SWAMPSCOTT — After a year in which racial tensions have been at the forefront of town politics, residents are trying to build a more diverse and accepting community.
Tamy-Feé Meneide, an anti-racism advocate for the town, hopes that from these conversations, as well as last Thursday’s virtual forum on the subject, a committee can be formed to perform an “audit” on the town’s institutions, examining the role of systemic racism in shaping them.
The forum, run by Meneide on Zoom, was attended by about 50 people including Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald and members of the Select Board.
“I really loved every single voice in that room,” said Meneide. “Everyone was really thoughtful. And it was refreshing during the pandemic when you don’t usually get the chance to hear and see all these people.”
Framed around the article, The Groundwater Approach, published by the Racial Equity Institute, which uses the metaphor of fish being poisoned by a contaminated groundwater supply to show the effects of systemic racism on the African-American population, the conversation covered everything from improving affordability to the Swampscott METCO program.
Those at the forum were not afraid to ask questions that might make people uncomfortable.
“We should be asking those big questions — such as why, on this Zoom, are most of us white?” said Swampscott resident Mary Alice Brennan. “Why are so many of us in Swampscott white? We should be asking those big questions to ourselves and trying to find solutions, as opposed to just being performative.”
“If (Swampscott’s) 97 percent white becomes 45 percent white, how do we feel about that?” asked Meneide. “Are we ready to really own up to what welcoming for all really means?”
Brennan also stressed the importance of eradicating what she perceives as Swampscott’s elitism toward surrounding communities.
“We have these diverse neighboring towns around us like Salem and Lynn. We can break down the barriers between these communities and mingle with them if you want to get more voices involved. That’s the problem. We think that we’re so elite, when we’re no better than our neighboring towns.”
Swampscott resident David Vera stressed the importance of taking clear steps, suggesting that a committee be created to improve the experience for students in Swampscott’s METCO program.
“I hope that there’s a committee or a group that is formed to help these students succeed,” he said. “I challenge everyone here to build something for our town. We have enough firepower to do that right here and right now.”
It’s been a long, contentious year for Swampscott in terms of addressing race issues.
In April, a weekly Trump rally began in Monument Square which, at one point, included a Confederate flag.
The rally has continued throughout the year, drawing a pro-Black Lives Matter counterprotest, which has sparred verbally, and on one occasion physically, with the pro-Trump side.
One week, a protest actor unaffiliated with either side appeared at the rally in KKK robes, and the next week he wore blackface.
In July, Select Board member Don Hause faced a recall campaign after he was allegedly overheard calling the Black Lives Matter movement “liberal bull()” and saying that white privilege is not real.
The effort, led by Swampscott resident Nick Scibelli, was only able to gather 374 of the 1,708 required to force a recall and Hause remained in office, pledging to educate himself about white privilege.
Most recently, Swampscott police and fire departments voted to leave the Civil Service System in a move intended to increase the diversity of the forces. The move sparked backlash from Town Meeting member Bill Dimento, who wrote in an op-ed published in the Daily Item that residents had been “deceived and lied to” about the unions’ decision to leave Civil Service.
Meneide hopes that the next meeting might draw some voices who are more skeptical of increasing diversity in Swampscott.
“It’s important to have productive conflict,” she said. “What I’d hope for next time is to have the same voices we had tonight but also opening it up to those voices that have skepticism about racialized diversity. If we don’t talk to the people who don’t believe it then we’re all just high-fiving each other.”
Meneide believes that the process of healing racial divides in Swampscott has just begun.
“It is going to a hard path forward. Do I think it is a path that is unreachable? No.” she said. “Change is incremental, and it has to start from within.”
