken off the list. And if you would like to respond, please reply to this email. Included here are two documents: 1) The Amherst Indy recap of the event with the link to see the recording 2) A Summary and Reflections from our Task Force members Dave Williams and Ash Hartwell. Thanks again and let’s see where this beginning can take us!

Warmly,

Marcie Sclove, Chair, RJTF

• Kathleen Anderson for N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America)
• Drs. Dee and Amilcar Shabazz for RACIAL EQUITY TASK FORCE
• Monica Cage and Phoenix Ferreira Ford for Amherst Schools POCU (People of Color United)
• Michele Miller and Matthew Andrews for REPARATIONS FOR AMHERST
• Rabbi Ben Weiner and Amy Mittleman for JCA/Racial Justice Initiative (Jewish Community, Amherst)
• Anita Sarro for ION (Interfaith Opportunities Network)

• There is a history of dialogue, events and organizations addressing racial justice and equity in Amherst. There has been a lot of talk, yet institutional and structural racism remains in place in government, housing, health, employment and income, education and policing. What is needed to move beyond words to actual change?

• The long history of systemic racism in Amherst is reflected in the name of the Town – AMHERST – and is evident in patterns and relationships of inequality in housing, education, income, businesses, policing and governance. This history is our NOW, who and what we are today. Our collective action to address and change these patterns and relationships requires a critical knowledge and understanding of the national, state and Amherst Town history. 

• In taking action to address structures and acts of racial injustice, inequality and denigration it is easy for most white people to disengage, to be silent and to back off what needs to change. A distinction should be made between:

1. ALLIES – Those who participate in events, protests, demonstrations when it is convenient.
2. ACCOMPLICES – Those who go so far but not farther, who back off when it becomes difficult and when strongly challenged.
3. CO-CONSPIRATORS - Those willing to continually stand up, sacrifice, work together for change even when inconvenient and challenged. 

• The reality in Amherst is that there are many allies, occasional accomplices, and few co- conspirators. 

• Both JCA and ION noted the importance for largely white organizations and faith communities to engage in internal learning, analysis, and conversations to raise knowledge and consciousness about white privilege, inherent and often unconscious entitlement of superiority, and the realities of systemic racism nationally, and in Amherst.

• For faith communities, this knowledge and consciousness is also informed by the spiritual principles of humility, compassion, and justice. Yet there must also be an acknowledgement of the history of exclusion and racism within many religious bodies. Thus, there is a need to engage and encourage faith communities in the challenging path of learning, acknowledging, atoning so that there is a collective will to engage in reparative justice action. 

• Comment from participant: “I’ve been leading inquiries into and conversations with white people about our comfort with engagement…I have found that we (and I include myself as a white woman) are not just uncomfortable but are becoming increasingly terrified to be called in, called on, called out…and our culture of fear serves to maintain the status quo of white supremacy.” 

• It was noted that Amherst can be described as a white enclave, characterized by a large academic culture, that privileges intellectual discourse on issues of race. Thus, issues of racial justice are approached and discussed at an intellectual level, in ways that maintain white dominated discourse, and are not linked to the lived experience and feeling of Black folk. This results in a disconnect, a gap of collective understanding, willpower and trust in moving to dismantle institutional and structural racism. 

• As we look critically at town government, with its boards, commissions, working groups, and civic and religious organizations – even those which explicitly work on racial equity and justice issues – we have to ask: where are the Black and more generally (B)IPOC members? WHY are there so few, and not present? What are the barriers, the incentives for greater BIPOC engagement? For those who are engaged, how do they feel about the experience, the relationships. These questions must be asked and answered to move forward. Ultimately, the task forward is not only about changing the institutional structures, but creating caring, loving, purposeful relationships and movement forward.

• What are some of the current actions that individuals and organizations can take moving forward? 

1. Support with communications to Senators and Representatives, the passage of the national bills HR 40 (House), and S 40 (Senate) calling for the establishment of a National Commission to “Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.” 
2. Participate in and support the work of the Community Safety Working Group which meets on Wednesdays at 5:30pm. 
3. Speak out at Town Council and/or School Committee meetings about policies that help or hurt the BIPOC communities. 
4. Post events on racial equity and restorative justice, and reparations on the Community Summit/Social Justice Calendar as a way to engage one another across organizations. Go to: www.theresistancecenter.org/calendar
5. Explore ways that the groups here – and those who are not present - can work together in a network that supports collective learning, communication and actions. 

1. There are other stakeholders that need to be involved. For example, UMass, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Chamber of Commerce, and the Amherst Public Schools.
2. Where is the Town Council and Town Manager on the issue of Social Justice in Amherst?
3. The Town of Amherst needs to employ a Human Rights Coordinator to oversee a more coordinated response to social justice and racial equity issues.
4. Where are the employees of color? There is an absence of people of color employed at the Post Office, banks, grocery store, etc. Employers need to know that Amherst is striving to ensure more equitable life experiences and opportunities for people of color.
5. The citizens of Amherst {people of color and white} need to work together in identifying more diverse candidates to run for elected positions in Town Government.