 Good morning everyone and happy Juneteenth. It's wonderful to see so many of you gathered here with us in a safe way. We are grateful to those who have come out today. And I wanted to start, my name is Keisha Ram, and I wanted to start with a land acknowledgement. This is the land of the Abenaki people that we stand on. They cultivated, stewarded and lived on this land long before other Vermonters that are here with us today. We honor them and we acknowledge that this is still their land and they are still remaining with us, they are not invisible. I also want to acknowledge that there are many black folks who helped to cultivate this land, who put their hands in the dirt in Vermont and have made this state what it is. I want to acknowledge first thinking about down the road, the Rokeby House and the idea that this was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad. And I often tell young people, when you look at that stop on the Underground Railroad, it was a Quaker farm and the Quakers, while they may have had the money from the merino wool that they were producing, they did not believe that you could buy another person. So they did not believe that they could give the money to a fugitive slave to buy their freedom because it was against their entire belief system but they could have those folks work on their farm, earn enough money to buy their own freedom. And I say that story because it reminds me that there's a long history in Vermont of acknowledging that black lives matter just as much as other lives, that you can't own a life, that you can't pay for a life and you can't take a life in that way because of the color of someone's skin. And that's something that we need to remember as we acknowledge that we've painted black lives matter on the, in front of the state capitol that that's the beginning of our work. I also wanna acknowledge Harold Holloway. Many people know the Holloway block in Burlington but they don't know that Harold Holloway was a Buffalo soldier who was married to an Abenaki woman. And unfortunately she couldn't have children and it's believed by the Abenaki people that she had been forced sterilized in the eugenics movement. But Harold Holloway, and still we have the Holloway block which is some of the most beautiful buildings in town, had a bait and tackle shop and helped make Burlington what it is. And finally I wanna acknowledge Richard Kemp, the first black man to be on the city council in Burlington. We would not have some of the affordable housing and the spaces for people in the community that we have without someone like Richard Kemp. So we stand on the shoulders of giants, black vermonitors who have made our state what it is and we honor them today. With that I want to just take a moment to acknowledge the elected officials and candidates who are here and then turn it over to my co-host Joey Dixon who I'm grateful to have with me. And I'm gonna pan here. I don't have the full list but just wave to me if I miss you. We have Brenda Siegel, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. We have Senator Debbie Ingram, another candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Representative Mita Townsend from South Burlington. Are you elected? No, that's a Church Street passerby. Representative John Colackey from South Burlington. Attorney General TJ Donovan. City Councilor Brian Pine. I don't see. Oh, that's Senate President Pro Tem Timash. Couldn't see you with the hat and the mask on. Liz Curry, are you still a school board member? Okay. We have candidate for Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray, City Councilor Joan Shannon. Did I miss anybody who's present right now? I also want to recognize there are some elected officials who honored the 25 person limit on our behalf and are doing watch parties. Mayor Murrow Weinberger and City Councilor Karen Paul. So we really value that you're here with us as you know, as well as we do. We really want you to be here to listen, absorb and act in the future. So I hope what you hear today inspires you to continue to uphold and uplift black lives in the state. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Joy Dixon. Thank you, Chair. Hello, my name is Joy Dixon and today I'd like to share the meaning of duty and its significance today. June 19th marks a special celebration for communities across the United States. Celebrated as Juneteenth, a combination of June and the 19th, the holiday recognizes when the U.S. ended its historic practice of slaking legally and in the real world. Many people wonder how Juneteenth even originated. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. Its intent was to preserve the union rather than to abolish slavery. Despite that original intent, the Emancipation Proclamation still declared that all enslaved people were to be free. Despite this, it wasn't until two and a half years later, on June 19th, 1865, that union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that enslaved people were free. Not again, this was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was decreed. Naturally, the reactions to this profound news ran from pure shock to immediate jubilation. Now, other than slavery wouldn't end in all states until December 1865, ratification of the 13th Amendment, June 19th, which became known as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, was to tell them the last American slaves were freed and celebrated across our nation. As of today, 45 states and Washington, D.C. recognize today as a state holiday, including Vermont, which was the 29th state in the nation to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday in 2008. Despite the continuous efforts of various activists, Juneteenth still has not become a national holiday. However, it has lived on through rich traditions, including lively celebrations in the form of festivals and parades, music and stories. Yes, Juneteenth is a time of celebration and that includes storytelling, recounting of a past of struggle and finding hope despite the consistent systematic racism at every turn. In 2020, we're in the middle of a health pandemic and a societal one. The pandemic affecting society has festered at America's core and oozed anti-black sentiment for hundreds of years. Juneteenth represents the good and the bad of what makes the U.S. the country it is. Juneteenth is symbolic of a liberation, a one that was delayed due to consistent opposition and resistance to equality that is deeply rooted in white supremacy. Something that all too often feels very American. From the original Juneteenth to 2020's Juneteenth, black people have endured a continuous fight for equality and a different kind of freedom. What Juneteenth symbolizes is a true day of liberation. That's something we're celebrating and a freedom you're fighting for. Happy Juneteenth. Thank you. In the middle of Mayday, to share today, I know that a lot of this is white folks' work to ensure the liberation and freedom of their black brothers and sisters and siblings. And we had a third co-host who couldn't be here due to medical reasons, Hope Lindsey. But we did wanna honor that, she's part of the reason we're all here today. She really wanted to do something as a white woman ally in South Burlington and Representative Mita Townsend is gonna read some of her remarks since she couldn't be here. Good morning. Here's the message from Hope Lindsey. Dear friends, I apologize for my old body, which fails me today. It does that sometimes. I will be watching the live streaming, so I want you to know I am very much with you. Keisha wanted me to tell you how I came to her for help in organizing today's event. Weeks ago, I saw a banner. A banner during an early March for Black Lives Matter, which said, white people, do something. I reached out to Keisha on Facebook and she took it from there. This wonderful gathering is that something and I hope just the beginning of so much more. The following statement is a quote for white people, which applies to me and has motivated my activism too. Quote, I know I have internalized racism inside me and I am actively doing the work to counter it. Call me out when I fail and I will do the work to educate myself and become better. End of quote. And here is a poem by Ursula McGuinn, in which I, Hope, have changed a few words to meet today's need, the poem. You know what