SWAMPSCOTT — There may soon be signs posted at Swampscott businesses saying, “Everyone is welcome here.”
Members of the Swampscott Select Board and Board of Health discussed racial justice for nearly an hour at Wednesday night’s joint meeting. In addition to fielding an idea about posting equality signs, the elected officials also discussed the possibility of creating a task force addressing issues of inequality in town.
Select Board Chairman Peter Spellios said Wednesday’s discussion is just part of Swampscott’s participation in a national and global conversation about racial violence and police brutality.
“We have done nothing so far. What we’ve done is start a dialogue, and that dialogue needs to continue and not be a passing dialogue, but a dialogue that manifests itself in actions,” Spellios said.
Aaron Berdofe, a Swampscott resident originally from Minneapolis, was invited to give a presentation about having “everyone is welcome” signs available for Swampscott businesses to hang in order “to give an indicator that everyone is welcome there, regardless of their skin color, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, shape, size, language, faith, et cetera.”
The signs proposed would say, “Everyone is welcome here,” with the town seal in the bottom corner and a sentence specifying people are welcome to enter no matter what group they belong to. Berdofe said, “It’s just a sign, it’s not going to solve anybody’s problems,” but it’s a starting point to “establish a base of a conversation.
“When I moved to Swampscott, I moved because of a lot of the same reasons other people do, the beach, obviously, and then my wife and I were excited to find good schools and a safe community,” Berdofe said. “After a little bit of looking into it and being here, we started asking, ‘Safe for who?’ and, ‘Good schools for who?'”
After the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, where Berdofe is from, he said he has paid close attention to racial issues and had discussions with Black people and people of color about what it’s like in Swampscott.
“They couldn’t even think of a place they could even go and sit down and feel comfortable in Swampscott,” Berdofe said.
Board of Health Chairwoman Marianne Hartmann suggested a task force be created to address issues of inequality in Swampscott and “have some common goals and make things happen.” Hartmann also said the task force should be put together by the Board of Health because “it’s about the social and emotional health and the wellbeing of the town.”
Hartmann said “all stakeholders” — town workers, youth, residents, business owners, and clergy — should be involved with the task force.
No votes were taken on the signs or task force. However, both ideas received support. Spellios said Berdofe and his group, the Swampscott Racial Justice Action Group, will be responsible for reaching out to businesses and asking if they would be willing to hang the signs. Spellios endorsed having the town seal put on the signs.
Spellios said the town has 66 public safety personnel — its police and fire departments combined — but only two of them are women and only two are “Black or brown-skinned.” The town staff and school staff are also not diverse, Spellios said.
“Conversations are beginning about how to change that, including talking about whether or not Swampscott should have a diversity officer or other types of additions to our process to help us make sure that when it comes time for hiring, for looking for volunteers on our committees, that we have structures that encourage and welcome the diverse community that we want,” Spellios said.
In addition, Spellios said the Select Board, as well as all town employees, should receive implicit-bias training, preferably when meetings can be held in person rather than virtually, and that discussions on having such training have already begun.
“We all have the same things we need to work on,” Spellios said.
