 Hello and welcome. I am Mark Hughes with the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. Welcome welcome welcome and I wanted to just take some time to get you familiar with who we are very briefly we will be having a conversation with you this afternoon about systemic racism here. The mission of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance is to secure sustainable power ensure agency and provide security for American descendants of slavery while embracing their history and preserving their culture. I am the executive director. Again, welcome. What you can expect to hear from from me this afternoon is I'm going to give you a little bit of a breakdown on systemic racism. You'll walk away understanding better how to identify it and what to do about it. We're the, we're the idea come from turning the curve on systemic racism. You may not know but at a statewide level. Some of the policy work that we've been doing has led to a joint resolution from the legislature, which has declared racism as a public health emergency. So we decided to lift a campaign referred to as turning the curve on systemic racism, building back a healthier Vermont. Why might you ask that would we be talking about building back a healthier Vermont what we know is is that there are a lot of impacts that racism has on us and what we want to do here as we move through the the COVID crisis is we want to move on the other side of it with a with a mindset that we want to do do something better we're going to do something different because what we know is is that the virus laid bare a lot of the impacts of systemic racism within our community and across our state. Before I got started I wanted to share with you a statement that was made from the United Nations and this is a report of the working group of experts and people of African descent on its mission to the United States in 2016. And this is what it says it says there's a profound need to acknowledge that the transit glad the transatlantic trade in African enslavement, colonization and colonialism were a crime against humanity. And are among the major sources and manifestations of racism racial discrimination, Afro phobia, xenophobia and related intolerance, past injustice and crimes against American African Americans need to be addressed with Reparatory justice so I just wanted to start with that because, yes it is the United Nations, they're telling us something needs to be repaired here in the United States of America. They go on to say that in addition to above the working group urges the government of the United States of America to consider the ratification of the core international human rights trees to which the United States is still not a party with a view to removing any gaps in the protection and full enjoyment of rights there in it also encourages the United States to ratify the regional human rights treaties to review the to review the reservations related to the treaties that it has signed or ratified so I just wanted to share that because it's always good. Let's go let's get on the outside. Let's take a look at what folks are looking at, you know in terms of the United States from the outside in. So, quite often what we don't realize is is that there's, there is a another perspective we there are various competing perspectives of what's going on with this thing called systemic racism on the inside of the United States. Let's get an outside opinion so. So here we go just want to get into a working definition this is so important. This piece about this working definition of systemic racism is incredibly important let me tell you why this is at some another we have to come to terms with understanding with some of those core aspects or some of those, those, those core characteristics if you will, of systemic racism so we can arrive at an agreed upon definition so we know who we're talking about so we all agree that we're talking about the same thing. This definition from Joe Fagan and Kimberly do see from their book called races America is what we've settled on there are many. And you know I think that there are also some common characteristics though that that you will find here. We're going to unpack this for a few minutes. This is what it says it says systemic racism. It includes a complex array of anti black practices, the unjustly gained political economic power of whites. The continued economic and other resource inequalities along racial lines and the white racist ideologies and attitudes created to maintain and rationalize white privilege and power. And it goes on to say basically, it exists, if it exists anywhere exists everywhere. So again, unjustly political economic power. This is this is a complex array. The other thing is continuing economic and other resource inequalities around along racial lines. And then you got the racist ideologies and attitudes created to maintain and rationalize white privilege and power. Is this anywhere exists everywhere. So that is really what we're framing up here today so when we're talking about racism we're talking about systemic racism, you know, we must learn how to delineate over racism from systemic racism. And that's the topic of this conversation. I'm going to show you how we can, we can talk a little bit about its origins will tell you a little bit about where it came from. And we'll also talk about what we can do about it but first I want to give you just some, some major elements of systemic racism. What I want to understand is is where this leaves people of color is impoverished and where it leaves white people as being enriched so definitely there is that that disconnect that that delineation between, you know, where where's the money going. There's a vested group interest among white people, alienating racist relationships between white people and people of color. And as you see this systemic racism is actually causing overt racism in some ways, the cost in the burdens of racism are born on people of color, racial power of white elites, and then of course, you have the power ideas assumptions and world views that go along with this business of racism. And then finally, what you have is is your and you're always going to have is is you're going to have this resistance to racism, which is why we're