it was like for you. You know and now I know. That is why we are here. We are not going back to the old days. We are not going to let anybody in this country have that kind of power over any of us anymore. There are great powers outside the government and in it, trying to dictate the return of white supremacy. We are not great powers, but we are the light. Nobody can put us out. May all of you shine very bright and steady, today and always. The words of Ursula McGuinn and Hope Lindsey. Thank you. Thank you so much for speaking on behalf of Ms. Hope Lindsey. We will now have Kyle Dotson, Executive Director of the RIMC of Data Bulletin to come up and share a few words. Kyle? Good morning everyone. When Keshia sent out the agenda for this morning, he suggested three to five minute speaking time allotment. I remember something someone told me some years ago about the five B's of public speaking. Be brief, brother, be brief. I'm gonna do my best. I think it might be fitting to start with a quote. I can only imagine there's some people in the audience who like me are fans of Ralph Ellison. Off the road for what many regard to be the greatest novel of the 20th century, Invisible Man. It's one of my favorite books on America and on race. And interestingly and appropriately to today, he had a book published posthumously and it was called Juneteenth. I'm dealing with the issue that brings us here today. This quote is, some things are just too unjust for words and too ambiguous for either speech or ideas. And I share that because I sometimes feel that way as I move through the emotional and cognitive experience of dealing with our current moment. But it also is clear that silence is not appropriate either. So I think we all come out and dig down in our souls and our hearts and share what we have. So I have two ideas that I want to share that I think are critical for us moving forward. Some of my colleagues before me have mentioned this and that is the question of whose work is this. I think that we have no shortage of folks who make it clear that this is white folks' work but really it's all of our work. It's gonna take a gargantuan lift for us to do this work and it's important for all of us to do it. But the issue of white folks' work is around acknowledgement that it's a white folks' work. Seeing it as a white folks' work and we're having a moment now that is without precedent as far as I'm concerned. We're seeing action and movement in places we've never seen it before. NASCAR? This morning I heard something happen. I know it was Branson, Missouri or Nashville but some, you know, the home of country music and I was thinking like country music, it is one of those things that for me is largely associated with white folks. There's Charlie Pride, Earth Timers, you know, there's Charlie Pride, then there's Daddy's Rucker. But after that, there might be a few more but it's not known as the bastion of black thought and creativity but country music itself is responding. So I think there's this moment. I think it's also important that while we're approaching this moment in sort of I think a fight in a kind of warrior fashion was appropriate at times I think there's also a place for a vulnerability and the reality, the reason and I believe it's all of our work is because it's a collective wound. I've been talking to people who are close in my life and just musing on the fact that some of us, I hadn't stopped to think that it's very rare for us to see a killing on the news. When you watch the news, you usually see the aftermath. Someone has been killed and there's tape on the ground or we're dealing with the scene but we saw George Floyd have his life extinguished on TV in front of us by a representative of the state. That is traumatic if you're thinking and feeling and knowing that has to traumatize you and it traumatizes all of us. There are probably a few Americans who aren't aware of this, haven't seen it and we all have to live through that and if that gets normalized, those are humanity. So we have to work on this problem together because it is our collective wound. 400 plus years, there are postcards many people aren't aware but you can find postcards of people in a town square watching a black body hanging from a tree. They're all white folks watching. Some of them are smiling, they're hugging, it's like being at a party, like a cookout but a human is hanging from a tree. That is a collective trauma and once we all recognize that I think we can begin to heal and move forward. So the first thing is whose work is it and hopefully that helped to share my thoughts on that. The second one is for us here in Burlington. We cannot afford to be innocent. Burlington needs to be innocent of this racial animus. Burlington loves to say that's true but not for us. We're standing on Church Street appropriately with Burneyville, this is where it all began. We think we are so progressive as to have it not exist here and that will completely stymie us in any effort to move forward if we can't recognize we're American, we're complicit, we're part of it, we are no better. It all can exist here. I've been telling people that one of the things in the current moment, I think in some ways offers an opportunity for us to reflect in ways that are different certainly than George Floyd's situation is the Amy Cooper, Chris Cooper situation. That, my contention, I don't know her but I do not think that people in Amy Cooper's life experience her as a virulent racist. I bet she moves through life. She probably may have never had an episode like that before and that's why it's telling because in her moment of fear, when she was triggered she went to a place that many have been conditioned to go to when the bathroom is against the wall and as a result it arguably ruined her life and she didn't even know she had it in her. That is what we're dealing, the fact that many white folks would have that in them because of this trauma, because of the way black bodies and black reality and existence has been presented and without acknowledging and going after it, you too could be Amy Cooper. If you're seeing them and be like I would never behave like that, you might want to reflect a little bit and think about what happened for her and what that means about our nation, what it means about her and what it means about white identity, quite frankly. So I wanna go back and now after that I just wanna see if I can figure out my technology here with one last quote once again, I'm gonna return to Ralph Ellison. They can laugh but they can't deny us. They can curse and kill us but they can't destroy us. This land is ours because we came out of it. We bled in it, our tears weathered it, we fertilized it with our dead. So the more of us they destroy, the more it becomes filled with the spirit of our redemption. Thank you. Thank you Kyle and Kyle is going to leave and go to his son's graduation party for BHS. So thank you for being here before that. Next up we have a gentleman who it might not be my place to say but I would dare say that he should be the black poet laureate of Vermont, Rajni Adams. Lenshing is not dead, it's done in broad daylight. Under the hot lights of media frenzy, the black blood, white guilt, white fear and white acquittal, where brown boys are still expendable. Michael Vickson have had zoom ins earlier. Brown boys are worth less than black dogs. Trayvon should have been a brown lad. Maybe then we see more of a humane society's presence. If poems could march in the streets, overturn verdicts, bring corrupt police to justice. If they could bring a boy back his life and a mother back her son, a father back his boy, return bullets to a gun, unloose the lint rope and unravel the knots from choke throats we would not be choking on tears. When do our lives become valuable? When the eyes of the law, when does hate cease to be exonerated behind the badge and lighter skin? And God forbid we wear a hoodie in the rain while having black skin with skittles in your pocket. You can taste the rainbow but you can't taste freedom. You can taste your own blood but you can't taste the rainbow. Diversity is white people's code word or niggers. You can taste the rainbow but not if you're too dark. The rainbow may come during the storm. If you're too dark on a block in a hoodie and the skittles fall through your pocket, you never taste the rainbow. Your killer has the right to stand his ground. He may shoot you in the heart and America may relive it in so detail. She has only been living her nightmare. She dreams nightmares often, open caskets, ashes, weighted limbs, no coffins. Two. His name is George Floyd and say it. George Floyd. Amon Arbery. Amon Arbery. Rihanna Taylor. Rihanna Taylor. Jerome Urban King. Jerome Urban King. Manuel Ellis. Manuel Ellis. Dary Scott. Dary Scott. Rayshard Brooks. Rayshard Brooks. Ayat Al-Halak. Ayat Al-Halak. Renee Davis. Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin. Khalif Browder. Khalif Browder. Corey Jones. Corey Jones. Freddie Gray. Freddie Gray. Terence Sterling. Terence Crutcher. Joseph Mann. Joseph Mann. Dee Wiggum. Dee Wiggum. Keith Lamont Scott. Keith Lamont Scott. Jarevis Scrubs. Jarevis Scrubs. Deandre Joshua. Deandre Joshua. Deandre Joshua. Philando Castile. Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. Alton Sterling. Corrin Gaines. Oscar Grant. Oscar Grant. Mackenzie Cochran. Mackenzie Cochran. Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker. Matros DeNine. Matros DeNine. Andy Lopez. Andy Lopez. Kimani Gray. Kimani Gray. Mary Jojean Standberry. Mary Jojean Standberry. Sean Bell. Sean Bell. Sanja Bland. Sanja Bland. Ray Ned Turner. Ray Ned Turner. Natasha McKenna. Natasha McKenna. Kendra Chapman. Kendra Chapman. Joyce Cornell. Joyce Cornell. Christina Jones. Christina Jones. Michael Hall. Michael Hall. Alicia Thomas. Jericho Wilson. Joy Good. Jiva Mcday. Binzel Hampton. Ernie Aschkelem. Aaron Campbell. Alonzo Ashley. Ronell Lewis. Wendell Allen. Dante Parker. Victor White. Michael Brown. Jordan Davis. Akai Gurley. Romaine Brisbone. Darian Hunt. Kajeem Powell. Tamir Rice. Jason Harrison. Uzman Zango. Jack Triches. Manuel Loggins. Kendrick Mcday. Mckiea Boyd. Maria Godinez. David Latham. Yvette Smith. Luis Rodriguez. Matthew Bala. Amrudialo. His name, he has a name. His name is I Can't Breathe. His name is Emmett Till. His name, his name, his name. He must remember his name. James Burr Jr. He may whisper in the wind. He may hear it in your skin. His name is Guilty. In his innocence. Freedom fighter. Murder. Troublemaker. His name, Malcolm X. Martin Luther King, he has a name. His name is Black Boy. Black Listed. Black Bard. His name is Black Power. Black Babies in the black market for green cash. Stone in life. Tied to a tree. Burnt at the stake. His name. The Negro problem. Chalk outline. White man's fear. His name here for souvenir. His name Black Nigger Boy. Fred Hampton. Hugh E. P. Newton. Mega Evers. His name saves lives, mobilizes movements. His name is watching a black Messiah. Bullet to the heart. Boy in Jaws of Wolf. White girl card rape. Whistle to free. Head to lie. His name looked me in my eye. His name must die. Cakescrap. Thug. Minus. Stereotype. His name is dressed like a demon. His name is taken to the bridge on Main Street. His name? His name's legs, the plumage on his neck. Cracks. Stabbed, hung, shot, burned. Ravaged by roller-hunters. His name is mistaken identity. Scottsboro Boys. The Skiggy Experiments. David Walker. Living, breathing, black manhood. Heathen. Pagan. No salvation. His name is New Freed Nigger. Heading over it. Koota Kinte. Strange foot. Stranger in a strange land. In danger of deranged hands. Enemy of the state. Kinetic dissenter. Asphalt art. Bloody memory. Collateral damage. White man's birding. That happened so long ago. Chain gang, wage slave, chowder. On the rack. In the irons. On the wand. His name is Arthur the Cansman. This is the cotton. His name is put your hands up. Spread them. Stop or I'll shoot. His name is Bang! 41 shots. Assign us a corps. And the Davis Breakfast Program. Black fat, the party for self-defense. His name is, his name is, he has a name. His name is beaten severely. You're in a non-chamber. The anchor is his name. This is how it all means. His name is missing an arm. His name is Crackett. War on drugs. War on poverty. Scapecourt. Sacrificial land. His name is Keith's carcass. Convict. Criminal. Thief. Drug dealer. Victim. Still a child. His name will never breathe again. His name is a mother. His name is expendable. Sundown lords. And corp. Just call him profiling. Because this is not about race. His name is Marcus Gardner. Frederick Douglass. Ida B. Williams. No one writes a right man is bound to respect. His name has a title. When he dies. His name is Mr. Martin. War of the Black Hoodie. Walker of the Homepan. Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong skin, wrong crime. Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong time. His name is Holder of the Skittles. His name. His mother knows his name. Her tears spell it in big bold letters down her cheeks. His name is God too soon. His name is Darkie. Spook. Triggered. Sambo. His name is different. Too difficult to be pronounced. By Finlips. Four tons. His name dies without justice. Missing. Lost. Bottom of the ocean. Shark food. Triangle trade of little bands. His name is Sunshine. Starfleet. Young, gifted and black. But you can call him Nicker. His name. He has a name. His name is The Sun is Rising. His name is Waker. Because his name is Mine. So much for asking for that. Thank you. So much for asking for that. Powerful, powerful poem. As you were reading what I just kept thinking. Those are the ones we know about. Please take that into consideration that there are so many other lives being taken across this nation that have not been filmed. Whose lives are dying in vain. We will now bring up Katrina Battle. Katrina. So we will move forward with our program. And also, isn't that a lot of delicious out here. I don't know yet. It sounds pretty good to you. So thank you so much again Rajni. Next we'll have Jabari Jones. Waker racial justice activist, healer and baker. Come on up. I'm glad they were doing this down here instead of up there. Because then you all wouldn't be able to see my socks. So just check that out. It's important to find some joy even in the midst of our immense suffering. Let's remind ourselves that we are still human. And that's what we're fighting for. So much I forgot I had it on. That people are free. That people are free. That people are free. The problem is we live in an unfree place. And we have been traumatized by this unfreedom. The last damn day of 500 years while we are free our liberation is not complete. The thing that prevents the liberation of this place we're in is whiteness. We're completely described as imperialist white supremacist capitalist cis hetero patriarchy. Globalized system interlocking systems of alienation and control. The system that is at this very hour conversing towards its final reckoning. Dear white people don't worry about freeing black people. We are free. Free yourselves. Free yourselves of the addictive need or I emphasize that addictive need to dominate and control which results in the morbidity and death of black people. Free yourselves of an identity that is based solely on being not black. Free yourselves of the delusion of likeness which is the illusion of freedom. The illusion of separation. The illusion of security. The illusion of innocence. Break the spell that has kept us asleep for centuries because your bed is on fire. Wake up now. That is your work. Vermont exceptionalism is dead. We're here today to celebrate commemorate Juneteenth but where is Dinah's jubilee? Dinah, an African woman who has enslaved so to judge Stephen Jacob at Vermont in 1783. While Vermont was still its own republic while the Vermont constitution forbade adults from being held in slavery. Where was the announcement of freedom from bondage for the Africans owned by the family of Ethan Allen? Their supremacy has deep roots in the rocky soil of Vermont. Vermont exceptionalism is dead. The only thing that is truly liberate, exceptional, exceptional about Vermont is that it is exceptionally right. Black people are free in order to complete our liberation from Vermont we need the time the space and the land in which to hear to breathe to just simply be. When the announcement arrived in Dallas and Texas the Africans enslaved there didn't wait for the ink to dry they fled immediately they felt immediately looking for their family and their friends sold off the slavery and other plantations so that they could reunite with them and find a place a free place they wish to stand