 Michelle, if you'd like to, well, we should wait for Alexis and Dr. Rhodes to actually come back. Yes, that would be, that would be good. And then, as I said, Ms. Bridges can't join us today. Hala, I'm sending a text to and Dr. Shabazz as well. Let's see here. I think we'll wait. So if you can hear us, Alexis and Dr. Rhodes, we're just gonna wait to get started until you are back. And I'm checking. Okay. There's Alexis. Hi, Alexis. Nice to see you. Let's see. Here's a message from Hala. Okay, Hala will be right here. So we'll keep an eye out for Hala. And why don't I, does it make sense, Jennifer, to call the meeting to order? And then we could just, hopefully when we start soundcheck, folks will be Yeah, we just need four of you here to start to do that. Okay. Actually here. Right? Oh, we got one. In Dr. Rhodes. It's like you got one and lost another at the same time. I'm gonna have my camera off because I just still have a cough and How are you feeling, Alexis? I'm here. Okay. I just have my camera off, but I'm here. Okay. Excellent. All right. Feeling good, Alexis? All right. I'm all right. Thank you. All right. Good. Hi, Hala. Nice to see you. Okay, I'm going to go ahead now and call the meeting to order. I am calling the March 27th meeting of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly to order at 2.05 p.m. pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. It's my understanding that the governor approved an extension to remote meetings. So, Alexis, do you know about that because of with Amherst media? Yeah. So when the date is escaping me, is it for a whole other year, right? It's until 2025, actually. Yeah. It's March 2025, I think. Wow. I like that. Works for you, Dr. Rhodes. It works for me. I will meet back in town until April. Yeah. All right. Let's do a quick sound check starting with you, Dr. Rhodes. I'm here and I hope everyone can hear me. Yes. And Yvonne? I am here. Excellent. You can hear me munching and I can hear you. Yep. And Hala? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah. Good. And Alexis? Hi, everybody. All right. Wonderful. And Jennifer, we can hear. I think we can hear you, but let's just make sure one more time. Yep. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Great. So just a quick review of the agenda today. We're going to start with the big payback screening, our big event happening later this week, and then we're going to dig right into the survey. Dr. Rhodes and I have had the opportunity to meet with the Dunhu Institute and be in discussion with them a couple times since we last met and we do have something to present to you today for feedback. So we'll get into that. And what are our folks good until 315 at least? Or yeah? Okay. Yes. Great. Okay. Great. Thank you, Hala. All right. Wonderful. So let me actually start so we can have a better sense of our timing for today with our first public comment period. We'll open up for public comment now. And then as always, we'll have a second opportunity for public comment later. This will give me a better idea of how to manage things. So I'm going to go ahead and call public comment and I will read our statement briefly. If during the public comment period, you'd like to make a public comment, the chair will recognize members of the public when called on, please identify yourself by stating your name, pronouns and address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes and we'll be listening very closely, although we do not normally engage in dialogue, but we will be listening closely. So if you'd like to make a public comment, please go ahead and use the raise hand function now and we will bring you into the room. And again, there will be a second opportunity for public comment later in the meeting. All right. So I am not seeing any hands. So we're going to move right into the reparations town hall. And I am going to share my screen. Just a second. Here we go. And share with you some details just to go over so that we are all on the same page. Alexis and I on Wednesday will be meeting with folks from Amherst College at the powerhouse. We're going to make sure that everything is set up the way it needs to be so that Amherst media can live stream and record the event. And we'll also sort of just be doing a visual overview of the space and how we might want it to look for the event itself. So thank you, Alexis. And so we'll be doing that. So what you see here is an itinerary, both of the event itself and then of Robin. So Robin is coming in late on Wednesday evening. She'll be here the entire day on Thursday. And then on Friday she'll be leaving. So it's really Thursday that we're talking about here. And so starting with the event itinerary because I think that's what's right now. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page about that. Right now the way that it looks is we will arrive at the powerhouse as close to five as possible. I'll definitely be there at five but folks should feel free to come when they can as close to five as possible. And doors will be opening at 545 p.m. I do want to note that the parking can be tricky. I hope to send some information but if you have somebody to carpool with it might be helpful. But I'm going to send some information to members about that. And so I will open the event as close to six as possible and do the sort of general housekeeping pieces and introduce AHRA members. And then I will introduce Cyrus Wheaton who is the president of the Amherst College Student Senate. And he and the Senate are our partners for this event. Cyrus did text me over the weekend and said that he met with the government, the student government at Smith College over the weekend and they were really inspired by our event and he asked if he could invite folks from the Smith Student Senate. So we have some folks joining us from there as well. And then Cyrus is going to make some remarks to sort of connect the work that we've been doing together. And then he'll introduce Angie Tizzi-Gasue. I had an excellent conversation with them over the weekend or actually this was Friday now I guess. Michael Elliott has asked them to make remarks on his behalf. But they are also the dean of students and so we had an excellent conversation and I'm really looking forward to them being with us. So Angie will make those remarks at about we hope around 610 and then from there Dr. Chabaz and this is all this can all be flexible depending on what you all think of this. This is tentative. Dr. Chabaz will introduce the film and our guest of honor Robin Rusimans and then Robin has some remarks that that she will make and then we'll begin the screening and that's the point at which we can't continue to livestream and record. So we'll have to pause that. We'll send people over as Hala had recommended last time. We'll have some sort of slide to let folks know that they can go over to PBS and watch it if they are watching from home. And then after that we'll have a discussion amongst the AHRA and Robin and Mike Jerrick from Amherst College and the audience. So just want to see if there are any questions about this. I will send this out to members after our meeting today. Yes Alexis. So who does the panel include exactly and how how many people? So the panel it's not a super large panel it will be more of a discussion amongst us as an assembly with