here. See, so these are some like 10 of the common attributes that you're always going to, you're going to see. Let's talk about some impacts. What we'll do here is as well. What I did is just threw up on your screen out a census of the United States why am I starting here. The reason why I'm starting here is because what we know is is when we start with understanding the baseline of the demographics of our population. It helps us to better understand disparities as they exist across all systems. So we're going to come back to this as a baseline. What we see here is is that the black and African American percentage the population in the United States is roughly about 13.4% white alone, you see somewhere around 76.5%. We've got some breakouts down there. Asians at 5.9% Hispanics at 18.3%. So very important numbers to understand we just finished another census. These are estimated numbers, but we just finished another one. But these are these are good baseline numbers for us to be watching out for as we dig into the data, because if we're going to look at the impact that has been caused across all of these systems. It's important to understand what we're measuring it against. Let's talk a little bit about poverty and what we see here and this is according to the souls of poor folks this is an auditing auditing America this is from the poor people's campaign a national call for more revival. This these data came out over just the last few years, you see again, where blacks are poor about 63 per 60.3% or 25.9 million people we we know we see the top line of 140 million people. According according to the poverty line and they said may not necessarily be consistent with the one that the feds are using, but what we're looking at is we're looking at the poverty line consistently across all of these numbers. So what we see is is that this slide tells you one thing. Most black people are poor, but most poor people are white. That's what we're that's what we're getting at here and the message and we'll get into it we'll get into that a little bit more but and what that really equates to is this and this alone is is what you see is is there is a wealth, a median household wealth. Disparity a median household wealth disparity and what you'll see there is as roughly and this is in 2016, where without durable goods, you see that the median wealth of a white household is 140 point $5,000. The median wealth of a black family is $3,400. So what we know and what we understand is is that there are massive wealth disparities wealth disparities here in the United States, and in Vermont. Here are some numbers from the public assets Institute, some of these data sources are from the also the census Bureau of the American Community Survey, 2018. But what we see here is is that there's also poverty disparities as well. Here are some outcomes in Vermont. So you might ask yourself why are we talking about. Why are we talking about all of these disparities why are we talking about, you know, this these numbers what so in order to understand this is systemic racism we must, you know, at the, what we first must do is is understand. Again, our population outcomes, but we also need to understand. But understanding on the disparities that are being created. So, we're going to talk a little bit a little bit about, you know, what all those disparities look like. And then after that we're going to go into maybe where they came from. So take a look here. What you see here is is you see that 52.2% of Vermont blacks were vast vaccinated with at least one dose. And that that white vaccination rate is at 61.5%. We see 37% of blacks and third graders proficient in the language where 50% whites are we see that there's 2.5 times black Vermont students receiving multiple days of suspension compared to their numbers. That is a white their white counterparts and the numbers go on ranging from folks who are stopped for prisoner folks who are in prison. Here's some telling numbers we started to top with the 1.5% residency here in Vermont of black folks. And then it goes in it goes on this you see here to median household income. There's a difference thereby with over 2023 or $24,000 unemployment rates, 4.4%, which is believe it or not, better than the national rates, because throughout all history the unemployment rate for blacks have been twice that white. You've got 25.9% black population at the outer below the power level as opposed to 10% for whites 24.4% black homeowners as opposed as opposed to 72% which are white. And here's a stark one that will just blow your mind and that is point 2% point 2% of Vermont farms are owned by black folks. That is all. So what we know is is that there are impacts that systemic racism has on black and brown folks and whether it is, you know, in education whether it is in unemployment, whether it is in health services. These numbers are collectively staggering and what I mean by that is is it would be okay, maybe not okay, but it would be maybe understandable perhaps, or maybe we could get our heads around it. If one of these things were true but remember in that definition that I laid down to you at the top of this conversation, if it exists anywhere. If it exists, it exists everywhere. In fact, it should be it would be troublesome if there were certain areas where it or most areas where it didn't. The reason why would be troublesome is because there'd be deeper issues, but, or, but what we have is broader issues. And that is is, you know, we have impact coming at the black community from all directions. You know, African Americans of descent, American descendants of slavery, you know, besides culturally, what we see is they're being impacted from the health services system. The income and wealth sector, the education sector, housing and land child development and youth safety and security so what we see is is systemic racism impacting black and brown folks, coming from all sides and obviously, also exacerbated by COVID-19. So that is the challenge. That's why we started this conversation from a health perspective. That's why we're talking about this being a health emergency. I want to talk a little bit about, you know, how we got where we are. And I think a lot of folks, you know, I think where we miss it is as we