001good evening everyone my name is singing she I'm the current for chair of acting Chinese American Civic Society first I would like to thank top acting manager John McGee I hope I say it cracked for coal organizing and hosting this forum and thanks to all the speakers that accepted our invitation and see what hot tonight and thanks to all the zoom audience who joined our making these many and before I start I'd like to give a few notes for the meeting and Johnny if you could go to the next life so we are going to mute everyone so only the speakers will be able to speak and you will hear the speaker and you can and thank your questions through the Q&A and during the speaker speech at any time and so the organizers we
002are going to collect your questions and at the Q&A session we are going to divide the questions to the specific speakers hold on that will be clear to everyone so next piece so here I would like to give a brief introduction about I guess I don't know as some of you may have heard or may not heard about hiatus and I just was on established four years ago it's a nonprofit organization we have members many from our tent and surrounding towns next week so our goal and adverse not work has under fallen five areas promote civic engagement serve communities through organizing volunteer activities provide education forum like this one in rich culture and filled community next place here is an example that we create Flyers distribute and boating and participation in hungry bands next and
003here we have collaborated with open table for the past three years for Chinese New Year celebration and charity dinner I can sponsor the dinner and our volunteers help to prepare the food and serve the food next we also collaborated with acting Historical Society for the education seminar about action history next here we collaborate with half action a BCC friend of a breeder to build a beautiful China garden in actor a breeder many of you may have seen the right grid there next week a few months ago at the start of Hobbit 19 crisis I can act quickly we collaborate with ACL as a canoe school we collected $8,000 from donations but PPE and III build over 16,000 face masks to many different hospitals dinner half houses and local grocery stores so why we are initiate
004this forum I can share with you some of my personal perspectives I'm the first generation immigrant here I came to United States 26 years ago I reached my two children's hearing icon for the past couple of months I had some discussion with my son and my daughter regarding George Floyd incidents and what is happening across our nation I heard from many of my Chinese brands that they had a similar conversation with their second generation my daughter said to me mom do you know we didn't accent it's like we're living in every tower the rights of the world it's not the same as in acting so I have to say I learned a lot from my children they also encouraged me to learn more about American history and like American history its Chinese American some of
005us may have faced resist discrimination during our lives especially during the copy 19 panic time so here we would like to hear listen and learn from like American movement for Chinese community how can we fight her how can we do by her to fight against rhesus injustice hatred and violence and how can we contribute to field an inclusive and diversity community like it's our intention here for this forum so now I'd like to pass to our co-host acting Town Manager don't I'm a jockey to start for panel discussion thank you everyone thank you thank you Jane this is Johnny Android the town manager in Acton Diane and Don and the act in Chinese civic society this is an amazing work that you put together they called me last week and said we want to put
006together a forum and they was an unbelievable group of people that you're gonna hear from tonight who they are built able to invite and agree to come on the show and it's gonna be a great conversation a lot of learning is going to happen tonight and I'm honored to be part of it I'm just here to help facilitate and help with the Q&A at the end and I'm here to learn as well so I'm really looking forward to all of our guests and I have the pleasure of introducing our first guest Kevin McCaskill Kevin is the current director the Madison Park tech Volk school in Boston he's also worked in Springfield and in Hartford as an administrator in schools he's in the Basketball Hall of Fame at Western New England college which I noticed in
007his bio and he's he's about to become part of the executive staff at Boston Public Schools so up moving getting a promotion in Boston Public Schools and it's really we're really excited to have you here tonight Kevin and thank you for joining us and we look forward to your presentation well thank you thank you for having this evening it's truly an honored and I am humbled excuse me so John if we can start with the slides please and my conversation night is equity in education is at grief and when I say brief a brief history of America's educational system as seen through the eyes through the lens of equity next slide please when we talk about equity in education what it is is an educational system that ensures that it will meet the needs of
008students and every student will have an equal opportunity to succeed if there are obstacles or impediments that individual students or a certain demographic of students may have the system will support will provide supports to overcome those obstacles and impediments next slide please so we talking to understand the educational system you got under the especially as it regards black folks it has you have to go to the beginning the first Africans to step foot in them on American soil was in 1619 in Virginia and we all know that marked the beginning of slavery now from 1619 to 1865 believe in that it was deemed a criminal endeavor to educate slaves so that lent met they were just very few opportunities for blacks to receive any type of education and as we know that up north obviously