Robin and with Mike Jerrick who is the Racial History Fellow at Amherst College as well as with a couple of the student senators. So it's sort of going to be just like an opportunity for discussion and then questions to come from the audience. I imagine that many of them will be directed at Robin and she's prepared to answer and be in discussion essentially with the audience. Okay because I just I just need to know how many mics to bring. Oh okay you're like I was just asking a very specific question. I'm gonna get back to you on that I will do it yeah okay help me understand so each person should have a mic that's gonna be or could like AHRA members share a mic and how does that? It's gonna be like a goose neck like how the mics look like in town hall and I can have a wireless mic for the the audience. It's pretty much mostly for the stream so yeah yeah knowing how many to bring but I also like if I'm running the stream I'm obviously not going to be able to be on the panel so that's one less mic that will need it. Does that feel okay for you in terms of like is there a way to um is there anyone else who can run the stream? No okay well thank you um I hope if there's anything that we can do to support so that you can participate as a panelist at some point if you know let us know. Okay Michelle do you have an idea of how you're gonna set up like is it are you gonna do like a circle are you gonna do sorry I have the hiccups too um are you gonna do similar to um the listening session we had before? That's on tape now. I know I hate when that happens. It wasn't a burp I mean or a fart excuse me. And I think it's done now right like I just I just needed that last one to come out in the middle of our meeting. Um that's a great question and that's what I'm hoping Alexis and I will be able to determine together when we are there on Wednesday to brainstorm what would be the best setup and make sure that it works in the space and then of course um we'll we'll I'll try to actually send something to the group in advance so that nobody's surprised but if we are getting there a little bit early it should be easy enough to just let folks know. Do you need us there to help you set up? Yes if you could um is is panel also coming in person Jennifer do you know? I do not know. Okay I'll check in um but if you I said in the beginning of the meeting if folks can arrive as close to five as possible it would be great. I'm arriving earlier so I I mean I I can't see the earlier part of your itinerary but I don't I don't know where you want me to show up but I think I'll probably be there by three thirty four o'clock. Awesome awesome well that is great I just got confirmation from junior today at Hazel's that he can accommodate us for a um a small lunch with Robin um so that is about three thirty so you might just come directly there when you're when you get into town. Okay all right okay um yes Alexis. I'm so sorry excuse me for earlier um so being that they're gonna be goose necks um rather than everybody having their own microphone that they can hold or one that like they can pass easily um it would be best if we could have tables but I guess we can work on like what the orientation of those tables would be. Okay excuse me um we do have like two small kind of tables that can fold up and be moved around um I unfortunately can't lift anything um but yeah so I don't know if like and I'm I'm I'm sure Amherst College has tables um but yeah that that would be the kind of only way that I can see the goose necks working um in in a sort of smooth fashion. Okay so maybe what we can do when we when we meet with Madison on Wednesday if we determine we need a couple of those tables then when I bring you back um I can grab whatever we need and I'll take care of that and make sure we we get that but I think you're probably right Alexis I think they probably have what we need we just have to um see when we get there um Jennifer I see your hand. Yep and refreshments, drinks, waters is Amherst College providing that or that's a really good question and it was a question that's on my list to ask you all about um not straight cookies though right because yeah I think um that I was highly criticized last time that I just don't know how much we want to get into food and I actually don't know exactly what the requirements are there so I have to look into that a little bit um I have a I have I plan to talk to Cyrus later today so I'll figure that piece out but definitely like water and and that kind of thing I would say at minimum water right yeah definitely um so let me I'll I'll get that question answered okay all right so just looking at this earlier part of the day um I wanted to um share this with you all so that if you can join for all or any of these pieces of the day it would be wonderful um I I spoke with Ms Bridges earlier and she will be giving Robin a tour of the Civil War tablet starting at around 10 30 a.m. um and then following that we'll head over to the Ancestral Bridges exhibit at the college and I'm hoping that Anika can also join us it sounds like the last time I talked to her that she does have some time to do that so we'll do that and then I was thinking you know Robin may she's getting in very late on Wednesday so she may want some time just to relax and just kind of rest or do whatever she might want to do and then there will be an early lunch starting around 3 30 at Hazel's kitchen um and this will be for Robin and for assembly members that's an early dinner right I know that's what I meant to say late lunch yeah very late lunch um thank you um and then we'll arrive at the powerhouse after that um and then that's when the rest of the itinerary starts does anybody see any how does this look to folks any good okay all right great and Dr. Rhodes I don't know if you can hear me right now but if just I'd love to know if you want it if you think you're going to well I guess so Alexis this is a question for you for people who so where is the live stream available where are because we haven't really marketed that very clearly I think at this point is that a Facebook thing or is it through Amherst media is it a station or yeah so um we were going to have it um available on well I I haven't talked our program or yet but either on channel 12 or 15 15 is our education channel um so that's why we're thinking potentially about doing that um but it's definitely going to be available on YouTube definitely going to be available on Facebook both under um the Amherst media pages um and I guess the other question that I wanted to check in about is being that it is going to be available that way are we taking comments or questions from those places as well which I could like monitor and I could like have potentially like a microphone or something to be able to ask those questions but I didn't know like if maybe that's a way that we're sort of opening the access to those questions that's a really great question um welcome Dr. Shabazz can you hear us yes I can thank you okay great we can hear you too um so we're just reviewing the itinerary for Thursday so you'll see I just I put it back on the screen so you could take a look at it um I'll also be sending it out after our meeting today thank you um so Alexis that's a great question is it so it's not too much to be able for you to be able to monitor the