miss our national history, a lot of folks are telling us today don't talk about our national history. You know, we were, we were taught a lot about history in schools actually required. The fact is, is that we just weren't taught a lot about our true history. We weren't talk about, we didn't talk a lot about our complete history. So I think, you know, a lot of it, you know, starts and stops with our civil war and post civil war history. You know, lately we know that the 1619 story has emerged. We also understand, you know, our nation's history of slavery, the fact that we founded our nation and slavery that we defined whiteness in the House of Burgess in the early 1600s. And it was that definition that began to allocate resources across the United States. You know, we had horrible decisions in our courts, Dred Scott. You know, we can talk about Plessy versus Ferguson. There are many instances across our history, where we haven't done well but I like to kind of pick up in what they call a great compromise in 1877 because this was the fall of reconstruction. And what do we mean by that well most people don't know that after reconstruction that black folks in the United States had more political and economic power than they have had in all history to include today. In fact, there was a governor in Mississippi who was a black governor. There was the majority of the lower house of South Carolina's legislature was black. The majority of them, there were black business owners, black newspaper owners. There were black communities that thrive very well. We, you know, so these, this all, you know, the reconstruction 1314 15th amendment created created this and made it all possible in a lot of ways. What happened during that time because what we knew what we know is that the federal troops went in and occupied the south. They occupied the south because the former slave holders were pressing black and brown folks during that time and they wanted to ensure their freedom that there was a reparations settlement in the south, initially. But what happened is that was immediately taken back because President Lincoln Lincoln was killed before the war ended. And they began to immediately roll back some of these reparative processes but it definitely took reparations off the table and gave the land back to the folks who were in South Carolina and Georgia on the coastal shores. However, you know, reparations did continue to be. I would say the reconstruction did continue to thrive until 1877 with the Tilden, Rutherford behays election. There was a compromise where the Republicans who were the abolitionist party kept the White House. And I think the compromise was as they pulled the troops out of the south which caused, which caused the reconstruction to fall, it caused it to completely fall. In other words from somewhere around 1877 onward we took a U turn as a nation. And I think that's a lot of the history that we don't learn about we don't learn about the white backlash. We don't learn about the mass exodus of folks out of the south because of convict leasing because of sharecropping which is how my parents arrived in the north. We don't talk about the, the red Sunday or the, you know, the time frame around Black Wall Street or Wilmington, or we don't talk about the dozens and dozens of others across the United States at the turn after the turn of the century or the war, the, or the birth of the nation film in the White House under Woodrow Wilson, we don't talk about the redlining. We don't talk about the impacts of the GI bill, or even how the politically the Southern strategy has been used to pit us against one another and have us vote against our own best interests. We don't talk about, you know, how all of this has led to the white lash in the white nationalism that has occurred because it's never been resolved. So, it's important for us to take a look at how there has been a contiguous connection to the history, how there have been many things in our nation that have been left unresolved. That, that is to say at the close of the war. There was no reconciliation, the Civil War, there was no reparation, there was, there was no ideology, there was no, you know, it was, it was all put behind as it we were, we as a nation decided it was too painful or too troublesome or too political to deal with the issues at hand. So we move forward as a nation after 1965, which took us to 1877. So that 12 years. You know, although there was a great turn for this nation was probably the best 12 years at this nation has had because all the way up into the civil rights movement. We have been the nation has has has oppressed has has sought to oppress and to walk back. I should say or even make worse, the, the, the issue surrounding race in this nation. So it's been a constant fight every since we know that the civil rights era, you know brought did bring about some change but we know that we have we have since even lost a lot of ground since then. It's amazing that today that we're still talking about voter rights right now across the United States and we're seeing the again yet another backlash across the states. You know, I think if there's one thing for us to remember in this conversation and that is this, and that is to understand that the war of 1865 the Civil War itself. It is a point of demarcation it is a time in history that we must pay attention to. We must consider the outcomes of and consider the, you know, those things that were not resolved as a result of it. And I think that as we move into this next era, it, you know, if we are to continue to ignore what happened and did not happen during this time, we will never be able to realize and appreciate where it is that we're trying to go. I think it's really important for us as a nation also to understand the creation of wealth in this nation you know as we know we're talking about wealth if we're talking about systemic systemic racism. And what we know is is that from from the point in which white indentured servants were replaced with African slaves, and given the authority to actually oversee them or to, or to round them up. You know, all the way through the naturalization act, the Indian removal act, the homestead act which granted 270 million acres of land to white people. The, the, the