009with the beginning of education Massachusetts is the birthplace of Education in 1635 the first school here in Boston Boston Latin School was established and in Massachusetts had the first school system in 1837 prior to the Civil War which was in 1861 only one southern state that was North Carolina had a comprehensive system for white people so if there are only one system for light think about that would that meant for blacks next slide please so we will look at the reconstruction it brings us right to the Reconstruction era any reconstruction arrows from 1863 to 1877 and it was a period doing that during and after the Civil War that was meant to address all the social economic and political issues that plagued blacks and also to solve the issue of readmitting the eleven states that
010seceded during the Civil War next slide please now during Reconstruction you had some monumental legislation passed believe it or not you had three amendments were passed at that time there was read the ratification of the 13th amendment which abolished slavery the ratification of the 14th amendment which defined citizenship to include all people born and naturalized in America as well as the Fifteenth Amendment which extended the voting right to all male citizens regardless of race or prior condition of servitude or slavery you had two Civil Rights Acts passed and again this was news to me one in 1866 and one in 1875 again granting citizenship and equal rights for blacks and the last one in 1875 prohibited the practice of segregation and this actual Act the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was actually ruled unconstitutional in
0111883 by the Supreme Court next slide please now during the Reconstruction era you saw a lot of atonement for past bills and in all and for blacks and slave owning states they saw education as a step to advance themselves and progress themselves in society as it pertained to achieving a sense of equality independence and prosperity and so we're looking at roughly a fourteen fifteen year period in which you saw black legislators in the south you so a small vibrant black communities rising in the south as well as you know typical free some freedoms quote-unquote freedoms in the north but this was all short-lived due to the advent of the Jim Crow laws next slide please and when they say when you hear the word Jim Crow people think it's an actual person and what the
012Jim Crow when Jim Crow is is actually a racial system which operated primarily in the southern and border states between 1877 in the mid 1960s and what the Jim Crow laws were they represented in legitimization of anti-black racism it excluded blacks from public public transport and facilities serving on juries employment opportunities as well in the neighborhoods in which blacks could live and it had two following beliefs that White's were superior to blacks in all important ways but also it had the notion that if you treat blacks as equals it would encourage interracial unions which makes you really ponder the thought process of folks but I think that last tenant here is so quite it was a method of social control usually through violent means both real and threatened next slide please so as we say
013it lasted B we can eric the Reconstruction era lasted roughly about 14 or 15 years in 1877 we saw the end of the reconstruction that was with the election Rutherford B Hayes our our 19th president and what we saw during this time also is that the amendments that were passed 13th 14th and 15th amendments as well as the Civil Rights Acts that were all passed and ratified were blatantly ignored and so this paved the way to increase the application of all the Jim Crow laws throughout the south and our southern border states as well as some of our northern entities in 1896 there was a landmark case Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 and what did it and what that entity undermined the constitutional protections of blacks which legitimize all the Jim Crow laws and what
014it was it set up the separate-but-equal doctrine that we would just promote segregation by having equal facilities equal schools equal accommodations public accommodations for both whites and blacks and as we all know that fell far short of of inventions next slide please so the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy versus Ferguson case did establish as it pertains to schools separate schools for blacks and whites and back and not up until not too long ago blacks blacks were called colored so he opened up colored schools and they had they were no way near financed to the extent of white schools they lacked all meet at resources books and the such and if and since they were not they lacked space as well which led to overcrowded classrooms and one unique feature that black schools had it was
015multi graded where you had teachers usually in one or two two room classrooms they taught toddlers to early teenagers and so with this new rush to get educated into these black schools we saw the establishment of black teacher colleges such as Howard University in DC Hampsten in Hampton Institute which is now Hampton University in Hampton Virginia Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee as well as Morehouse College which is in Atlanta next slide please so that brings us up until 1954 where we had another landmark case of the brown vs. Topeka Board of Education which led to the integration of public schools and that became the law of the land from the Supreme Court and the attack was the intent of this this Court decision was to provide educational opportunities to all children obviously this did not
016sit well with southern and border states in the South next slide please this is a very unique map because what we were talking about up until the brown versus Topeka case was intentional segregation our southern tier as well as some of our northern tier States as well in the environments as well but I picked this map out this is actually a map of 2012 and what it shows you is that the schools are more segregated today than they were back in the 1950s as you get to the light colors the darker colors are schools in which you have black majority enrollments and look where they primarily are along that southern tier and when you look at the dots as you go north those are more our urban centers and as you range across the country