um live feed streams and bring back questions because if that would be fantastic yeah it's not too much it's just like I can't be like behind the camera and in front of the camera so I'll just be like a faceless voice I guess okay all right Pamela and I if Pamela comes can also help out with fielding the questions and that way Alexis you can just deal with the live stream that would be awesome and if if that's the case then um I don't know if you'd want to be like at the table in the panel um that way you have or whoever it is has their own gooseneck um whether that's Miss Yann or what um but uh yeah I think that would be awesome thank you Jennifer that's fantastic so we'll we'll plan to I mean I think we would have planned I would love for both um Jennifer and Pamela to be part of that but if if you can um help out with that that would be great all right um Dr. Chabaz do you have any we can go over this to offline but does anything strike you here um that you have any questions or comments about in terms of this itinerary nope solid full day all right great so I'm going to stop here um and by the way anybody is welcomed on Wednesday um Alexis we're meeting at 10 30 right over uh is that what we just said 12 well okay great thank you um so yeah if anybody is available at noon on Thursday and would like to provide or on Wednesday and would like to provide input on the room setup we will be Alexis and I will be over at the powerhouse at that time um great so let's move on then from the event oh one other thing is this is our final push um so I we have put it out to a lot of people um I invite and encourage all members to share it on social media if you feel comfortable doing that get it out to folks via email or text or however else you might want to do that um I know that Scott at the Gazette had an interview with Robin last week he's putting he's writing a story about the event um today I believe it will either be posted today or tomorrow I'm planning on putting some flyers around town tomorrow morning um but it really we have sent it out to a great number of people but I think we want to remind people this week I did want to ask you Alexis um as with the listening session were you able to put the flyer up on any of the Amherst media um shows that have been happening um we have to because of the orientation we have to like edit it a little bit um but yeah we are we're definitely um advertising again okay perfect because I I don't know if you remember from the listening session the one person that that was like really touching um I don't know Ivan I saw you look up it was the the the person who came and said that they were scrolling through the TV and came across the Amherst media and he ended up offering like all of this incredible feedback during the listening session um so yeah please Alexis you call it the carousel don't you carousel okay um so yeah final push if we can just get it out this is a community wide event and everybody is encouraged to join um so um getting the word out this week is is fantastic all right so we're going to move on to the survey and if you could give me just a moment I'm going to pull up so as I said uh Dr. Rhodes and I had the opportunity to review a draft survey um we are ready to share about three quarters or maybe half of the survey with you today for feedback we had a meeting this afternoon with the Dunn-Hue Institute and we determined that the best date or the date that it looks like we'll be launching the survey is April 11th Tuesday April 11th so that will give us um just one more meeting since the 10th is a holiday and that will be the meeting next Monday um to finalize things and then with the Jewish holidays that week um we determined that the 11th is the day for launching the survey so are there any questions about that before I pull it up and we start reviewing okay so Dr. Rhodes and I are looking when we're reviewing this with the Dunn-Hue we're looking at sort of the back end raw side of things um but what we did today was try to get it into a preview mode so that you can see it the way that it will look um and then and then we'll go from there so here we go can you all see okay great so this is going to be a little bit tedious but we'll you know it's worth it for us to go through and really make sure that we get it the way that we want it um and you can see here that this is the preamble so this is sort of like the cover letter that's going to happen uh that will be first uh seen and you can see what it looks like here um also on a mobile device so we can just take a little time to read through this and we'll go one section at a time um and I'll just try to scroll slowly here all right so I'm just opening it up for any questions or comments about this and I will also say that we will be including our logo as well as well as the town's logo and the Dunn-Hue Institute's logo so that will be at the top um yes Jennifer is there way to switch in some areas you have residents can you use community members I never used to I try not to use the word resident I don't know but I use community member and I understand if you can't do it in the area where you're referencing the councils um affirming to resolution but some in other places in the document it references residents yeah so like for example we designed oh can I ask um yeah the the reasoning behind that that choice that preference you make I just think that I personally think that community members sounds more friendly and and so when we revamped the community activity forms they used to be citizens activities forms so we tried to shy away from the language of citizens and residents because I've gotten the point about um you know citizenship uh citizens over but I've not um but anyway the the point with on residents you know some municipal reparative justice programs are targeting um in fact most recently in the language uh in Northampton they speak of residents and workers so they're also so in their case they also attempt to include in the reparative justice community those who may not be residents of Northampton but they work in their they're of African descent and they work in Northampton and I I can understand especially after going to a uh city council meeting recently and hearing all of this uh hearing on multiple occasions them talk about how there are no black people or very few black people who are residents of Northampton I guess it it makes sense for them to also look at the workforce the African American or people of African descent who are part of the workforce of Northampton to be included but in our case I'm I I don't know how a lot of our language has centered around trying to really capture the resident community and and not but I'm open to hearing an argument for using language like community members if we're also trying to engage the input of non-resident but but people who are part of the workforce of or of of the town or students who don't consider themselves residents for voting purposes or whatever but they but they are they do reside here most of the year but maybe they don't consider themselves residents so I I'm not a verse to the point I'm just trying to to think it out think out loud about it a little bit thank you well and then so this survey is going out to everyone right it's not limited to any particular community member right so where