alien land laws and many, many other governmental programs that provided access for white people to land, as well as to capital, following through through the Jim Crow laws and even the New Deal, as well as the GI Bill social security itself. The Wagner act which permitted non white exclusion, even the federal housing administration buys existence by by creating exclusionary loan eligibility as well as participating in redlining. You see federal subsidies for suburb for suburban neighborhoods where did the suburban neighborhoods come from. Well, the GI Bill provided for hundreds of thousands of GIs who returned from war, who are white, not black afforded opportunities to purchase homes in conjunction with the federal housing administration. What we see here is is all of this enabled the creation of the suburbs themselves. Well, then they needed transportation back into the city center for essential services and so forth. So the transportation agency kicked in and ran transportation which in the form of major highways through the center of many of these black neighborhoods by for cating them and also increasing the traffic through their neighborhoods. So all of this stuff goes together. The creation of wealth of America was it was it's well documented that it was done by America by the federal state and local government. All of this amassing of wealth transferable wealth generational wealth was created by public policy. Well, a lot of folks ask us, you know, well, what's going on here how do you actually see a systemic racism where is systemic racism. I don't see it. I heard a gentleman the other day say, Well, I don't see it. It must not exist. I don't understand what you guys are trying to fix here. Show me systemic racism, and then I will help you fix it is what he said. The truth is, is as our previous series said is is is actually hidden in plain sight. It's, but it's not hidden if you look for it. And I think you're less incentivized if you benefit from it. What we see here is is just the the system that criminalizes poverty. Now let's just do a quick review and talk a little bit about what we've just learned, because what we've just learned is is that the vast majority of black people are poor, and the vast majority of poor So what that really means then is if you if you have policy that adversely impacts the poor, although you will impact more white people in number, the vast majority of black people will be impacted so the criminalization of poverty is one at the top of our list. What do we mean by the criminalization of poverty when we create laws, very much like the black laws or Jim Crow laws that have existed on our books then there are relics of which still exists, but this is still going on. It's not just residual but it's perpetuating is is there are there are many laws where they could range from parking. They could, it could be Lord loitering. In fact, there are some constitutions to include the state of Vermont that says that if you are, you know for the punishment of crimes, not just for the punishment of crimes but for the punishment of debts and fines and fees and the like. And this is pervasive throughout all on fight. In fact, our, our title 13 which is criminal law says that one can be incarcerated if he is unable to pay fines or debts and so forth. So this is at its very heart and there are many, many, many other flavors. We won't spend too much time on that but, you know, we can talk about voting laws for the next 20 minutes, or the next 20 days in terms of how historically, and especially now with the emergence of your voting laws across the United States again that seek to cause, cause it to be difficult to vote, especially for black and brown folks, based upon the way that these laws are tailored. The list goes on and on. Are you beginning to see the connection to this post this post civil war mess that was created. The education system itself, the vestiges of affirmative action in education in order to allow to enable black folks to be able to get into universities based upon harm that was called cause previously died with Fisher versus the University of Texas back a number of years but the education system is a much broader challenge though there are many issues in terms of disproportionate suspension and expulsion rates, disproportionate rates of outcomes of higher education and the list goes on and on. The education system is a long conversation but the system itself relies upon federal funding and many of these systems rely upon federal funding we'll talk a little bit about that later but the, and we, but the whole reliance on federal funding means you have to adhere to the criteria. But we'll talk a little bit about the electoral college right now. The electoral college obviously is a remnant. It's a, it's a vestige of it came right out of the Civil War and initially implemented to provide to offset the balance of power that the southern states were free fearful that they did not have because they feared that the northern states were more powerful in in their in terms of their electoral power. So they wanted to balance that power so instead of having a popular vote because it was more populous in the north. What they would do is they would have, they would have a electoral college where it would bounce things out we see how that is working the filibuster itself does this sound familiar given a time right now, but the filibuster is a remnant. It's a remnant to allow again that minority because at the time what we would what it was agreed upon it was in some would say in an over compensation is is to give the minority vote. In other words those who are fewer in a body in a political body, the ability to have the leverage to slow the conversation down to slow the deliberations down to be able to gain additional ground in the deliberations. And so what we see now is how that's repeatedly been used. And now, you know, all you have to do is turn the television on and you will understand the impact of the filibuster today. The political appointment process wait a minute, historically throughout all history, it has been a white male usually a land owner who has been able to run for political offices and then just over this last century that has changed quite a bit but