017where do you see a black mark it is usually an urban center but look but looking at this map really tells you about inclusion about integration about some of the things that we talked about coming together and we're talking about an instance in which our schools are more segregated from that decision in 1954 66 years later we haven't progressed next slide please now I can read a lot of these to you but this is what the research says about when we talk about equity outcomes for our students the first two bullets primarily deal with incoming inequities of families with median and market-based income and how many children are living with respect to concentrated poverty but I want to point out that third bullet it says there are close connections between education inequalities and economic inequalities
018cast doubt on the assertions that America provides equality of opportunities that promote social mobility and when we talk about you know the opportunities the opportunity is the land of opportunity we look back on a history of black people for over 400 years and the question becomes how do we profess to live under that doctrine well we are still facing the same issues that we face in my lifetime being of age 58 that I've seen throughout my lifetime as well as my grandmother's lifetimes I've slightly died at her in the mid-80s and we're talking about the same issues I also want to plant the fourth bullet with about achievement gaps achievement gaps by social class have grown substantially since the 1960s especially between children at the highest end of the income distribution of all others and
019that tends to go towards black and other ground children and families next slide please I'd like to also look at that last bullet here and again states that rigorous research demonstrates that inequalities and both opportunity and outcomes along the lines of race and social class begin early and often persist throughout of students k12 years and beyond and that they are much larger in the United States in incomparable countries and this was just a study in 2015 and so the question becomes again when we talk about a society that building that talks about equality talks about equity we're in 2020 and we're still having issues that we actually had in the late 1800s Early 1900s next slide please and so the question becomes how do we get try to work towards equity and these are just
020a few of countless options one obviously you know look for alternative means to fund schools here in Boston obviously we have over fifty to fifty three thousand students a lot of Mead here in Boston but we compare what we spend on students per with an expenditure per pupil it almost pales in comparison to some of our some of our suburban suburban communities increase volunteerism if you have the opportunity to volunteer giving your time talents and even some of your treasures greatly appreciated we believe that the front-loading of all supports and early education youth are in the early education years that means all our social emotional supports should be front loaded all the all the research indicates children who can read at that third grade ylim by third grade level and all are usually successful going
021through the k-12 strata but when we are lacking in those early education support systems and procedures our students suffer encouraged increased parent engagement one of the most crucial crucial aspects of a student of student success engage school personnel and culturally competent professional development activities here in Boston we have a students of color and I'll go by just our school alone our school has a 97% enrollment of students of color but yet our faculty does not reflect that and that is something that is not only unique to this school or the Boston Public Schools it's a unique phenomenon across the country identify implicit bias by school personnel and effectively we deal with it engage diverse groups and tough conversations understanding actually leads to educating educating folks and also provide access of opportunities such as this for
022engaging and interactive activities that cross racial and socio-economic boundaries so these are just a few things that were mine but again as I said it was a brief history of how we got to where we are today and if folks have any questions next slide please feel free to definitely put them in the Q&A section of the resume here is my email please feel free to reach out to me at any given time and I just want to thank everyone for providing me the opportunity in the forum to speak to you tonight so thank you great job Kevin thank you very much a lot of information there some great history and great suggestions on that right slide - I think we should all take it a look at that afterwards Madonn Don Wang is our
023next speaker yes hi hi everybody thanks for joining here and it is my pleasure today to introduce and the Jim our judge and he is our yet hey Jim energy is actually our activist students for many years and he serves as the state senator for the Middlesex and the Worcester district since January 2009 he also served number of committees and either as chair and os vice chair and he is a leader on many progressive issues he's also a very strong supporter to many local organizations and two of them I personally worked with why is Acton Boxborough cultural console he has been very involved supportive and attended every year our receptions and the second environment is his support to Chinese Acton Chinese language schools he attend the events give seminar and always be having good dialogue