it might be different if we know for a fact that we are only going to to provide reparations for Amherst for residents who are descendants of or for for black residents but this is going out to everybody in the community so it's a little bit more broad than just so will businesses business owners receive this yeah so that's a really good question though I do think that benefits reparation benefits that eligibility that residency will be required um because it's a municipal plan um however I'm not sure that that means we don't want to capture the attitudes of all community members including um as you said business owners of the workforce so that's a really a question for the assembly to decide and I do think that changing the word um does have an implication so I just want to make sure that the assembly uh understands that implication um we don't want to give the impression that a non-resident would be eligible for reparations in Amherst because that wouldn't be the case um yes Alexis I guess this is this has me thinking because I'm almost wondering if it makes it seem like to residents if folks who don't live here will have an equal say about how folks who live here will be receiving reparations um when if we're saying identifying community attitudes I don't know being that we're you know we're talking about workers I don't know I guess is it is it clear enough that if someone's not living in Amherst and they are contributing to this but they're not able to receive reparations because they don't live here are they having like an equal say over and I feel like maybe I'm complicating it more than these but I guess what I I'm wondering like what the the implication then becomes or like how is it being received um I guess is your question how we're waiting the responses from people depending on what their answers are like are they residents are they people of color so are we waiting the responses according to who the people are yeah right yeah I I think then if when you go that I think we ought to go back go down through the rest of this okay and then come back to that question great idea Dr Rhodes yeah I think it might clarify things I agree is everyone good with that we'll come back to that let's sit with that and see how the rest of it looks okay great all right so if you were seeing this you would have read that this will get a little bit more complicated we want to point out for the the printed version because in Qualtrics depending on how you answer a question you will be brought to something particular in the paper we'll have to include like arrows and things like that so let's say one of the point oh yes please Dr Schwarz can we point questions the same way we've done with our Engage Amherst page back to a town website rather than an umdi an umdi the umdi staff we can always take it to the umdi staff you know if we if it's germane or relevant but I'm just not sure about listing the umdi employee as the person to direct questions or concerns yeah that was a question that came up and when people at the end are thanked for taking the survey it actually points them to the Engage Amherst the town of Amherst all of those this was more for technical so maybe we need to be like if you have technical questions about the survey you would reach out to the Dunahue Institute so that we're not fielding those and we can be really clear with Kerry that anything that's outside of technical should be forwarded to us obviously does that help Dr Schwarz that's that can be addressed that way if we if we're anticipating in that but it is in the preamble it's the first thing people see and so I'm just wondering if um how how much we really think there are technical questions for it to be right up there foregrounded as the first thing this is who you're who you're being directed to to bring concerns to yeah point well taken I think that's a really that that that does make sense um let's see how it looks when we get or when we get through and we'll yeah we can come back to that alright so the first question here um and so if you do not I'm gonna we're gonna go through it um first as yes I live in Amherst full-time okay so we're gonna click that and that's gonna take us immediately to this question do you identify as black or of African heritage one of the things that came up in our discussions um is the use of these words black and African heritage interchangeably throughout and whether we needed to create to uh add some language in the preamble that notifies the respondent that we will be using the words interchangeably um or does the assembly want to make a decision to only use one to only go one way with us so that's a question I have how would we like to yes Alexis um I I have a problem with using them interchangeably um you can be of African heritage but not black um so I I do have a problem with them being used interchangeably but I guess I think that there maybe it would be worth it maybe to say like why these two things are being grouped together specifically for our for our purposes um not being used interchangeably um because they're not the same like one is speaking to a race which is like a political identity um which is specific and can change over time where like you either are of African heritage or you're not um so yeah I I have a I have a big problem about using interchangeably but I think that people may also have a question as to like why being that these two things can be different why they're being grouped together um for our purposes yeah yeah I think that's a great point um if I made my sense would be it's fine here to follow the language perhaps it's fine here to follow the language of the decennial census and just say black slash african-american that's what that's how the census reads I mean but does that then are we then excluding african immigrants we are then right and like was is that something that we're intending on identifying if you're specifically an african-american uh of a specific like ethnic african-american ethnicity or I don't know I I guess my understanding was that we were using african heritage to include folks that are ethnically from the continent potentially you know immigrants and whatnot interesting I think maybe we could maybe we could watch a little further sure what happens and particularly in terms of whether we're asking down the line about a question about lineage because then we can cross reference and kind of filter out from a lineage question those who might have answered uh that they were you know of african heritage or if we stay with that language but may not be actually racially um may not racially identify as as black I hear the point I have a um a long time had a colleague at at UMass who's uh native born uh in South Africa and so you ask her if she's of african heritage she's proudly will tell you she's of african heritage but her family's all from england she's white she's as white as white as snow and so racially you know she's not a she's not black she's not in that sense um an african but she's not racially uh black let us say so I I see the conundrum and um but maybe it's settled down the line thank you dr. Shabazi abon so are we trying to identify folks that might be eligible for reparations I thought this I think I'm thinking yes but not that's not I I understood this as not being the primary reason for the survey