you still see the remnant of that. And then they too, of course, they have the appointment process because the executive that's appointed usually appoints their political appointees by definition. Interestingly, it's it is historically also been the same group of people who are able to vote as the same as the as the folks who would would be able to run for office if you know if you know what I mean. So you've got to think about what this creates in the power that that builds over centuries. You know, so we can talk more about that but we'll talk a little bit about the tax system itself I think I have a slide on the tax system and how it was created to benefit those with white political and economic power. The tax systems when you think about the precedents today, here's one huge example I gave you one of Fisher, but here's a huge example as we see that the court system is stacked six to three right now, leaning conservative and it's never in history been anything because one small example, and that was still problematic. But what we know about the court is is that you cannot use it isn't it is unconstitutional for you to use the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any derivative to repair to repair the harm that was caused by laws by lawsuits on the previous slides that I showed you to so it's not possible to go into a court and say, Well, we want to repair this. So we have a right to do so because they were because we have a group of folks who were injured. So it is unconstitutional to do that. So that there you have it it's right there in the courts in the court system has many other presidents which is a another presentation that will will have for you. The public engagement process itself, where what we have is is we have situations to where community entities, state entities regional entities are required by law to engage the public in many cases, specific demographic demographics to say those were disproportionately impacted, that is to say black and brown and poor people or folks who are having or have English as their second language. So they're disproportionately impacted. And so there's a requirement that the government must that the entity must reach out specifically to that population to ensure that what they're doing, either benefits them because the funding allocation was designed to do so, or it is at a minimum not harming them. So the question is, is how's that working out for us. How do these, how do these entities engage the public. How are these entities are these demographics actually being reached in a truly democratic participated process, whereby they are actually engaged in these processes, and that's probably not happening in the courts forum, if you know what I mean. So, the, this is how these things play out so this this money becomes misallocated because folks who it is intended for, they are not involved in the process, nor are they a recipient or a benefactor of its of its acquisition. And of course, with that comes brings us to is is federal and state funding access requirements, there are many, there are multiple access requirements, that is to say, for the state for the local municipality, whereby there are certain criteria that they can use in order to access these fundings. Why is that important and why does that even matter. Well, in many in some cases in several cases that we have found in many cases in fact, the criteria itself creates disproportionate adverse impacts in our black and brown and poor folks. What does that mean that means the policy is racist is policy violence. And, you know, what local and state in federal local and state entities as they're requesting this money what they have to way out is is it more important that they that they acquire the the economic resources, or do they abstain from acquiring economic resources and yield to what is more important is the folks the demographic population in the community. That might seem hard to understand, but it's not it's very simple. That is to say, yes, there are policies statewide policies, as well as federal policies, where the requirement to actually ascertain those economic assets. It requires a, an entity a state entity to act against the better, you know, against the best wishes or the will rather of black and brown and poor folks in their own communities. Yes, and one and one of the examples that I'll give you just off the top of my head is title nine, where, in which our own human rights commission here in the state of Vermont is required is required to include language and their policy that requires if a person comes in, and they are adjudicating a case in that the HRC may dismiss that case prior to the time that it has been investigated. They may dismiss that case prior to the time that has actually been investigated. Okay, and so that is in the reason why that latitude is there is because HUD, the funds that they get from HUD requires that like well that language is a HUD policy, and their policy must be consistent with HUD sounds a little complicated complicated, but it's not what are the implications well the HRC protects the civil liberties of everybody across all public accommodations housing education employment here in the state. So yes, it's usually significant the bottom the last one data erasure, what is data erasure mean. We saw at the top of this presentation that without data, we can't really measure where we are, and we can't really see the impacts of systemic racism. If there's no data, then you can't see it. If you can't see it, it doesn't exist. Now one of the things that we've done, really, and it's the same thing with history. It's the same, same, you know, when we, when we talk about, we hear people saying, Oh, no, well we don't want to talk about history. Because, you know, what that what that does is that that's one of those things where all you're really doing is just you're just trying to get everybody piled up, you know, you, you want to, you know, you know, you want to apply this critical race theory, and you're going to make us all feel bad about ourselves and I will know if we don't, if if we don't know about history, then we have no idea how we got to a place to where we are to where we're looking at this whole idea of systemic racism. Because we can