Craftsbury officials have formed a task force to examine racial justice and equity, about a month since a dispute over a Confederate flag at a Black Lives Matter rally raised tensions in town.
The move came during a Craftsbury Selectboard meeting Tuesday night that drew between 50 and 60 people, virtually and in person, to discuss racism in the Orleans County community — or reject that it exists there.
“There are going to be some very serious conversations, and a lot of it is going to be very uncomfortable,” said Leanne Kinsey, owner of the Blackbird Bistro restaurant. “But there are people in this community suffering that don’t feel that sense of peace and welcoming that a lot of us do.”
A group of residents began planning a proposal for a task force in the weeks following the June 10 rally, where demonstrators condemned racism in law enforcement after the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
As members of the 200-person crowd began making speeches, resident Jasper “Jay” Wright arrived in a pickup truck with his teenage son and a friend in the back.
The teens waved two flags — one Confederate, the other reading “Don’t Tread on Me” — as Wright drove past protesters.
Rally-goers confronted the trio, spurring a month of renewed debate in a town struck in recent years by incidents of racial, sexual or gender–based animosity.
Advocates for the task force cited feelings of fear and instances of intimidation in calling for the committee to be formed.
Matt Allen, a backer of the task force proposal, read aloud several notes from people who signed a letter of support.
“I don’t spend much time in town as my boyfriend is Black, and I don’t feel safe bringing him to town,” read one.
John Zaber, a faculty member at Sterling College in town, recounted an incident of hatred toward his family:
“A couple years ago, I was ready to move out of Craftsbury because our daughter — because of her identity — was harassed on the streets of Craftsbury by residents of Craftsbury,” he said.
Forming the task force through the selectboard would provide official accountability, he said.
Several speakers, while not outright opposed to the idea of a task force, took issue with the motivations behind it and some of the language used by its advocates.
“This town was great before Black Lives Matter (signs were posted),” said Susan Waterhouse, who also described the movement as important.
“That’s where the divisive stuff came from. We didn’t need it, and we don’t need it. Because there is none,” she said, appearing to refer to local racism.
She said her 87-year-old mother couldn’t sleep at night because of the rally.
Resident Cori Demeritt, expressing frustration with dialogue around white privilege, said it hurts to have the term applied to herself.
“I am not privileged — I am not — just because my skin is white,” Demeritt said. “I grew up s— poor. I had bugs in my food … I had to work my ass off to be where I am today.”
Like many speakers that night, Demeritt worried that the recent debate in town would create an irreparable divide.
Wright, the man driving the truck with a Confederate flag at the June rally, said he didn’t support the Black Lives Matter organization and that he was still unsure about the task force.
He said that when he served in the military, he would have given his life for soldiers of color and that they would’ve done the same for him.
Then he offered a reflection on the discussion: “Guess I’ve lived in a bubble because I haven’t ever seen any racial discrimination, at all. So, guess it’s time for me to come out of my bubble.”
Craftsbury School Board member Anne Morse rebutted the skepticism by some speakers over whether racism exists in town.
“For folks who are thinking, ‘Well, this wasn’t a problem until people started putting up the Black Lives Matter signs,’ racism is not a problem in a mostly white community as far as the white people are concerned,” she said. “But it has also been an issue for people … who don’t look like the white straight people in town.”
Most speakers were unified, though, around the strength of Craftsbury’s community and its residents’ ability to come together.
And after the hourlong conversation, the town’s three selectboard members all voted in favor of forming the committee.
Board chair Bruce Urie said Thursday that three people had already signed up, and that the town would recruit two more.
One of the existing members was involved in the citizen proposal, he said. Another is his daughter, Mandy Woodley, who during the meeting called for a middle ground in the debate. And the third is from the Collinsville section of Craftsbury, which Urie said is historically underrepresented in town business.
Residents at the meeting expressed hope that the community could step up, even through difficult conversations.
“A lot of us are going to want to get up and leave and walk out in the middle of it,” said Kinsey, the Blackbird Bistro owner. “But we’ve got to stick it out.”