um correct me if I'm wrong I think that um yeah right so we're you know so then is there a question about so everyone else who doesn't answer this question is black or african heritage we don't capture their heritage there's not there isn't another question that says what's your heritage no exactly yeah this takes us to particular questions uh yes and there are questions that are set out for all community members and then there are questions that are set out um only for folks who answer yes to this so if we're really focused on black folks of african heritage correct then I say I mean thinking of Dr. Shabazi's example just now then we do want to come black with african heritage so that whoever answers that question goes down a particular route with of the rest of the questions correct but I think the question of immigrants right is that the one you raised Alexis that if well that was using the term african-american african okay so if we say do you identify as black or of african heritage then that question would be correct that's who we're trying to get at with this question what should it be and yes and remember that's what we ended up deciding for an earlier listening session or for the inclusion portal it was black and of um that we've been using sorry I think that's very clear yeah I do just to uh on a point um what I think the function of these identification questions it's not so much we're trying to develop the the listing or the database for who's who then is eligible or anything it's just to be able to um sort of peg different responses to content matters down that that people answer based upon you know that we can cat we can categorize and say here were the responses of the people of african descent who answered or here were the um I I think that's fundamentally no I got I think that's fundamentally what I think we're trying to do we're not trying to develop the list of who who's going to be going forward yeah I think if uh what we need to do is go through this whole thing that we want to present because somebody's somebody's um questions will be answered later later on by the questions that come up uh and so if we go through you will see how this all shakes out and and the follow-up questions that come and then we can come back to this and say all right we need to reword that but um I think we need to go through this because otherwise we're gonna we're not going to see the entire picture we're taking one piece of it at a time when there's really an entire picture we need to look at all right so yeah let's keep going and we'll we'll hold the pin in that and we'll come back to it but I think we've sort of come to a consensus that it's as black and of african heritage but we can okay okay all right so um and then here we have uh this question do identify as descendant of people enslaved in the united states yes alexis would you be able to tell us when the questions have come specifically from like like does this only come up when you answer yes yeah so if you let's just go back here so I'll play I haven't played around with this like because I've been so so see where we said no that skipped that question all together so they don't even see it um so if I'm if I'm filling out this survey I don't I collect no and I don't even know that question exists now for a paper survey that's not going to be the case everybody's going to see everything it just going to have to be more clear where people jump to does that make sense all right cool so let me just go back here let me see actually what it does if you say prefer not to answer that's okay so it also skips okay all right so let's say we say yes here um and then we have uh this question here um and this was or did you want to make any comments on this was this in terms of what the possible answers were was this one of the areas you wanted to comment on or is this not when I look at this now the way when you answer yes or where this then jumps to I think that it then um clarifies what uh what we were discussing before uh in terms of African heritage this makes it clear uh now uh do you identify as the sending of people who slave to the United States so yeah great and this um this allows us to be able to pull out this aggregate the information um as we want to um so I'm going to just go ahead and click yes here and then we'll keep going all right um this as you saw when we um right now because it might not be immediately clear so I'm just going to say this each time is right now everybody gets this question so anybody who is taking the survey will be um and will have this question before them okay so I actually haven't seen what happens if you say no I just want to okay so um let me go back here I think there's something a little wonky about that I'm going to make a note but let's go to yes um because so I think that or we talked about this next set um being only for people who identify as black and of African heritage so um but I think it's right okay um so this is sort of like general um so let's say we say yes from time to time um and then here you have where you can there's no limit you can put as many words in here as you would like um to provide more details okay and then here's where we start to get into these systems that we looked at at the retreat again obviously this is only for people who identify as black and of African heritage so it's the economic the healthcare public elementary and secondary educational system local political system policing courts and judicial system the housing system um and then we talked about the possibility of inviting the respondent to expand on any one of these through example that they may want to share like I had this experience with the police or I had this experience at a doctor's office um and I think some of the conversation that we had is uh what would we be looking to get out of this you know so and Dr. Rhodes do you want to just talk a little bit about what your like thoughts were on that in terms of our report and yeah this is all all this is really a critical data for us to have to put in our report because this is all Amherst specific and it allows us then to compile this data um and in terms of our report when I look at the local political system down there e.g. town council and state government I would take that state government out because we're only talking about our local government because that's who that's who's sponsoring us that's who's giving us the money that's who that's who that's where we live in this particular town and and that we have more say so over than in than state government uh so when I look at that local political system I would take out state government that that's what the way I feel about it uh yes Alexis well could potentially state government doesn't that include our our specific representatives it does it does but um these specific representatives uh are representing not only Amherst but they're representing a whole other groups of people out there other than Amherst Amherst is not the major part of that uh their their representation and uh people on Amherst want to know what Amherst people are thinking about this uh and what they think about you know black people were in African heritage people what did they think about their local government uh if we if we put in state government then we don't know whether they're talking