and to live out their complete liberation. We are still searching in order to complete our liberation our supremacy needs to die by people of free free Vermont Black Lives Matter Black Trans Lives Matter Black Deceived Lives Matter all Black Lives Matter and more Black Lives Matter at all. This woman really needs no introduction I would dare call her the hardest working woman in Vermont Tabitha Moore the president of the Portland NAACP and the state director for the Vermont NAACP wait that long put this over here I don't need any corona today we're not that kind but maybe after I say this I might need a different kind so can you hear me first of all I know it's kind of ridiculous here raise your hand if you can't or if you need me to repeat something either because you can't hear it or you didn't understand it because I'm going to say some things that need to be understood so as Keisha mentioned I work a lot of different jobs from a lot of different angles and one of those things is trying to work with our law enforcement system on how do you change to be more fair and impartial and lately they've been on fire and I'm like good you should because you're dying and they're being responsive and trying to be but it's really been fascinating in my role because I hear a lot of people in different positions saying the same thing from different ways and so my remarks today are kind of good toward that sort of very very very tiny thin fragile where you might actually be able to make inwards Mr. Donovan I hope you take a note so I'm not willing for that can't we all just get along kind of faint because that's just not real that's not how systemic racism works that's not how you undo systems of supremacy and the conversation today has revolved around the question how do we out-policy or out-legisly racism and I'm not convinced that that's the right question to be asking mainly because we're still dying still experiencing discrimination in every system from education to healthcare and economics to judicial and law enforcement and all along the way black and brown folks have been more than patient we have jumped through every loop through the every statistic come to your table strategize and PowerPoint the issue to the point where anytime anyone on any side of the issue even thinks about or suggests that we do another committee or task force we all collectively roll our eyes because we know that doesn't work we are scared well listen to us follow us don't just listen to us follow us now is the time for radical action try the path of the indigenous peoples the brown and black cultures who endured supremacy and genocide and still pride to the point where white cultures emulate our music, our food, our styles and our ways of being in so many other realms black excellence white people now call it restorative practices or restorative justice but we just call it community we call it justice because to us justice is always restorative and always invites people in rather than excluding them through law enforcement or jail systems so now is the time for restorative approach to deconstructing white supremacy in our systems starting with law enforcement I know my friends and colleagues in community from the field of law enforcement here deep on the police as a direct threat that is some ways it is but that's not what I hear I hear an agreement I hear an agreement that we have put too many mandates on our law enforcement system and we have heard from brown and black folks as well and for us it sounds like too much power it sounds like I can't breathe it sounds like underfunded resources but we're all saying the same thing and what we are saying that we need to do is a massive overhaul of not just law enforcement but of our community resources we cannot and should not rely on police to take care of us when we are having a massive mental health issue not only does that care us but we also know that law enforcement is not the right response it is not a restored response to mental health need it is not the right response to homelessness we should not be calling the police when we know that there is a homeless person out here having an issue that is not what we need it's not even the right response to squabbling neighbors who are fighting over these flowers or over whose gardens we as a community have the power to change these things to do our own relationships that's where the change needs to be in our own power to manage ourselves and our relationships to invest money and resources into mental health units and restorative approaches to harm done where it occurs in our community that is what we mean when we say defund the police it means reinvesting in other areas and if we are to do this in a truly transformative way if we are to make real progress and to end white supremacy white supremacy peacefully as I know we all want to do and make no mistake white supremacy is going to end one way or another you must get on the same page with us get on our page with brown and black folks and our demands to be distorted follow our lead and honor our expertise that is the only way this will end peacefully thank you okay we're getting some feedback with the speaker don't pick up my voice maybe we'll get a little closer but I think the feedback is making it a little bit difficult to hear so if you are a speaker who needs the microphone definitely turn it on and use it you need it still better even with the feedback then what I think I'm going to say is if people hold it down here that probably helps a lot okay no you're fine everybody's fine thank you Tabitha you're fine you're good we love you we'll hold the microphone down here and we can ask okay great thank you so our next speaker is one of the young people that I really see as helping to lead the way you know she has taken the University of Vermont by storm and she's I think just getting into her senior year activist author, advocate, harmony a dos and one down here are we good can you hear me I feel like I don't need it but I'm just going to use it hi everyone my name is Hamia Dosawen I don't really have much to say I guess my first thing is I like to talk directly to white people because I just feel like y'all are the issue I'm going to talk about the white supremacy in y'all's hearts and if we can deal with that I do believe that things need to be done on a more structural level but it starts on an individual level and if you're not addressing the racism that exists inside of your heart especially folks in Burlington I feel like a lot of the time folks feel like this place is a generally liberal place and it's a generally okay place I remember reading the comments based on the feedback from the protest that we had at Battery Park a lot of folks kept saying why are you protesting here in Burlington it's a good place to be and it's like did you not hear about what happened to the Melly brothers the killing that happened outside the UVM Medical Center like there are issues here in Burlington and I just want to bring that to the table Vermont pervasive whiteness isn't normal I say this a lot Vermont isn't so white for no reason it's not because people of color don't like the cold weather that's not the truth Vermont is white because there's literally charters that said people of color couldn't own land here like Vermont is almost like a safe haven for white people to come here to be away from other black and brown people so just think of it like that like Vermont is white and it's because of a structural reason I guess the next thing I want to say is just address the races that exist inside your hearts like just because you're a work does not mean that you're doing enough you're either a racist or a recovering racist there's like white people like the way American culture is in addition to the races there's no way around it so just address yourself what are you are you racist are you a recovering racist what are you going to do about that and just read books stop hitting up black folks stop hitting up your black friends literally google is free it was made in 98 I think like it's been around for a really long time just use google there's so many things out there and there's actually people of color that have even went out of their way to write books just like you know don't buy from Amazon I prefer if you buy from like black owned bookstores because like you know