024with our city residents and we really appreciate opportunity to have him here today and he's going to talk about his conversation with the black residents in his district he's also going to talk about his work in social justice let's welcome Jim ArcheAge great thank you so much Don and so honored to be part of this distinguished panel really appreciate Kevin McCaskill's presentation I want to thank the acting chinese-american Civic Society in the Taliban action for putting on this forum on black lives matter diversity and justice and I won't go into too much detail but but hopefully folks have seen that the legislature is taking action around racial justice two weeks ago we made Juneteenth a state holiday a holiday that began celebration began in Texas for freed black slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation by President
025Lincoln and then this past week as humanists past Monday we passed the police reform racial justice vil that I happen think is very comprehensive we had a 17-hour to be on the bill and look for it in different venues to highlight the different aspects of that bill but in terms of tonight's discussion given that a CAC s you know has a focus and I'm seeing a lot of participants our trans American or Asian American which is wonderful to see I want to talk a little bit about my experience because I in acting you know when I grew up an accident went through the public schools the class size was 273 graduating seniors from acton-boxborough Regional High School of those 273 there were probably three or four black students and probably seven to ten asian-american students
026so very very little diversity back then and just because we're at a time we really want to be sort of upfront about you know what kind of racism has existed in our country's history you know I played on the basketball team one of my one of my fellow players was Chinese American and you know every player had a nickname on the team interestingly my nickname was the senator or so I guess there was a plan for me but just faithfully the Chinese American basketball player his name was the rice man so you know I had not much awareness about how offensive that term was but that was the term that he was he was called back then and so I think it's really important to highlight that you know there are issues of discrimination enacted
027in Boxborough including the school's really need to do our best to combat them I'm impressed with the efforts from everyone from the acting police chief to town manager Johnny and jarate so obviously School Committee and Board of Selectmen and you know many other volunteers but you know there's there's been discrimination against students of color residents of color you know our country's history and it exists now and specific to the asian-american community you know obviously now in the schools you know some of our elementary schools are well over one third asian-american I'm very proud to represent a very diverse district and hopefully I have a reputation for reaching out to all different immigrant groups all different communities of color Latino black Asian American Muslim American but there's always more to do so you know please be
028in touch with my office I do want to highlight that you know and sort of bring this up given that there's a focus from the Chinese American community is that you know I think that they're like every group there are differing opinions around different movements and you know sort of highlight the bigger concept which is a worldwide problem of anti blackness and you know what that is is that unfortunately you know almost every nationality every group in the world that there is a particular level discrimination against black people and I've seen this in you know my travels to many countries and I think it's important to acknowledge because it's something that I think is important for a discussion broader within the asian-american community and you know just a couple of examples just about you know
029tension I've seen and again is a recognition that every ethnic group has a variety of opinions but when there was a proposal two years ago to make act in a community a safe community from immigrants especially undocumented immigrants you know there were there was a sizable number of chinese-american residents that did come to that hearing in opposition to that proposal when I spoke at a church about you know my policy to protect immigrants mostly people of color you know there was a protest outside that church with the significant percentage of Chinese Americans on the other side of the sort of you know divided within the community there was an incredible support for that policy to make act in a safe community with the asian-american community it's been wonderful asian-americans at black lives matter protests standing
030up in solidarity to support black residents and actin so there's very definitely a diversity of views but I think it's important to have that discussion because what I would submit at the state level is that the fact that we had a 17 hour debate on a police reform racial justice bill after three days of delay you know that's not something that's happened to any other bill in the legislature and I would submit that there's still a lot of challenges again for white residents in Massachusetts about getting over the those that prejudice and that level of discrimination and I think you know part of the question for the asian-american community is you know how involved is the asian-american community and you know hopefully standing in solidarity with other people of color and I think there's some
031times where that's happened but there's some times when it when it hasn't happened so so I just wanted to raise that because we have a terrific audience tonight and in terms of my discussions with black residents in Acton Boxborough I have had some great zoom conversations first of all with alumni of color mostly black students and some Latino students talking about the fact and I think Kevin made reference to this in the Boston Public Schools the acton-boxborough public schools have very few teachers of color I know there's a plan by the school district to change that but you know certainly the students I talked to really want you know quicker action to happen on that there's a push on better curriculum to really reflect the countries to true history of racism to add that into