about Amherst or state government there's a two different things well so do you mind what's the what's the very top prompt um just because like there's no for example there's no court that you go to in Amherst like you when you're you either go to the Northampton courthouse or you go to some other one and then like you also don't get jailed in Amherst either so I don't I don't know if we can really exclude I don't know well you know yeah that's a good point I mean if you're talking about courts you're you're absolutely 100 correct uh that the court system is a county system it is not a Amherst system we don't have any Amherst courts uh and and so that's that's actually a good that's a good point uh you know uh Harry actually had suggested that we could remove that one if that yeah well I I think it's it I I personally think that it's important but I think that maybe to specify what like if we're talking about Hampshire county um maybe in the in the local courts and judicial system maybe if we're being specific about like within our jurisdiction or whatever um yeah I don't know yeah it's and the thing is that I come back to is uh if our charge is to look at what's happening in Amherst and we want to get specific feedback on that uh in terms of the harms done as a resident of Amherst by Amherst uh then um you know that question right there uh as far as I'm concerned is is um not necessary Jennifer I see that your hand is raised oh I can hear we can hear you Jennifer oh I was just thinking like um so you know what is here is like wick and uh service net and all the mental health agencies and I don't know where those necessarily fit in on here and then the I when I saw courts too I was wondering because the interesting thing is that you don't go to court and that decision isn't made here but the influence and the whatever happened most likely was was done here right like whatever you're being accused of was that was done here so I don't know how you follow that thread I just but I was really making come wanted to make comment on the fact that things like wicker here and um the other social service agency service net bhn and where did those fit into that interesting yeah interesting um yeah I mean I I guess yeah that one is hard I I mean because I'm looking at it and I think that judicial system it uh I think we ought to take it out and we might think of it in terms of entry points into it in terms of what was that you know I mean a person in Amherst uh goes to through the judicial system if some local incident happens I mean a police incident happened and you're then you're in that court system uh into the judicial system uh in any number of different ways it's how you get to this court uh court system is uh uh how you get to the judicial system is the question that we might want to think about mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah okay and to Jennifer's point do we want to add social services as a system okay great point Jennifer so will any yeah yeah I don't know if it falls under like other but I just thought I would no I think it's its own stand standalone system um I think that's yeah that makes a lot of sense um okay great so let's go on here um is there any preference for would you like to see something at the end that says if you'd like to expand on your experience in any one of these systems or would you like to see the possibility of expanding right under each individual system yes Alexis I I think just to get out there I think that my preference is to have it under each one but I guess I'm wondering I think that I was expecting or wanting that in the last one and so is there a way like before we get to this question you're asked to sort of like broadly speak about it right in in the open thing so I don't know if if like letting people know that like they're going to have an opportunity to speak to each of those different systems but like without having to like do things twice I know that the the folks at the Donahue Institute are going to help us with like arranging that anyways but I don't know that that was my point too when we met with the Donahue I think we could actually just remove this one here and ask the general question and then because then we're bringing them into thinking more a little bit more specifically right so we could have one under each and then we could have something at the end that says if you'd like to expand on you know or provide any more details about your experience and then there's a bigger just moving this basically Jennifer I'm wondering about at the end if you have something or somewhere that says other just because I can't imagine that everybody's that all discrimination falls into these neat little pockets and then also like I didn't see like local businesses but also it's moving so I can't keep up with what's going on and where it is and so I don't know if things like businesses were there no we did not include business community like how would we even say that so it's a housing system a court system a policing system a political system a social services system well that could it could fit under other like so if I feel like I was discriminated in a store then I would put that in other and explain it wherever you gave me the opportunity to explain it because it could be that people just feel like they've been had acts of racism acted towards them from walking down the street and somebody has done something right like I just feel like we can't necessarily sum up everybody's experiences into these just neat categories absolutely absolutely Dr. Rhodes I see that you're talking as there could be one that says community experience I mean which would get it get at something with Jennifer is raising which is important that's something that we have we haven't considered so I think Michelle we need to take that back to Perry yep how we can put that in there absolutely and I think in other category is really good too just to and actually this is a good transition something that we wanted to share with you is originally following this block of questions we had a preamble about the five injury areas of slavery and we had what we covered in our listening session so people hood education all the ones that the five injury areas and we felt that it was a little bit redundant with the exception of people hood and so I would like to invite Dr. Chavaz in particular but anybody to talk a little bit about people hood and where Dr. Rhodes I think had some questions it wasn't clear at all to the Dunny who Institute what people hood was referring to so we talked about is that getting at some of what you're talking about like walking down the street you know I guess I'm just asking yes Alexis well and is that is that represented here in one of these categories because that goes into the like where where is our history even located for example um so no that would be awesome oh um Dr. Chavaz I think I hear um yeah I'm trying to really just say quickly and then get off and respect bonds to this that um the uh the the real question here and I was waiting to just see if it comes up for later on but um where are we asking if a respondent uh knows that they are um uh or believes that they have an ancestor born in the United States who was enslaved um that is is goes deeply toward the the question of you know the distinct ethnic