you can get them shipped and stuff but just read a book use google understand your placement talk to your family stop being quiet speak up stop being scared and I guess the last prayer I want to make is just I feel like Burlington is just too polite there's no right way to protest there's no right way to do anything I'm more on the radical side of things the right side I've had a lot of people tell me I was doing things wrong but apart from that I don't think I'm doing anything wrong I'm the type of person that it's like if I have something to say I'm going to say it and y'all are going to listen regardless but yes just stop being so polite stop being so nice to racist there's no like stop excusing them I see a lot of time on Facebook just for studying since being a Vermont I just study white people and I noticed that there's a thing in your culture where you can relate things like oh he's a nice guy that's familiar I see a lot of nods going around he's a nice guy he grew up in a nice neighborhood he didn't really mean any harm by it he didn't mean to nail on George Floyd's neck for 8 minutes or 46 seconds he's a nice guy he cares for his community he does this he does that and it's like dudes stop being so polite scream at people stop the fuck up stop it don't be afraid to curse don't be afraid to show your anger don't be afraid to really this is white supremacy we're talking about these are people's lives we're going to peacefully walk through the streets and show that how if you want to tear down this whole place do it because people's lives are on the line people are dying guys people aren't breathing anymore just get that within yourselves but happy to see understand where you are in the world recovering racist, racist, have a good day we will now have Kayamorsh Kayamorsh and rights and democracy may I speak up for our coming I want to thank you everyone for being here and being a part of this and I am speaking on behalf of rights and democracy and we are a public organization that is really trying to mobilize people across the state to get into the work of doing the kind of progressive reforms and policies that are necessary to liberate us all so what I need to sit with you all today is the considerations of what this means for people to have political power and for folks to actually hold seats of political power and how it dramatically transforms the everyday lived experiences of individuals that you may never know but you will absolutely impact what I need to say today is a little sobering we are here celebrating Juneteenth which is really around the abolition of slavery understand right now that there are elected officials but at the same decision to end to abolish not gently transition out but to abolish the enslavement of human beings who would struggle with that decision today they would struggle deeply with whether or not it was the right choice because there's economic impacts and what are we going to do how are we going to make those folks whole because it's going to change the whole fabric of our society and because you know really if we start to see everyone as human then we have to give that mandate and fulfill the social contract of upholding human rights these were literal conversations that took place years before the abolition of slavery happened it was a calculated decision to delay the decisions and then those decisions were only half measured and that is why we are here today talking about Juneteenth those were elected officials put into place through voting power by people who were not held accountable who did not have a moral compass and who were easily swayed by the work that they're supposed to be doing we see this and I'm not just saying this just to be provocative we have not ended slavery because we still have a deeply profitable prison industrial complex and officials in this state who struggled with the decision on whether or not to move our black prisoners to Mississippi one of the worst states for civil rights violations against black and brown bodies in this nation and that was an acceptable choice this is how we treat people in the state of Vermont many of these individuals who were caught up in a criminal justice system that continually recycled them in and out of prison systems through unfair laws which were passed by elected officials that were implemented and reified by judges who were many cases elected officials it is an entire system that has been completely reliant upon the wisdom the goodwill and the willingness of those who hold those seats of power to ever hold a critical lens as to what they're actually tangibly doing we see this even as well how slavery continues in the fight for minimum wage which is pathetic it is not a livable it's not a livable wage that folks are fighting for the expectation is your labor is unimportant you are to use your body, your time your talent, your energy for the profit of someone else and you are to live on a subservient amount to do so and we are not willing as a society to do what is necessary to change that those are decisions being made by people in elected office they are fighting with this ferocity right now because our people that are dead fighting for these things fighting for union organizing rights and collective bargaining rights they died they were slaughtered by sheriffs, by military all put in place funded and supported through a political system of electoral politics understand that this stand as a state we could get behind supporting our small businesses as a nation we were able to create funding streams to keep our hospitals open to give them a baseline amount we can't do minimum wage we can't do universal basic income but now we can see very clearly the effects because we needed someone else to see those effects before the people could actually see those effects for us to ever see that there was a value in it what is that saying what is this telling us our rights to vote there were municipalities throughout the state who have gone through and wrestled with the decision around whether or not to grant undocumented persons in our state their right to vote do you know that the legislature voted that charter down a municipality went through the deliberate process of saying we want to provide this important fundamental right to our undocumented brothers and sisters and people in elected office said now we see this in the fight for vote by mail the legislature had to take action because there were elected officials who did not believe that in the middle of a pandemic we could ever adjust our society in a way to support the history of health and dignity of individuals to not have to risk their lives to exercise their constitutional rights this is a question these are questions that people are wrestling with in what reality other than a surreal one our rights to equal access to education we know that there's disparate funding there are unequal educational experiences happening in schools throughout this state there are schools my son's school didn't even have the floors waxed on the first day of school and his kindergarten bathroom wasn't even working on the first day of school there are schools where they're sending kids across the country and to foreign nations to visit and yet there are schools in this state that don't have the baseline supplies they need that is a problem there was pretty clear the system I want you to keep in mind it's a quote that's often brought up during these times we're thinking about what does racial justice mean how do we get there we want to go back and we want to look at Martin Luther King Jr and he says that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice so how long is this arc supposed to be because the systems of oppression did not wait and have a ten point plan with a five year transition to come onto this nation and to slaughter the indigenous they did not go and negotiate with African tribes to say is that cool if we build a system of chattel slavery but we're going to go through the next couple hundred years and generations of breeding you and forcing you to work for our benefits was there a negotiation there was there careful deliberation with the people that were impacted absolutely not so there is no reason why we have to be afraid of the kind of progressive reform that are necessary because that power system was absolutely able to shift