just assume that somehow or another. Oh, it's just happenstance. It just, you know, it's just, you know, I don't know how we got here so ironic, so weird. But when we connect the dots and we reconcile with our true history, then what we can do is we can take a look at what we're seeing right here in front of us, and we can see it for what it is. History erasure is just as important as data erasure. But when you start thinking about data erasure, the reason why it's important for us to begin to go out and find those data that you saw at the top of this presentation is so we can begin to understand how to baseline what we're looking at. And so we can figure out whether those trends are going north or south. Here's that tax code stuff I was telling you about. With federal tax policies in their administration, they don't need to be explicitly race based either the entrench or worsen these long standing racial inequities, or to promote racial equity and inclusion. Historical racism and contemporary patterns of racial discrimination and bias deeply affect a household's income, the types of income, their savings, their consumption. So they also influence the federal tax codes impact on households on different races. So yes, the tax code itself. The tax code itself is is not just a relic it is a standing pillar of systemic racism. If you look how it's administered. So, one of the things that, you know, we hear people talk about a lot is is, you know, when we talk about systemic racism say what are you going to do about it. I think, you know, for those of you who are watching in the end, what this is for is this, this is for folks who know and understand that there's something awry. There's no one understand that there's, you know, there is, there's got to be something to this. You know what, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get you to see and understand that if we take a look at history, and we connect that to our data and what we're looking at that right there. What it does is it gives us, you know, the ability to see it to be able to see systemic racism if you don't connect these two, you can't see it. The connection of these two, that enables you to see it, but who cares if you see it, if you're not going to do anything about it. So this is where the personal work comes in. And the personal work, it has to do with continuing to educate ourselves, number one. And it also has to do with actually getting in action. And I think part of that, when we start talking about outreach and education, you know, we say that, you know, very generically. And I'm not going to get into a lot of details. But what I'm telling you is it's so incredibly important for us to talk to our people. Okay, it is very important for you some of the best work, especially with white people is is to make sure that you are taking what you know, not just increasing upon it, but sharing it, especially when it's uncomfortable, especially when you get to a point to where, you know, it is a challenge to you. So incredibly important that, you know, the knowledge that you have is to be able to each one to each one to take this message out to be able to talk to one another. But what I know, and what you know is is there are no white families. There are no white families that that do not have someone who's being impacted by this to the extent that they're acting it out in an overt manner racist. Okay, there's no white families that done that doesn't have that there are all all white families have someone in a system that is working every single one of these systems that's working every day that sees and identifies the policies that are coming down from various agencies and also that they are implementing, and they're seeing the impact that they're having. And this leads me to my second point is is, there is, I've never met a white person who has not silently witnessed black oppression, not one, every group that I've been in every time I've asked the question, I've never got a hand it goes up. So what that means is is it's a great opportunity as as folks share to say hey speak up we'll come back to that in a minute. So engagement advocacy, and then here's some organizational work that can be done some organizational work that really speaks to at its core, you know, a programmatic approach to addressing systemic racism within your organization. This is, this is what was fleshed out in our work in what we use to create the racial equity executive director position here in the state of Vermont. This is what I've incorporated into my engagement methodology at the racial equity association, my LLC my consulting LLC shameless plug. Until somebody tells us until somebody tells me that there's a different programmatic approach to addressing an organization. Then this is where where I'm standing right now, but it is a place to start and I want to flag the last one which is accountability. Turning the corner with us, you know, what the what the Vermont racial justice alliance, the work that we're doing. We've got four swim lanes one is platforms and initiatives you'll see that manifested with a CT at the statewide level, as well as the race and Phoenix ride, rise here in the biggest town in Burlington, Vermont. There is outreach and education what are we teaching root causes impacts solutions for systemic racism. We're not teaching implicit bias. We're teaching about systemic racism. What does that mean. What is the history. What does that connect with. What are the impacts, where the numbers where's the data, so we can see it so we can do something about it. Community engagement and support a full range of activities and also cultural empowerment. So when you start talking about platforms and initiatives, you know, you can go out on our website take a look and see what some of that progress looks like you check the blog. Education education there are numerous events, as well as numerous presentations that we give throughout the community. This is just a handful of them. There are many more with community engagement and support. Everything from small business grants to financial support individual assistance all the way down the personal and professional skills which would mean everything from adult basic education to basic computer skills, business