032the public schools there's really been discussion you know with the police you know I would you know state that there are you know black families black residents and act in a box row who've talked to me about sometimes being pulled over by the police and you know not knowing for what reason they were so you know that needs to be brought up as well and so these students for raising those issues my observation is that in speaking to you know black residence which I would know includes a very large African immigrant in Caribbean immigrant population is that there's a general sense that black residents feel fairly welcome in acton-boxborough I think it's generally positive well when you peel off some layers of the onion you know there are there conversations about students who are in
033the AP class and the white student says that black student oh I I didn't I didn't know you were in the honors class you know black student on the tennis team in a white student saying oh geez I just didn't think you'd play tennis I figured you'd play basketball you know residents talking about you know being pulled over sometimes by the police enacted in Boxborough and I think a general sense that when they walk into the active public schools when they walk into you know different institutions enacted they're not seeing people who look like them and you know how do we change that so I really had some excellent discussions on that I think there's a lot of work to be done and I you know that the the alumni am color again mostly black
034and Latino graduates of acton-boxborough Regional High School have formed an organization I forget the exact name but they formed an organization to focus on these issues that's wonderful to see and I would just say as a white legislator as a white person I have a lot to learn I certainly have been advocating very strongly around racial justice around police reform around protecting immigrants but I have a lot to learn and look forward to learning more including as part of this panel and again honored to be on this panel with Kevin with Kiera who I'm really congratulate leader or being elected and really want to praise Levinsky Jasmine who's done an amazing job organizing black lives matter acting so thanks for having me and I look forward to the conversation thank you so John we're go
035to the next speaker Cara can you put the slice of curse thank you and Kerry you're going to do the controlling of the slide yes so I can go ahead in it put aside the introduction here yeah it it's my pleasure today to introduce Cara cook and she was our brand News Google community members congratulations thank you yeah she she has lived in Acton for seven years and she has two songs in McCarthy town school and she has been very involved in the community in the community she's actually member of the superintendent's diversity equity and inclusion group and she actually is also a writer I learned and has also experienced teaching in Boston public school so she has a lot of great experience and welcome and thank you for supporting us tonight absolutely can everybody
036see my slides I hope so yes okay bro yeah I just want to make sure before I get started thank you for that introduction and thank you so much for inviting me um I'm just so grateful to be a part of this conversation as I was introduced my name is Kiera Wilson cook I'm a seven year resident of Acton my husband and I moved here so that we could enroll our two sons Alex and Theo in the schools I am very happy McCarthy tell mom and I was recently elected to the Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee I also sit on the superintendent's diversity equity and inclusion advisory group I'm honored to serve the families of Acton Boxborough and represent the over 5000 students who attend our schools I ran because I believe every child in
037our district regardless of their race deserves representation in our school governance I'm grateful to be invited to be part of this evening's conversation living as people of color in the United States means that racism will inevitably touch our lives at some point there are likely similarities and experience among the speakers and listeners this of this panel and talking about racism isn't easy and engaging with other people's painful stories can be challenging I'm specially grateful that you've come looking to learn more about the experiences of black people living here in town I hope that after this is over the conversation will continue my job as a member of the committee is to listen to the needs of our families I will note here that I'm speaking this evening in my capacity as a mother and a
038fellow acting resident and not in my official capacity as a school committee member I'm go to the next slide I've been asked to discuss my experiences as an african-american woman living here I originally hail from Maryland I'll start there because my upbringing shaped how I view the world for better and for worse then I'll discuss my experiences here in Massachusetts finally I'll speak about how my worldview will affect my work on the School Committee when speaking about the black experience many people assume an urban inner city life I have always lived in the suburbs there are a lot of black people in the United States who have lived this way out in suburbs like actin and Boxborough this is not a unique experience it's just not the experience that's always portrayed in popular media I'm
039a third generation college-educated african-american woman members of my family receive doctorates master's degrees and bachelor's degrees Kevin mentioned Hampton University on I was third-generation ham Toni until I transferred to UMBC so I'm grateful for the shoutout to Hampton going to college was never a question in my life it was the expectation and my sister and I were surrounded by educated people and by high expectations I went to school with kids from all sorts of racial and socio-economic backgrounds because of the school district where I grew up I had access to exceptional institutions however as I roasted the grades I found myself separated from other black students in most of my gifted and talented honors and AP classes I was the only black student or one of only a handful as I'm hearing more from students