gears as it needed to to support and maintain its systems of power so we must mantle them with equal energy courage and temerity to say that there are absolutely champions on every level but there are not enough and there are not enough of us and there is not enough diversity and there is no excuse we are out of excuses these decisions get made as small as thinking about where you get to live we've got redlining of districts we've got disparate funding for people we're trying to do construction projects and you know what many of these areas that are white there was a professor at UVM who read a fantastic book that you can also google and find talking about sundown towns and those include the policies the procedures the covenants that were built into neighborhoods towns and communities to keep those who are not white cisgendered able-bodied spaces that were deemed sacred we cannot have representation by proxy if we do not and I am speaking to our marginalized folks I am speaking to our black community in Vermont I am speaking to you today don't wait for somebody on your school board to fix your school get on that school board if you are using you don't have a voice in your educational system find a way and it does not have to only come in two-minute bites on a zoom call it should happen on a regular basis and be actually in those seats our party system will often tell you that it's not your time to run and I'm here to tell you that that's crap it is your right to run at any time you do not have to wait for a better day you do not have to wait for a better time you come as your authentic self and you fight like hell because that's what we're in it's a fight for our lives so I'm grateful for the opportunity to have been able to speak to you today about this I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here with you all today and for this celebration there will be more I want to also just quickly give a shout out to this project that templeoz has been doing with black leaders across the state called the stopping stones project and for the ski rack a memorial to the slaves that Ethan Allen held because that's where they lived and we're working on that and this pandemic has slowed down this work so we would have loved to have had it ready by now but we're just telling you all we're going to need your support, we're going to need your finances we're going to need you to make sure that this history is not forgotten I want to thank you who do want to say a few words as well before I do that I wanted to note a few things turn it on number one and this is an important one there are some folks who are speaking here today that you've heard from you appreciated who have inspired you who are seeking contributions and are happy to take any resources you might be able to provide for their work which is often underfunded you will find that information on all of the social media events related to the Juneteenth event so please consider supporting those folks in fact there was a spreadsheet up of a lot of black Vermonters and it has been tampered with so it is down but these are folks that you can directly support and you can support rights and democracy and the NAACP by becoming a member and a lot of other organizations that are represented here so I hope you'll consider doing that I want to take a moment to thank Haley Summers, Cecilia Field, Aiman Dunn and Maya Vota and CCTV for filming this for us today a lot of high school and college students who are making this event happen and with that I also really want to thank Skyler Nash who helped to put this event together who's standing in the back looking at me crazy and he has been worried about the rain I think it's going to pass but he wanted to really contribute his time to a couple other folks and you all should know Skyler Nash a criminal justice reform advocate has been doing a lot of diversity equity work with UVM athletics and is the only black campaign manager in the state this year so fielding a lot and doing a great job and I really appreciate it thank you Skyler so we're going to turn it over to a couple local activists who are going to say a few words about what they're up to first up is Bruce Wilson hello everyone first of all I'd like to thank you all for coming out today you know all you wonderful people and the people who are streaming online right now thank you very much so I'm Bruce Wilson Executive Director of Service Render Incorporated and I'm just going to say that I came here in 1989 in Vermont I've been on a lot of racial justice racial justice boards and committees and advisories around the state from the central level to the local level and so I've seen a lot I've done a lot and so all I know is this we have to work hard because in 1989 when I got here this was the widest state in America and so what really changed that I know for a fact that would really change is this probably like the third widest state now so black people people of color have made a difference we have made a difference because it's obviously the numbers have changed but basically I will come up here to say to you that my art program arts are wonderful I've done this incredible Black Lives Matter mural on Union Street on the old YMCA building so if you have time go check it out it's a beautiful mural my art one of my artists through our program so we're just going to do that raw because we have a graffiti abatement program we do all these cool murals you see all around town we're just going to put some beautiful flowers up there so I ask the guy you know can you put like a black lives matter who's how far was going to look with black lives matter but it looks very beautiful and so I just want to end with this that you know Vermont's mission goals and objectives you know and they model unity and freedom unity and freedom right? that's one of the reasons why I came to Vermont because they said that I'm a unity and freedom underground where we came from it was against slavery and how wonderful is that the state of America doing those things and so I think let's take, let's admit to the following on unity and freedom for all in Vermont let's work real hard to make sure that we all can figure out ways to work together and that's the best thing I could do I always tell my team staff that I have 195 PhDs because I work with people who know I see people who are here they know that's what I do I work with all of you to meet our mission goals and objectives and because of that we have a lot of things going on so thank you again for coming out and go check out the Black Lives Matter I direct the Iowa State Tag it and send it to AT Arts so wonderful you know we can put it on our social media so thank you again thank you so much for sending that lease we'll have Karen Sita who is your Miss Black Vermont sorry y'all I just came from camping first time going fishing try it change my life I just want to let y'all know just to be yourself to my black girls in the state of Vermont we make the 1% but we make Vermont 100% I don't care what nobody says yes we're 1% but without the black people in Vermont without the African market North Street without the Somalians without the Burundi without the Congolese without the black people in Vermont and black girls do exist we have black kids at Champlain we have black kids at Edmunds all our black girls need to be reminded that they are queens, that they are smart that they are able and they are kind and you need to be yourself see I grew up in South Wellington predominantly white school if I listened to all these people what they wanted me to be I would not stand here as Miss Black Vermont being proud to be black being who you are and work together with people work together it's about individual be who you are, love people let who you are be loved let who you are be kindness let who you are be joy and together we can make Vermont great we don't have to be our past no one has to be their past we can look at our future and don't listen to these Twitter people Angela Davis is alive y'all don't listen to the randoms listen to the people who have been in this fight listen to the people who understand and are willing to educate and teach you but the ones that don't let them figure out their own process too, we are all learning and we are all just trying to figure out and some of us already know too some of us are