Fifty Swampscott residents were deep into their Dec. 4 conversation about systemic racism when they heard discussion facilitator Tamy-Feé Meneide use the words “productive conflict” to describe how an important conversation that has just begun in Swampscott and other communities across the country evolves into action.
The people participating in the conversation with Meneide clearly knew what she was talking about because they had already asked tough questions during the Zoom forum.
“Why are so many of us in Swampscott white?” queried Mary Alice Brennan.
Since George Floyd’s May 25 homicide ignited a firestorm of demands for racial equity and police reform, communities like Swampscott have engaged in conversations about what Meneide called incremental change.
Swampscott residents have demonstrated they want to be part of that change. They protested and held Black Lives Matter rallies during the spring and summer and Swampscott Unites, Respects, Embraces organized a months-long reading and discussion forum on race that stretches into 2021 with Sofia McDonald of the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative making a Zoom presentation on Jan. 7.
Meneide hopes the next Zoom discussion focused on Swampscott and race attracts skeptics who will vocally question if diversity is possible in Swampscott.
A vision for diversity in the town took a big step forward in November when public safety union members and Town Meeting members voted to pull the police and fire departments out of civil service.
Real diversity, as Fire Chief Graham Archer and Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said prior to the Dec. 4 discussion, involves a hard look at economics and how limited housing options and past histories of lenders redlining people of color out of wealthier communities and into poorer ones has shaped America.
The best evidence supporting opportunities for racial equity in Swampscott are reflected in the impatience voiced by Dec. 4 discussion participants like David Vera who challenged fellow residents ” … to build something for our town … here and right now.”
There is room enough for everyone to take part in the renewed debate about race in America. Swampscott residents should take heart in the fact that residents like Vera and Brennan are impatient for change and leaders like Fitzgerald and Archer are working to make it a reality.