040of color here in AV schools I'm learning that they are having similar experiences they live in families who have high expectations for them or a town with a wide range of socio-economic statuses however tracking quickly separates students in the middle school in high school and some black and brown students are finding themselves isolated from their peers if they reach the moat more challenging classes my big takeaway from my childhood training is how to endure a life full of moments of subtle non-aggressive but still hurtful racism how long can you go before death by a thousand cuts being a southerner means that you quickly learn the symbols of obviously aggressive racism confederate flags white hoods Nazi symbols I was called the n-word for the first time when I was 13 years old but growing up in
041a fully mixed space means noticing the subtle aggressions sure they're the normal schoolyard taunts of children you can see me here in what were called the Whoopi Goldberg braids that I had when I was in grade school and I was called an Oreo so you know black on the outside white on the inside but the surprise it's really the surprise of watching someone's face churn when I start speaking that I was taught to nerd notice the compliment of how well I speak there was the woman who after a sleepover said with relief you're so clean it's so good to know you brush your teeth learning how to code switch was a skill I learned and perfected as early as I could to codes which means to be able to change my use of language and
042even my accent based on what group of people I'm with my talent was learning how to be in whites they since black spaces mix faces moving between them seamlessly as possible and dealing with the evening train it would seem the major difference between Maryland and Massachusetts is that there aren't any Confederate flags flying in Massachusetts so I never quite know when I'm walking into a place where I'm not welcome the clues are hidden and that can actually be very scary in the beginning there were times when I drove to a place walked into a building watch shocked turned to dismay turn to anger and walked out realizing I was lucky to be okay navigating life here means accepting my status as a new New Englander I've learned to keep my y'all but lose other parts
043of myself I've learned to lean into my uniqueness starting sentences with as the only black person in the room so as to disarm with humor but never mean too far into it one of the unexpected experiences I've had being a black person here in Massachusetts is the feeling of disconnection from my cultural community segregation is a real thing here this means that we aren't all having the same experience and it's difficult to get together share stories and feel the comfort of sameness and togetherness in community though we live in a town that is well-meaning and attempts to be progressive in policy being a super minority in town means that being in a crowd in our small town can still be a solitary affair for context this is a good time to remind you of some
044of the demographics of Acton in 2019 according to the US Census Bureau estimates Acton was 69 percent white 25 percent Asian and only 1.7 percent black now it's tough to be the only in a room and I'm saying that as an adult you might be able to empathize but imagine being a kid imagine being a team imagine being the only kid and your teacher is light and your principal is white and all the councillors are white and everyone in the administration is white everyone in the school board is right who do you turn to when you need something how do you give a full-throated honest reply to how are you doing how is school treating you I joined the superintendent screening committee in 2018 because I saw that we are a small suburban School District
045with challenges similar to major urban school systems I wanted to make sure we found a superintendent who understood that and I think we did I love acting because it's dynamic and it's changing I understand that my children benefits when they learn alongside children who live different experiences and have a different world view the world isn't all white and neither is Acton and its representatives shouldn't be either I think it's important that our children of color see adults in decision-making positions who look like them I benefited from this as a child it shapes whom I am I also think that white children in our town should see people of color in decision-making positions they need to see the world fully so that when they leave Acton they aren't surprised I come to this position in good
046faith because I think that the school district approaches this conversation in good faith we're at a crossroads as a town how we approach these the conversations and heavy decisions will have significant ramifications on our students for years to come I don't think the district takes that lightly I think that the leadership wants to be challenged so that they can see a wider picture and make better decisions this is hard work but I believe that the children of Acton are worth it I just watched Viviane Birchall's show widefield featuring a panel of black students of high school some of the things that were said in that panel broke my heart one the one that hurt the most was I feel like people don't like us it hurts my heart to think that any child but especially
047a child in the minority walks into our school buildings every day convinced that people don't like her and her peers because of the color of her skin it's a significant problem I want to make sure that's changed one of the most frustrating problems here in Acton is a failure to communicate I've observed a significant disconnect between residents in town and the people who run it this is a challenge of accessibility in communication I plan to use my term on the committee to craft consistent sincere opportunities for community members to meet with our leadership I think that evenings like this and this evening especially are a great way to start I want to challenge our town to name the obvious inequities that exist here in town and take bold action to counter them for example creating