learning, some of us already know so you need to figure out who knows and who's learning and work together okay, proud to the people next up we have a business leader in the community Ms. Ashley LaPorte can you guys hear me okay? thank you Keisha, thank you Joy thank you Hope for bringing us all together here today coming together with black people and other people of color has been bringing me great comfort in these days thank you for creating space for us my name is Ashley LaPorte I grew up in Stowe I now live in Burlington and I'm here speaking today simply as a member of this community as a black Vermonter I'm here today to speak directly to the black people in Vermont and to our fellow people of color as this state raises its collective consciousness around racism and white privilege I've been asked to speak to white people about these issues to join task forces led by white people and of course I see where there's value in that and I'll create the time and I'll create space for it but not today today is for us so to my black people to my brown people to my people of color let's talk this morning about resilience I've been thinking a lot about resilience in this moment that we're in when I say resilience I'm talking about the ability to both survive and to thrive and I'm talking about the importance of taking care of ourselves as we fight for each other I have found myself simultaneously energized and exhausted recently on the one hand we're at an important tipping point in our collective history we once again have in front of us an opportunity to make real progress when it comes to the liberation of black people in this country thanks to our brothers and sisters who are marching in the streets across our cities facing police brutality speaking truth to power our country is seeing black people in this nation are still not free we've caught the attention of every major news network every social media feed of our political system we are and should take advantage of this moment raise our voices be in the street demand what should be demanded defund the police I'm also exhausted especially here in Vermont explaining that racism is alive and well in our state trying to show up for black activists like Harmony Noelle Rigby-Williams my friend Evelyn and Cole Chester the young women organizing the demonstrations that are getting noticed I'm joining task forces calling on my representatives watching people get tear gassed in our own country I'm going to work and trying to maintain a professional demeanor I'm answering questions and well-intended texts of solidarity from the white people in my life of which there are many and so I've been thinking a lot about resilience how to be resilient in this work how to simultaneously live up to the moment we're in and to prepare for the long haul because we need to do both and I've been asking myself do I have it in me and some of you other black people have been asking yourself the same thing and as I reflect on this I take a deep breath in through the nose out through the mouth I take a walk to think about it I take my big black body up to our big mountains and I reflect and I know of course I have it in me because I'm surviving and I'm thriving in a world that seems to be doing everything in its power to get rid of me every day under the pressure of white supremacy and under whiteness growing up a poor black girl with a white mom in Stovermont being a black girl in a New England boarding school being a black woman in business I've been taking deep breaths and putting myself back together my whole life when I was told I couldn't play house of my classmates because I was black and white people don't marry black people and then I went back to class when I was a black child at the lake with my white mom and the fresh air kids program coordinator rounded my sister and I up with the other black kids and they thought of course we didn't live here and then we drove home as though nothing had happened when I called out daddy to the only other black man in our town because I thought he was mine or maybe I just wished that he was mine the first time I was called a nigger and with too many white times after that every time I'm at a department store in this city and I'm shopping and I'm asked do you work here when I'm stopped speeding by the police and I hit record on my phone when I disagree in a meeting and I can tell my strong opinion delivered confidently is making people uncomfortable seeing the confederate flag at the lake where my family holds its annual reunion on the sticker on the back of the truck in front of me and the confederate flags on the lawns of people's homes I have built mechanisms to keep going under all the weight and my weight is light compared to so many of my black brothers and sisters whose weight is the weight of air pollution on their lungs because our nation builds polluting factories in black communities the weight of a stop and frisk on the way home from school the weight of an officer's knee on your neck and still we rise from underneath the weight this white world keeps piling on us as Audrey Lord says in a litany of survival we were never meant to survive we should find strength in that not in a look how far we've come kind of way but in a we're still here we are still fighting kind of way in a against all odds against the systems that continually push us down we are still here and we've risen up again we are our resilient people that we can both fight in the here and now and we can lean into our tiredness that doing this is not giving up that self care is a radical act something else Audrey Lord also taught us that we're allowed to sit in our exhaustion and acknowledge it notice the hurt in your feet the weight behind your eyes the tightness in your chest that lump in your throat and take a deep breath in through your nose out through your mouth close your eyes draw on the strength that you've built over time in the length of your life but also in the strength of all the black people who have come before us we the survivors we the fighters we the strong so my message today to my black people remember your resilience know you have it know it's power and find comfort in it we're going to need it for the fight ahead thank you thank you so much Audrey for those impactful words without further ado we are going to have closing remarks from right Reverend Dr. Shannon McVane Brown who is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont I hope that you all will continue to reflect on the words of the speakers today and just thank you all for coming out to our elected officials to our speakers who graced us with your words today thank you so much, thank you Kisha for coordinating this and all the folks that you brought together today it has been such an honor and a pleasure without further ado the right Reverend well, June 10th is supposed to be a day that I say supposed just listen it's supposed to be a day to celebrate black people's freedom from slavery in the United States of America and I don't want to minimize the significance of this day but let us also remember that freedom was only granted to enslaved black people in the Confederate states on June 19th 1865 you see the Emancipation Proclamation became a law in September of 1862 and was enacted in January of 1863 and so enslaved people from the Union states were not granted freedom until after Juneteenth it was in December of 1865 so think about that and this is the killing thing, it's not in my notes so they said oh yes Juneteenth you all are free and this is what they told them you aren't slaves anymore but you can now be employees so they told them how they were going to be free or you can go somewhere else I don't know where else so they of course went to look for their families or if they went to the Union states they were living with black people that were not free anyway I just thought huh interesting that's the way we do it here but anyway I don't suppose even with all that I don't propose changing the celebration of freedom to a different day but instead it is fitting that this day should encapsulate the complicated history of black people freedom and our place in this country and even after the progress that we can claim even after black president this is a day about celebrating a hope for reality that we know belongs to us that has yet to be realized the