experience the distinct people hood that we're trying to um that we're trying to to address the harms to people hood that we're trying to address this is something that an an a a Jamaican or a Cape Verdean or um you know a Nigerian this isn't relevant to them you see what I'm saying because they have a people hood they have a people hood that they belong to but the people hood we're talking about uh relative to reparative justice the reparations is the people hood of those who ancestors came over in the middle passage were enslaved in this country and and have been robbed of their people hood of their dignity as human beings so this is a very important area of the survey we have to we have to get at thank you uh a mail card uh you know I I agree with you and I think that uh Michelle just brought up this uh previous question that we have up there that says do you identify as descendant of people enslaved in the United States now that's that's we asked that question early on uh now so we've already asked that question so then the question becomes all right when we talk about people hood what do we specifically mean in other words Michelle and I are looking for a way to capture people hood but I for myself absent a clear definitive definition of what that is I don't know how to put this in as a question in terms of people hood so I will I will try to get some things offline for you uh as I as I sit with that that question thank you yeah yeah yeah uh Dr Shabazz if you could uh give us some kind of definition of people hood that we can then run with that would be good got you thank you Dr Shabazz and I think you did actually do that for our listening session so I can send you back what I have for that that's what we originally gave to Kerry and then that can be um added to as well but I I guess I wonder based on this conversation is um does it resonate for assembly members um if you did answer yes to this question um that you would be brought to a question about people hood um in specifically um and to be able to expand on that if you wish I was what was that Dr Roads I was standing that yeah yeah uh and that would yeah to go from there to the whole thing about people and uh which would include that which uh Dr Shabazz comes up with would be good a good idea great okay so we'll we'll Dr Shabazz will work together on that and I would suggest we also tap into the uh uh Deborah Bridges for comments as well because this goes towards some of uh I think the points she has made consistently about the way African people in in Amherst have been erased they've been erased from from the history of this town they continue to be erased in so many ways the the uh um their their presence their impact their uh their sense of belonging those are the things that you're talking about in terms of people hood so yeah it can address the question of place names and roads and this type of thing but it's but it's actually a little deeper than that it's just how you've been erased from the historical experience uh due to due to the systematic racism right and and and Dr Shabazz everything you're saying is is resonates and and all we would want to do is figure out how to capture that uh through the confines of this survey gotcha all right so we've gotten through the systems I have some good comments on that um I'm just going to do a sneak peek ahead I think okay so this is where we're not ready to review yet um with the group because we want to get in a bit of a better shape here and actually I think our conversation today is going to be really helpful so we have uh another meeting set up with the Donahue Institute just to get the eligibility questions in better shape um and so we'll be doing that um let me just see something though I would like to um so skipping ahead quickly uh please get you to be a repair um so because we have actually you know what let me just see let's let's stop there and we're gonna get we're gonna get to the rest of these questions at the next time we meet um there's a whole section on sustaining our work a bunch of questions about that that we want to review and then we also have the demographics we might be able to quickly review this um we talked about this at the retreat but so far we have um how long has your family lived in Amherst how long have you lived in Amherst those are questions and then the housing situation um whether you're a student yes Alexis please I'm so sorry I just have a question about how long has your family lived is that like specific to if you answered um that yes you're black in a African heritage that's a really good question um thank you for asking that one thing I just thought about is like what if you're adopted by white people for example right yep there are numbers and there are yeah yeah let me I'll I'm starring that in my notes um I'm not sure the answer right now but we'll get that um okay and then I just I wanted to actually just bring your attention to one in particular um these are ones that we we have talked about I'm scrolling through them quickly this will not be the last time we look at these but this is the one I really wanted to we wanted to ask you about initially there was an income question and we talked about income not being a good way to determine much of anything really um you know in terms of what we're trying to assess um so we talked about it more in the sense of like your experience um and this is the question that came out of that conversation and I wanted to see how this question sits with people and whether um there is another way that might be better to frame this question yes Jennifer um I don't really know about how to reframe the question but I do wonder how you came up with the last 12 months could someone read it please sure sure it says sometimes people find that their income does not quite cover their living expense costs in the last 12 months has this happened to you and this 12 months to answer your question Jennifer I think Kerry pulled from you know when you go to the pediatricians office and they ask you screener questions like this mm-hmm I think that's where she she she took that from hmm but if you know yeah yeah that's interesting I didn't for whatever reason I I didn't see that well and and is it still are we all since is that all going to be saying you know as a person living in Amherst these does that in other words as a person living in Amherst etc then it goes to all of those things yes that's yeah I don't know go ahead I don't I don't really have any saying whether you keep the question or not but I I would just say I don't understand the time frame of a year um because lots of people go through bumps in and out throughout their I mean to me it seems like a it would be best to say in the time that you've lived in Amherst or or something similar to that but that again it's just me I think that's great yeah sorry there is a there is a specific reason for saying that because it captures that last 12 months because and the reason for you that you want that last 12 months versus during the times you live here it gives us a snapshot of that person's experience over the last 12 months which we having that data would allow us to do a number of things with it on with that and to report back on it because if people were saying wow over the last 12 months they had a had a lot of trouble covering their