048a black student union at the high school may be an exclusive thing to do but in my opinion it's the right thing to do I think that we should honor the needs that our students identify and do our best as adults and decision makers to provide and fill in the gaps 20:20 has been a straining year many systems and structures in the United States are under considerable pressure we have seen buckling and breaking but we've also seen opportunities for real change that can make a difference for our future racialized the state sanctioned brutality is not coming with us in a postcode vid 19 world's neither is economic injustice or an education system lacking in nuanced sophistication and responsiveness but building a better world the world that we want and the world that we need takes
049work for black people in communities like Acton and beyond that work has been a lifetime struggle it's difficult to express but each day I experience moments where I feel I have to prove that I am fully human and I've long felt this the work of our community must the work that our community must do will be a marathon it took multiple generations to get here unfortunately it will take a few generations to come that doesn't mean it's not worthy worth it I know it's worth it because I've been lucky enough to benefit from the work that's already been done my children benefit too so do your children so while our grandchildren if we're lucky this is worthy of our time it is worthy of our lives so if I can impart one thing from this
050presentation it's please sustain the work it's hard work but it's good work and it matters and the fact that you're all participating tonight shows me that it matters to you too so thank you again for the opportunity to speak this evening era thank you very much well that very moving and inspiring presentation thank you if I just a reminder to folks that are watching if you have questions please feel free to enter them into the chat functions of the zoom and we will get to them shortly so thanks again and we will move to our next speaker I am pleased let me bring up the slides sorry oh sorry about that so I'm very pleased to introduce our next speaker lemansky jasmine mr. jasmine is originally from Haiti he has a bachelor's in international relations
051and a master's in religious studies he is an organizer and he's a minister and he's recently been accepted to serve the country as an army chaplain a few months a few weeks ago rather he started blacklivesmatter acting with his son his five-year-old son and he's joining us tonight to talk to us about that and if you've driven through Kelly's corner over the last few weeks you should have seen several people out there and that was a much impart to some of the great work he's been doing mr. Jasmine please share with us some of your experiences and welcome to this to the forum yeah thank you for inviting me and thank you everyone on the panel for sharing your experience and everything with us and I've learned a lot with you I am married with
052a beautiful lady Sofia jasmine we have a song that I think everyone should meet he is only five so we have a really nice you know beautiful life with the Jeremiah and his family um I as you just put it out I'm from Haiti I grew up in a country that knows all kinds of hardship social economics politics etc all of these shape me and help me to become the person I am today among all I've gone through in my life there's one thing I've never experienced until I moved to the United States of America I think everyone can fill in the blank yes it's racism my father moved to the US as a boat people after all the dismays and deceptions it took him 22 years to get all of us to the land
053of the free we are on the land of the free I'm so happy for that the land of the free is the nickname of America it is written at the end of all four stanzas in the national anthem they are the hypocrisy of that is the land of the free has slaves on the plantation when Francis Scott Key wrote the star-spangled banner and it's in 14 Francis was a devout believer whose Bible says love your neighbors as yourself we are created in the image of God and we are one body in union with Jesus but still he owned slaves and stood against the abolition of slavery nobody can really speak about the abolition of slavery without referencing Haley the first black Republic that fought the colonialist and as a consequence is forced to pay an
054equivalence of 21 billion dollars to preserve its independence Haley paid for defeating the greatest armed force of the time Thomas Jefferson who was the US president knew the emancipation of the slaves and Haiti can be a potential cause of upheaval of the slaves and the u.s. he attempted to suppress the revolution by refusing to recognize Haley independence to prevent a social economic and political evolution of him the u.s. set embargoes and occupied Haiti for 19 years from 1915 to 1934 Julia Garfield an associate professor at Washington State University wrote an article and the Washington spoke of posts saying Haiti the first nation to permanently ban slavery and the slave trade from the first day of its existence now below that of Haiti to overthrow slavery and colonialism reverberating around the world forcing slave holding nations
055like Britain and France she didn't include the US and the list and she should have to come face to face with the contradiction of their own enlightenment many would now like to forget this reckoning the church at large was and is a dominant force in US history it kills situated a shelter and welcoming place for white supremacy the Catholic Church played a critical role in the transatlantic slave trade we have an issue today where we're celebrating Christopher Columbus who's supposedly the first to discover America how is that even possible when there are Egyptian artifacts in North America archeologists have in their possession instances of skulls and skeletons that most likely belonged to African descents not only that the church was the backbone of the slave trade but also most of the slave masters were devoted