circumstances of Juneteenth are a reminder to us of the importance of black people retelling our stories and controlling our narrative this helps us to better understand where we are and to notice the patterns of deception that continue in the social contract we hold with this nation now I'm astounded by the opportunities that have been presented to us in this confluence brought about by the pandemic by this COVID-19 pandemic the national conversation about the disparities and inequities that we've lived with and the battle against the virus of racism and anti-blackness that is being fought through protest and demonstrations in the streets of our cities and towns because we might not even have any cities besides Berlin the rest are towns right yes, not just here everywhere and it has always been our role as black people to call this nation to accountability when it comes to freedom and even in our weariness from these uncertain times I don't know about you all but I know I'm tired I know that we have all noticed the new willingness of many in our nation to address inequities and disparities which plague our nation several days ago my daughter and husband and I we were driving around to get a change of scenery because we've been mostly in the house so we pulled up to a corner on the UVM campus and there was one lone girl, white girl with her sign out there Black Lives Matter by herself, I don't know she could have been doing something else but that's where she was by herself and then the other night C&N had this interview of this white couple that lived in Arizona and it was a fairly conservative area that they lived but here they were these two people on the street with their Black Lives Matter signs and I don't know how but somebody noticed them and of course they were being cursed out and you know you can imagine what happened but they also had people encouraging them so tell me when have you ever seen anything like that God bless them of what they might represent and I'm also hoping that they will have the fortitude to continue and grow in their allyship even when they might like to retreat into the comfort of their privilege and I'm noted Vermont I haven't even been here for a year and this very very white fairly liberal state it will be a challenge for us I'm speaking, I don't know if you all know that I was talking to Black people here and the rest of you listen in but anyway it will be a challenge for us to not only keep people's energy and hearts focused on this work but to also understand why it is even necessary in a place like this they're going to wonder about that and how do we further the cause of forward movement but I'll tell you this I don't have all the answers I haven't been here long enough and I've heard some people that have some ideas about how to fix what's wrong but I don't have all the answers to our particular challenge but I do have some words of affirmation and mission for us all don't let your well-meaning allies off the hook tell them to stop aiding and abetting violence against Blackness tell your allies vote as if you have a Black, Indigenous or person of color son or daughter grandchild, whatever invite your allies to share in your discomfort with telling hard truths and I'm going to tell you I'm speaking from experience I know a lot about this actually as a Bishop in a predominantly White denomination even if I weren't here in Vermont this is rare there's only four other women like me in the whole Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church is known for being fairly liberal but we managed to stay together as a denomination through the Civil War by being polite with telling our values you know that the church was not true to its call to be agents of justice and reconciliation and I'll also tell you this see the person who actually helped to uphold slavery in the Episcopal Church was John Hopkins the first Bishop of the Episcopal Church I'll get with that for a second because God is good because I didn't know that before I got here I researched everything I could on Vermont on being here heard about other people's experiences of being black and speaking out and I thought okay I can come here and I'm sitting in my dining room in my living room and my communications person and I said wait wait back up what do you mean the first Bishop of the Episcopal Church upheld slavery because he wasn't just Bishop here he was in charge of the whole Episcopal Church when he did that and I thought wow hmm I didn't know how much I would be dealing with race when I got here it was important to the white people that voted for me because that's really who brought me here with that but apparently this was something we needed to continue to resolve you know generations later we made and renewed commitments as a church to dismantle racism yet it still haunts us because we are infected with politeness and false equivalencies we're trying to own this and change our ways though and as a great elder Maya Angelou once said when you know better do better so we try so black people be whole people with full emotions sometimes you just need to cry and be angry and feel discouraged and as we think about how we keep going and get through these things the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Junior told people engaged in the movement with him that they needed a rule of life to strengthen them and sustain them through this work and Keaton told the people to meditate on the words of Jesus well this works for me I don't care what you read whatever hardly book you like read it, find some books find something that helps you to stay grounded in peace and in words of integrity and stay informed stay informed by reading other works that analyze and stir your thoughts and move you to action this is hard work life's work this is not a race it's not like a marathon or a relay so stay connected sometimes you're going to have to tag somebody else in and don't worry about being tired every once in a while you have to keep going but tag somebody else in and have each other's back support one another care for your body and your soul now being the last person to address our Juneteenth assembly it was my role to wrap everything up nicely with something positive on the surface most of what I said might not seem completely uplifting but we owe it to ourselves to speak the truth to speak our truths my beloved black siblings it is for such a time as this that our unique God-given gifts are to be used for the true emancipation of this nation and on our quest for freedom this is a truth of which I am certain we are the definition of resilience and creativity I am certain of the truth that as black citizens we have the gift of responsibility of being the storytellers of this nation and the state's complicated history our presence and our black lives, our testament to our insistence on hope and we carry the vision for what this country is intended to be so I'd like to close with and I just am amazed that this is a prayer that is in a prayer book for Episcopalians and this is what also gives me hope that we could envision and pray prayers about a life in a world that we don't even know about yet so let me pray this prayer for you and with you Almighty God give me of all good things we thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land they restore us they'll be often destroyed heal us we thank you for the great resources of this nation they make us rich but we often exploit them forgive us we thank you for our siblings who have made this country strong they are models for us but we often fall short of them inspire us we thank you for the tort of liberty which has been lit in this land we have drawn people from every nation where we have often hidden from its light enlighten us we thank you for the faith we have inherited in all the rich variety it sustains our life where we have been faithless again and again best owed divine one to finish the good work we have begun strengthen our efforts to blood out ignorance and prejudice and to abolish disparities and iniquities face the day when all with many voices and one united cause will glorify your goodness amen thank you so much right weapon doctor so as we close out today once again happy june 2 black lives matter, could that be black lives matter? now i hope that you will join us as we walk down church street thank you