living costs and Amherst that's that's very powerful information versus over the last two or three years because it's a time stamp that we're looking for well I mean I guess you could break the question into two just because I I understand the 12 months but I also feel like at the same time like we're just coming out of pandemic where a lot of people have been affected and the cost of everything has gone up in the last year two times so it's a little bit it's a little bit different right and so if you ask like have you ever had you know time if so you know has it been in the last 12 months or however you want to word it and that might be able to work out both yeah and and you know for me that having the last 12 months is important because it's just what you said the pandemic caused all kinds of economic dislocations and harm and it's important to capture that because then we'll tie back into not only national data but data from the town and from the county etc I know and I can kind of go back and forth with this for you a little bit so this is the last thing I'm going to say and then I'm going to leave alone because I actually think that we could just do both but like when you think about it the rents went up at the very beginning of the pandemic like all of a sudden like almost double right so they went from being roughly like you know $2,400 for a three-bedroom to $3,600 for a three-bedroom in 2020 because of the way the parents well I don't want to blame the students necessarily but there were such an influx of parents who felt like their kids didn't you know in their years in college need to be home and sent them to live in our community right and so I don't know I I think if we just do both that'll that makes the point and it's fine with me it's just that I capturing that information allows us to get this time stamp and yes everything you said is true but the other thing that is true is that there are costs that have gone up already still impact them in terms of answering this question all right and I see Alexis's hand I I agree with Jennifer and I'm wondering if instead of having a yes no don't know if those options could be how long because what if somebody what if in the last question they said well my family's been living here 50 years and I've never been able to quite cover my living costs or I've like really really struggled it I I don't know if that's as valuable potentially as knowing that it's been rough in the last 12 months and like what what if you just so happened to get a decent job within the last 12 months but you've been here for however long and the entire rest of your life was you know really hard living here um so I I agree with Jennifer I'm wondering if we can get all that information by instead saying like how long has this been true for you if it was true like if it was in the last 12 months within the last you know if it's times rather than yes no yeah well yeah I again I agree with I agree with putting both of them but it is important that we kept and get put a time stamp on this because it allows us to capture that that that sense of pay uh in the last 12 months the last 12 months are obviously going to be impacted by the previous 12 months and whatever would happen to a person uh and that it carries through it's a wave if you had a hard time uh 24 months ago because of increases in rents that carries through to today also because it hasn't changed for you you're still struggling to pay to meet to meet rent or another cost it's still and within that 12 months it doesn't go away the wave that started two years ago is still cresting now but you could potentially have a good job and then lose it for whatever reason and you might have said in here that it was due to discrimination or whatever and then at that point you were able to I don't know I I think there's a good solution I think we can ask sometimes people find that their income does not quite cover their living costs have you experienced that in Amherst if you have if you say yes then you go to a place that time stamps it or shows like I've experienced that for my whole life I sometimes experience that I've experienced that in the last 12 months or whatever and then even have a place where people can just fill in yeah I agree the other thing is just we again we want to make this specific to African Americans or descendants of African Americans we want that information yes that's true okay so I think I'm gonna stop sharing we've gotten really good feedback we still have to call another period of public comment before we can adjourn here so I'm going to go ahead now and call our second period of public comment and I'm not going to read the statement again but essentially if you'd like to make public comment please go ahead and raise your hand and we'll bring you into the room and you will have up to three minutes and we don't necessarily engage but we'll be listening very carefully and Jennifer do you want me to move Kyara in or are you on that there we go thank you good afternoon I just wanted to say about this UMass ACE summit that's happening on Saturday if any member of the Air Charity would like to speak on with the survey and maybe just let people know how they can access it or learn more information updates about when it's going to be released and how they can access from there opportunities definitely available I just want to put that out there thank you thank you so much that is an excellent opportunity for us and I hope that members that Kyara I don't mean to put you on the spot but are you able to join us on Thursday do you know well there will be students there we've been promoting it to students awesome that's so great okay so yeah is there are there any assembly members that was already that were already planning on being there on Saturday we can I think that's just an excellent opportunity and I'll provide all that information to any assembly member who might want to go and speak to the survey in terms of our release date and everything like that thank you thank you Kyara all right are there any other folks who would like to make public comment okay so there were a couple other items on our agenda today but it's gotten late one of them is scheduling our listening sessions with Amherst College Hampshire College and UMass so I am in the process of developing some dates to propose to you all for those so I'll bring those back I also added something something to the agenda final report I wanted to share with the group some thoughts that I have about getting going on our final report and who I've identified in the community that might be able to help us with our final report as well so I'll put that on the agenda for next week so we can talk more about that any questions or assembly member comments and Kyara is your hand is still raised did you want to make additional comment oh no I can lower I didn't know okay any other questions all right so just to quickly wrap up I'm going to send the itinerary for Thursday to everybody Alexis and I will be at noon at the powerhouse for anyone who would like to join and 3 30 at Hazel's kitchen if that time changes I will let you all know and that's just for the assembly to meet with Robin so thank you everyone great meeting and we'll see you on Thursday bye adjourning at 3 26 did you get that Jennifer yes I did 3 26 okay bye bye