BURLINGTON — The city has begun work to develop a racial equity strategic plan that its racial equity director says will offer Burlington more specific and community informed guidance on how to address systemic racism.Â
The Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department, led by Tyeastia Green, held the first of a few listening sessions for people of color Thursday morning to help the city begin formulating a strategic plan.Â
In 2014, the city had completed a diversity and equity strategic plan. But Green says the city needs a strategic plan that focuses specifically on racial equity. Diversity, she said, is too broad an idea to specifically address racism that residents of color experience. And, she said, it’s a concept that still centers on whiteness.Â
“When you say diversity, diverse from what? The answer that will appear to you is diverse from whiteness, or different from straight, white, male,” Green said.
“Anything other than that is considered diversity. And so how is there room for inclusion when there’s already a set standard? So my whole thing is, we need to remove that standard. And then we can have room for inclusion of others,” she said.
She said the idea for a racial equity strategic plan came from her office when she entered the newly created position back in February. The plan will be developed from the information derived from the community listening sessions, Green said. There is no set timeline for completion of the plan.
Green said the consulting company Grayscale Collaborative has been hired under a $50,000 contract for a five-month period to help develop the strategic plan and feasibility study on the creation of a cultural empowerment center — an idea that came out of a City Council resolution passed in June.Â
At the beginning of Thursday’s session, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger told community members about the 2014 effort.Â
“We have done this before in my nine years as mayor, my first summer,” Weinberger said. “As mayor we also went through what we call the diversity, equity strategic planning process, which established some good goals and I think resulted in some real change over the years.”
“In comparison to how we went about that to what we’re doing this time, I just have great optimism and hope that we’re building on that and kind of doing it right this time,” he added. “I think we’re resourcing this effort in a different way. We’re grounding it in the work of this new department.”
Weinberger said the 2014 plan didn’t have enough expert guidance. “We kind of made it up on our own,” he said. “I really think municipal efforts work much better if we’re working hand in hand with experienced experts who have done this kind of work before.”
Weinberger then left the meeting, which was then described by an organizer as only open to community members of color.
A VTDigger reporter in attendance left the session at that time and messaged staff member Skyler Nash, asking to be readmitted and whether the intent was to exclude the press. He responded that only community members of color could attend the meeting.
“If you have media in there, listening, it wouldn’t have allowed to create a safe space for people to have confidence that what’s going to be shared in those breakout rooms, and in that listening session, would stay among BIPOC people,” Nash said after the meeting, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Nash is a public policy and research analyst for the city’s Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department.
“I would just continue to hope that members of the media as well as white community members, city workers, would really not take something like this as an affront or effort to hide something,” Nash said, “but really to provide a space that on a day to day basis is not readily available to BIPOC people in the city.”
Green later told VTDigger the meeting was not closed off to the media, only to white members of the media.
“It’s very important to have spaces that are designated just for us,” Green said. “We need our own space so we can engage with each other without the white gaze.”
An email Thursday to City Attorney Eileen Blackwood, seeking additional information on access to such proceedings, was not answered by Friday afternoon.
During the listening session, Green said attendees were asked about how racial equity can be furthered in the city around education, housing, the economy, health and justice. She said participants were asked to identify existing programs that further racial equity and any barriers to racial equity in the city.
City Councilor Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, attended the listening session. He said he presented questions about how more people of color could enter leadership roles in the city or run for office. He also asked questions about how the city can help people of color secure equitable housing and support businesses owned by people of color.
He said he doesn’t think the city, and the mayor’s office specifically, did enough to address the recommendations laid out in the 2014 diversity and equity strategic plan.
“It was just put on a bookshelf to collect dust,” said Dieng, who is running for mayor as an independent against incumbent Weinberger and Progressive candidate and fellow councilor, Max Tracy.
Dieng says it’s wise for the city to pursue a strategic plan to solely address racial equity, but he prefers approaching solutions from a “diversity” mindset, because he thinks it’s a more inclusive concept.Â
“The specificities are good,” Dieng said. “But we need to do more for other community groups that experience inequities.” Dieng pointed to those who are disabled, the New American community and those who identify as LGBTQ.