The seven community meetings focusing on racial matters in the city of Worcester last summer were held for the sole purpose of silencing people of color. This was accomplished by the following tactics:
1. Creating a distraction from the racist police attack on a Black man in police custody
2. Ignoring people of color who expressed their concern about the dialogues the city was suggesting
3. Blocking any and all dissenting voices of people of color or white people throughout the dialogues
4. Restructuring the Bias and Hate group to formally block any dissenting voices from the table
5. Allowing the police officers involved in the hate crime against a citizen in custody to retire with full benefits and protection from having to testify against a fellow officer
6. No movement on the charges against the officer that committed the racist assault on a man in custody while simultaneously prosecuting four people who participated in a 4 ½ minute peaceful protest against police brutality
Most people think the race dialogues were planned in response to community protests in the latter part of 2014. That was the false narrative put forward by City Manager Ed Augustus, Mayor Joe Petty, and Human Rights Director Jayna Turchek. In fact the suggestion regarding dialogues was presented much earlier, but it was ignored until a videotape emerged of a Worcester police officer assaulting a Black man in custody while yelling racial slurs at him. After the officer was charged, the city manager decided the dialogues were a good idea.
However, most people of color shared their concern that the rushed dialogues proposed by the city would actually do more harm than good. They suggested the city look at the comprehensive recommendations that had been suggested and to implement some of those strategies.
The city ignored those concerns and moved full speed ahead while making it appear that the dialogues were a request from communities of color. This triggered a huge backlash by white people against people of color who actually opposed the dialogues.
The organization of the dialogues was assigned to the city manager’s Community Coalition Against Bias and Hate Crimes. Meetings to plan the dialogues were open to the public, and many representatives of communities of color participated, not because they supported the idea but rather to reduce the damage they felt these dialogues would do. They committed hundreds of hours collectively with their goal being damage control, but their recommendations were also ignored.
The dialogues took place and were as shallow as many had thought they would be. It was ridiculous to assume a dialogue about racism and oppression could take place in a room with a hundred people in a one-hour time period. To add insult to injury, most of the dialogue topics would not even mention the word “racism.”
Under the leadership of Ms. Turchek, volunteers were asked to take notes during the meetings which would be read out to the full group at the end of the sessions and used to identify themes. However, most participants observed that the “note takers” didn’t know how to take notes. They wrote down what they thought they’d heard rather than what was actually said. Or they didn’t take notes at all, and the reports were not reflective of the group discussion. Then the city lost or didn’t collect a significant portion of the notes.
It was from this process that Ms. Turchek decided the dialogues would be evaluated. She convened the Hate and Bias group, and the initial evaluation group she created was composed of all white members. This was vociferously challenged, and communities of color members were grudgingly allowed to join the evaluation team. However, the results of this diverse team were never released.
The icing on the cake was the manner in which Ms. Turchek and Mr. Augustus wrapped these dialogues up. They changed the structure of the Bias and Hate group and limited it to those appointed by the city manager. They didn’t inform the community volunteers who had put time and effort into this process of their decision. They just stopped e-mailing meeting invitations and minutes of meetings. Community of color members, except for a few who the city deemed “acceptable,” had been discharged from participation in the city’s discussions and plans to address bias and hate.
This brings us to the release of the city’s report last week that has been so whitewashed and sanitized one could eat off it. None of the steps taken in response to the dialogues actually came out of the dialogues. They were ideas the city manager’s office had been pushing from the beginning.
While all this has been going on, the city has had no time to prosecute the racist cop, even though they’ve already paid off his victim. They haven’t had time to release the damaging video of the assault he perpetrated on a Black man.
But they’ve had all the time in the world to prosecute and harass four protesters who blocked traffic for 4 ½ minutes in Kelley Square last January.
It makes no difference if the race dialogues weren’t intentionally created to silence people of color.
That’s the effect they had.
What are you gonna do?
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