Editor’s note: This article was updated at 3:40 p.m. on July 30 with a comment from the owners of the Yellow Deli.
[R]UTLAND — About 80 people sat in a circle at Rutland High School Thursday night and took turns sharing how they experienced hate and racism in the community at a forum hosted by Attorney General TJ Donovan.
Several Rutland residents said they feel unwelcome in the city because of overt racism in the schools, the police department and on social media.
Isaura Izquierdo said she was moving out of Rutland because of the hatred her family experienced.
“I miss being around different people,” she said.
Izquierdo said a family member of hers was recruited to a group called Twelve Tribes, which teaches that Martin Luther King Jr. was filled with “evil spirit” for his role in civil rights.
Twelve Tribes operates the Yellow Deli on Center Street, Izquierdo said. She said the group teaches that black people should answer to the “white man” and share the same views as the Ku Klux Klan.
“I want all of our leaders to know this is an active, working white supremacist group,” she said.
Nehemyah Scott, an owner of Yellow Deli, said in a phone interview that he and other owners were part of Twelve Tribes — also known as the The Yellow Deli People. But he denied that the organization was racist.
“We don’t have any racist beliefs. We are part of the Twelve Tribes but we love people,” Scott said, adding that there was a proliferation of misinformation circulating about the group “because of our specific beliefs about the son of god and teachings.”
He said the group believes that loving its neighbors — regardless of their class, race or background — was part of showing their love for god. “We invite anybody to come visit us and come see what it’s about.”
The Hate-Free Vermont forum in Rutland was the third in a five-part series. Prior forums were held in Winooski and Hartford.
Moderator Etan Nasreddin-Longo, who sits on the Criminal Justice Training Council, said the level of rage expressed in Rutland was unlike what people have experienced in Winooski or Hartford.
“I’m moved by the pain that has been expressed in here this evening,” he said, fighting back tears as he spoke to the group. “I don’t see any hope unless people are talking.”
Nasreddin-Longo said he was terrified about coming to Rutland after he read a slew of comments on public officials’ Facebook pages.
Days before the forum, one person commented on former Alderman Ed Larson’s Facebook page that there would be riots. Another person said the Hate-Free Vermont forum was held just to look like there was a problem so they could get funding.
A week prior to Larson’s post, Aldermen Paul Clifford posted a meme on his Facebook page that read, “White privilege, the ability to suffer indignities without blaming another ethnic group.”
Alderman Melinda Humphrey shot back on her public Facebook page.
“Wow Alderman Paul Clifford,” Humphrey wrote on July 15, “thanks for telling us how you really feel—so there’s no question about it. I couldn’t disagree with you more. PS your privilege is showing.”
Clifford has since apologized to the board, but Humphrey wasn’t sure that was enough.
“As aldermen we make decisions on behalf of everyone in the community,” Humphrey said in an interview. “Our mindset matters when we make decisions on behalf of others.”
Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, said the message Rutland is sending to tourists could hurt its economic prosperity.
“Rutland’s economic growth is directly tied to its ability to attract consumers of color to this area,” Reed said at the forum. “If the narrative is, ‘this is a place where hate thrives,’ then you can expect your economic prosperity to tank.”
Donovan is holding the forums around the state with the Vermont NAACP and the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity and Racial Disparities Panel as part of an effort to address backlash from a recent racial harassment case.
Earlier this year, Donovan declined to file criminal charges when former House Rep. Kiah Morris, D-Bennington, was threatened online because of her race. The attorney general acknowledged in January that Morris, the state’s only female African American legislator, was the target of racial harassment, but he said the First Amendment protected the perpetrator, Max Misch, a white supremacist.
Morris resigned as a state rep last August.
“It sparked a conversation in this state about how complicated this issue is, legally speaking,” Donovan said.
Donovan remained quiet throughout most of the forum on Thursday.
“A lot of this stuff has to be addressed by a community,” Donovan said in an interview. “This isn’t about us. I don’t have the answers, but this is a start.”
Tabatha Moore, president of the Rutland area NAACP, said people were furious about how Donovan handled the incident with Morris.
“He missed a big opportunity … to strengthen our stance in our state in relation to what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable related to threats and hate speech and racism,” said Moore in an interview.
Some at the forum said part of the issue is a lack of education.
Heather Stevenson, a teacher at the Tutorial Center in Manchester, said some students are called “terrorists” at school because of their race.
“Students of color have basically been bullied out of the school system,” she said.
Meanwhile, Moore’s 16-year-old daughter Reese said students and teachers at Mill River Union High School are ignorant about black history and how it should be taught. She said some students have keychains, shirts and car stickers displaying the Confederate flag.
“It hurts to see that, to see the ignorance in that school,” she said. “There are people who like to say the ‘N-word’ just because they think it’s cool.”
Moore urged people in the room to talk with black people about how they are coping in the community, but she warned them that people of color are tired of telling their stories.
“For us to rip out our souls so you may or may not get it … you’re going to find a response to that,” she said.
For Moore, the forum was about making people realize that Rutland has issues with racism, despite Facebook comments that say otherwise.
“We’re in a place where we’re still reconciling the fact that racism is a thing, it happens here and it happens often and it affects everything,” she said.
Moore called the forum “painful,” but necessary.
“I’m exhausted and I’m glad it happened,” she said. “It needs to. If we’re going to make progress, we have to deal with the pain.”
