Statement on Race and Diversity

Statement on Race and Diversity

http://www.jonbenson.org

George Floyd’s death in police custody in May forced America to confront the long-simmering issue of race. Race is a sensitive and complex topic of discussion. Shrill and accusatory social media posts weaponizing the word “racist” are not helpful. For those currently seeking elective office in Acton, I ask you to publicly share your life experiences on race and your specific ideas for improving the racial climate in Acton.

Here are mine.

I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, New York. My father was a dentist. I had advantages. At Jamaica High School, where I served as student government president, our student body was approximately 80% white and 20% Black (4,200 students’ grades 10-12 with a very small 9th grade class). It was competitive academically at the top with most of us leveled into average classes. Discipline was imposed across the board. Black and white students came together around the basketball team, student government and individual friendships were made. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed during my sophomore and junior years.

Student government was my activity. Election campaigns for the five elective offices were highly visible, competitive and exciting. There were two political parties—Red & Blue and IND. Managing the IND party in my junior year, I organized a “pin meeting” where campaign signs and pins were made at the home of a fellow student in South Jamaica, a Black residential neighborhood, a true first for the time. The five person ticket I headed in my senior year included two Black classmates, another first. IND swept both elections.

I graduated in 1966 during the height of the Vietnam War build-up. All young men at age 18 had to register for the draft. Local draft boards had their monthly quotas to meet. Race and class distinctions conferred advantages, most notably student deferments for those like me who were going to college. One Black classmate, whom I knew, was drafted immediately following our graduation. Richie was killed in Vietnam a year later. The following year, 1968, Donald Trump famously received a deferment for “heel spurs” from the same draft board.

After taking a year off following college to work on a political campaign and spend time in Boston, I enrolled at Howard University School of Law in Washington D.C. in 1971. Howard University is the nation’s pre-eminent Black university and the best law school that admitted me. Our first year class of 200 included 30 white men and woman. Approximately half of my white classmates dropped out or transferred over the first two years.

The environment was by no means hostile, but I clearly saw myself as a somewhat out-of-place minority student. My Black classmates were of varied geographic, socio and economic backgrounds. Most were older, quite a few worked in anti-poverty programs, were married and had families. Student discussions about the social and political issues of the day (Black Power, Watergate) generated a broad range of opinions. It was during the exchanges about race-related concerns that I came to understand that white people should not presume to tell whites and Blacks what the needs and concerns of Black people were. That’s a recurring sentiment expressed today by Al Sharpton and other Black leaders.

By our third year, comfort levels were had and in-school relationships were made. Familiarity had a lot to do with it. Bullets, Knicks, Celtics and Atlantic Coast Conference basketball played a good part. At the time and looking back, my experience was positive.

In 1994 my law partner and I hired a 19 year old Black high school and Katherine Gibbs School graduate as a filing clerk, word processor and receptionist. Over the next sixteen years, Steve became our office manager, resolving all manner of problems, from computers to working with clients, becoming the face of the firm in the Probate & Family Court system in which we worked and a trusted friend to all of us. Steve’s success was the result of good common sense, an uncanny ability to solve problems before we knew there were problems combined with a winning personality. Steve was with us until the day we closed on my partner’s retirement at the end of 2010. Through the relationships he made and our strong support, Steve was hired by a prominent New England regional law firm where he is the director of operations in the firm’s Boston office.

Turning to my family, our daughter-in-law Ashley, who met our older son, Ward (A-B 2003) in law school, is a woman of Jamaican ancestry. Their child and our first grandchild, Naomi, was born last March.

I sincerely believe much has improved with regard to race in the United States during my lifetime. There was landmark legislation in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. As the Black writer and life coach Rodney Stevens recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal “(T)here are countless successful black Americans today—doctors and lawyers, entrepreneurs and academics, journalists and artists, compassionate politicians and famous Hollywood actors.” Americans elected a Black man president in 2008 and re-elected him in 2012 by overwhelming Electoral College majorities.

That said, our society is far from being “post-racial” and there still is a lot of room for improvement. Racism and other bigotry persist, including in Acton. It saddens and disappoints me that despite our increasingly diverse society and very diverse town, the racial and ethnic stereotyping I grew up with still exists and is passed down from generation to generation. It must stop.

To start, it is incumbent on all of us locally--the Board of Selectmen, Local Government, individuals, parents, our schools, our houses of worship and our businesses to impress upon our children--pre-school through high school--that negative racial and ethnic stereotyping has no place in Acton and the larger society. What happened on two recent occasions to Acton resident Kyra Wilson Cook and Boxborough resident Evelyn Abayaah-Issah, who were the victims of vulgar and hateful racist messages during a meeting of the School Committee of which they are elected members, cannot happen again.

But we as a community need to do more if Acton is to be a truly welcoming, inclusive place that many of us believe and want it to be. Anti-racism statements and policies are a good first step but we need to move beyond symbolic gestures. For example, we need to identify and remove obstacles that make it difficult for non-whites to move into our community. That’s the real test. Concerns over “right size”, “residential character”, parking and density need to be walked back. In his recent New York Times column, conservative columnist David Brooks contends that it is “permanent physical integration, not training,” whether in teams, neighborhoods or the workplace that will achieve diversity, equity and inclusion.

The work to make Acton a better place will require lots of discussion, and keeping open minds as we share diverse perspectives and opinions. Members of the community should not be afraid to speak up and there should be no fear of retribution or social media shaming. In his writings, Rodney Stevens emphasized that discussions about race must be “gracious and respectful” and “shouldn’t be antagonistic.” That’s good advice for a community to take to heart and follow as we work together to make Acton a better place.

A final comment about a local and very successful program that could play a role in our effort to educate our youth about racism. Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ), a program we should all support, is designed for minors as an alternative to court proceedings. In a confidential facilitated meeting between victim and responsible party, the focus is on the harm done to the victim and the values of the community and the aim is to make the victim whole in a way the victim feels is just. With respect to hate crimes, the resolution may appropriately include a discussion of why a word or symbol is hurtful and the history it carries. For 20 years Communities for Restorative Justice has helped “to build stronger communities and lower crime rates by reducing recidivism.” C4RJ should be fully-employed here in Acton.

Jon Benson

jonbenson.org