Editor’s note: This commentary is by the Rev. Devon Thomas, a minister in Cambridge and a person of color living in Vermont.
I can recognize that the Police Lives Matter rally in Montpelier on July 26 was organized with good intentions by people who thought that they were doing the right thing.
They were not.
The timing of this rally was highly insensitive. This is a time when our nation is grappling with its own legacy of racism, paying respects as well as saying goodbye to civil rights legend John Lewis. This rally also was held on the day that Emmett Till would have turned 79 if he had not been lynched in 1955. This sent the message to Black Vermonters that, despite Black people speaking up with the aid of white and Hispanic, and Asian and Native voices, as well as so many more who are joining in to say “Black Lives Matter,” there is still a large number of people out there who do not hear or understand that this is a call for justice. Either that or they just do not want to hear it.
As the Blue Lives Matter rally organizer Jim Sexton said, he filled out the paperwork, he had the legal right to be there in front of the capitol building, he followed the rules of the system, and so he asked for the system to “shut down” those who had assembled to tell him what he was doing was wrong. There is a right time and place to support police, but at this moment in the history of our nation, this is not the time, even if you have a permit.
A part of the problem with racism in Vermont is that it often comes to us in forms we do not recognize as racism. So, a lot of our well-intended white brothers and sisters fall into the trap of racism without even knowing it. The trap here is the trap of “all lives matter.” This is something people in Vermont have been told since we were children. Growing up, we are taught that all people should be treated equally. The problem is that in the real world, people are not treated equally.
We live in a nation where people are not treated the same for a variety of reasons. Religion, gender, being LGBTQ, our income and our race are all things that have been used to dehumanize and suppress other people who we feel are different from us. This is not right, and when we say Black Lives Matter, we are not saying that ONLY Black Lives Matter. We are not saying white lives do not matter, and it does not mean we don’t recognize that white people struggle with oppression and hardship too. Black Lives Matter means that if you are white in America, the color of your skin is not what is being held against you in the same way that it is held against Black people.
Not all police are bad apples; we do not need to be reminded of this. Police have the support they need; they have millions of dollars worth of government support to do their jobs and stay safe, whereas black people need the help of white people, especially in Vermont, if we want our voices to even be heard. We need our white brothers and sisters to listen to us, or we will continue to be denied the opportunity even to live, as George Floyd showed us yet again on Memorial Day. It’s wrong, but history sets a precedent, black voices are not listened to in Vermont.
We need to pay attention that there are still racial disparities here in Vermont that need to be addressed. People of color call out for help all the time, yet no one listens. In our state, Black people are harassed and threatened, like in the case of Kiah Morris, but no one does anything about it. In Burlington, Black people are still more likely to be pulled over than their white neighbors, and yet, here in Vermont, we educate our children to believe that there is no longer a race problem in America. Are people even listening? Right now, people of color in Vermont need our white neighbors to take us seriously and listen. Right now, finally, some are, but not enough.
It is unkind and untrue to equate the counter protesters who showed up at Saturday’s rally to Antifa. They were not Antifa, they are Black and brown people, along with their white allies, who live in Vermont and who are angry. They are mad about not being listened to. Why are so many Vermonters afraid to face up to that anger? Do Black people not have the right to be angry too?
To hold a Blue Lives Matter rally, to blatantly show that you are not listening to Black folks calling for justice right now, might be legal, but it is not right. It may be hard to understand, but we are living in a time of unprecedented change. If you want to live in a world where All Lives Matter, you need to recognize that right now, all lives do not matter. This is the reason why all people in Vermont should take up the chant, Black Lives Matter! In Vermont, Black lives need to matter too.