cultivation and so forth. We are interested whether in organic arrangements or in partnerships and moving this this this thing forward. This is what we're doing with community engagement and support as far as far as cultural environments. Yeah, you know you'll see as engaged in ranging from Juneteenth to our own very own first, first African landing day, various commemorations observances celebrations events affinity spaces. Who are we as black folks where did we come from what is our power what is our history what is our culture, what is our, what is our resilience. And I think these things you'll see them coming, you'll see them playing out. Now as far as your engagement this slide is not complete. As far as your engagement, you know whether it's the city console whether it is the Burlington police departments school board meetings, the school board DI diversity equity inclusion meetings. There is a racial disparities panel that came from the work some of the work that we've done as well as the racial equity panel and the governor's workforce equity and diversity and a fairness and impartial policing committee and the list goes on with all types of organizations that you could be involved with where you can engage where you can ensure that you are there, that you are showing up that you are hearing what's going on that you are contributing to what's going on it's what you can do. It is a reasonable service. How do you address systemic racism. You know when when we talk about addressing systemic racism at the heart of it is economic disparity so why are people not paying attention to money. How is money being spent in your community how's money being spent in your school how's money being spent in your organization and who is benefiting at the end of the day. That is as simple as that if you are benefiting it's hard for you to dial into this is hard for a person to be incentivized to find to look into and look out for those who are not benefiting, but that is our challenge that is our charge. What happens when you find it alert the system escalated immediately why because more times and not you're not going to be dealing with somebody who can who has the ability the authority or the will to address it otherwise, it probably wouldn't be going on escalated immediately and organize more more times and not even if you get to the right place in the organization, they would prefer to deal with you as an individual, because it's easier to brush under the rug. It's easier to pay you off. Yeah, I said pay you off. That means, you know, offering political and economic power to you, or giving you or, you know, making you feel good about yourself or giving you the privilege to talk to them and so on and so on and so forth. But what you must do is organize and demand transformation know not change transformation. That is, this is how we address systemic racism. We have to target policy, and we need to start at home. What does that mean everybody wants to go out and change national policy politics, starting home. In your child school. In fact, I'll even take you a little bit further in your house in your bedroom in your bed, your spouse, speaking to the folks who are closest to you, all of this starts at home, bringing this thing in as closest to you as possible and saying, why is this, why is that we have to transform this and stop diluting it. Don't dilute it, don't dilute it. When we say dilute it what we're talking about is is, you know, the zero to 60 speed that a conversation about systemic racism turns into a gender conversation turns into an LGBTQIA conversation turns into a, a, a migrant worker conversation turns into an indigenous American conversation. I want to assure you that as much as effort that was placed into singularly addressing this thing when it was built. If at any given time we had the full commitment as a nation to singularly address it, it would completely eradicate every single one of the aforementioned rising tides do lift all ships, but you just have to start at the right one. So let's stop diluting this and let's have a real conversation about it. Our history matters. Our history matters. When we start taking a look at where we've been as a nation, you know, it's important for us to take a look at 1619 is important for us to take a look at 1865 is an important for us to take a look at 1877 1920 1940 1970. It's important for us to take a look at 2020. There's, there's been a lot of stuff that's happened but that I can assure you, there's a, there's a connection. There's a continuity that has existed across all this history, which is why today, even today, we can see a Confederate flag waving in the capital building on an insurrection day on January 6 of 2021, because it has never stopped, because it has never been resolved. So, yes. All of our history matters. All of it. So there's going to be a fight over how to repair this thing and when to repair this thing. How do I know because it has been through all history. So in closing, you know, I just came to tell you that yes, systemic racism. There, there is a, you know, there is a public health emergency in play right now. You know, as, as these folks you're looking at right here fighting over this W. What I'm telling you is that there is a sense of urgency. The sad, the sad part about it is as we've come through a global pandemic and a national reckoning with race. And we've still yet to understand and to get the sense of urgency that must exist here. Hope is not lost. We have not given up. We're going to continue to put this message out across the state, across the, across the nation that racism is a public health emergency. It is time for us to turn the curve. It is time for us to turn the curve on systemic racism. So we can once and for all live up to the commitment that we've made as a nation one nation under God indivisible, liberty and justice for all we hold these truths to be self evident that all meaning women are created equal. Largely these statements have been aspirational up until now. It's time for us to move beyond this aspirational message and move to a point to where we're doing the best we can for everybody in this nation. So thanks for coming out. Feel free to reach out to us. Contact information will post up. Thank you.