056Christians the white church in America did not accept any slave and their means therefore black people could not for any reason step into the church sanctuary blacks were not regarded as human beings because for the church leaders these creatures don't have souls it's in this perspective but w/e be Dubois wrote his famous book the souls of black folk the founding fathers of this nation envisioned to keep a straight line between black and white and an ongoing order of superiority Abraham Lincoln did not hide his position saying there is a physical difference between the white and the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior and I as much as any men and in favor of having
057the superior position assigned to the white race well before Lincoln Thomas Jefferson said I advance it therefore has a suspicion only that the black where there originally indistinct I mean in the second race or may distinct by time or circumstances are inferior to the white and the endowment of both body and minds this segregation and inferiority of the black race compared to the white race also take root and the attribution of certain representation of the colors black and white white represents purity and righteousness and God is dressed in a white robe but black workers at falsity and purity ignorance and the devil is black as the devil is the adversary of God therefore the black race becomes automatically the opponent of the white race it is this image that amber embodied and a man of
058so many who hate black people some are considered to be progressive they don't hate black people but the alternative is to be colorblind though this theory is as bad as the attribution theory presented a both the intent of pushing color colorblindness theory is to impose everyone to see everything as right therefore if another race doesn't see things the way it's presented by the white crayon race you become the enemy we see some people especially black folks and their knife T ignore their skin color to emphasize their identity that is in Christ Jesus well if your color becomes one with your identity you may be right but everyone knows there's a clear contrast between who you are as presented in human characteristic war for Christians God's characteristics and the color of your skin you will not
059see a white person ignore his or her skin color because the world doesn't see white people to be ashamed of their skin color but it's rather offers them all kinds of privileges just for being white it is written in the Constitution of the United States of America that all men are created equal but the facts clearly show it is interpreted to be limited exclusively to the white circle this inequality and plant acts of racism that are revealed today on social media revolve the conscience of our allies to join in this long fought battle that lasts more than four centuries I study black lives matter I've tend to raise the citizens awareness to speak against injustice police brutality and racism in our communities I am so delighted to see everybody's involvement especially our scene committee and
060the willingness to change our communities into a more welcoming place to black and people of color there is something I want to emphasize and make clear to everyone if you want to see a real change you must not be afraid to make decisions that will profane those who tactically and purposefully join the movement just to prevent any change and a very soft and peaceful way those are the real enemies of change if our leaders believe changes will occur without affecting the oppressors mindset then there will be nothing done we the people must continue to advocate for real change we must not accept to pull for tomorrow what we keep what can be done today we have waited and suffered for too long the time for change is now don't think it's too small or it
061will be more beneficial to focus on something greater that's good too but sometimes it's better to do baby steps then to make a leap that destroys everything after almost a month and a half that people all over the United States have been protesting to rehearse changes what are the things our towns have already decided to implement I see the state house was working on a bill to reform the police system what are what have you done personally as the citizen to influence a change at all levels remember this system of oppression is not working it's working the way it was intended to work now together we have the we have to intentionally double and even quadruple our working pace to eradicate this system that is profound and negatively fruitful we've seen a lot of clinics
062from those who want the system to remain the same not lose focus they have all the reasons to promote the Moodle if it's working don't change it it's working to the detriment of another group the black people so you will hear them saying blue lives matter black lives matter unfortunately they don't have the decency to Excel not human being care continue to be treated less than animals in the 21st century regardless of race and color what'd she do now matter all lives will not matter once in black lives matter thank you love asq thank you very much for the information you just prevented and it's a great segue to some of the things you mentioned too as we before we move into the question and answer section of the program I wanted to share with
063folks the plans for the next session as all of our speakers have said today conversations like this are important and they shouldn't just be a one-off thing that we do one night and there are plans for another similar session two weeks from today the 29th and the second session will be a follow up conversation it'll include some other members of our community John Benson from the town selectman Tammy Gouveia our state representative saying sananda so hi the Indian American artist and co-founder of essence of India and Cena are our newest state representative who was just elected Reese very recently and our Deputy Police Chief Jim Cogan so that's coming up next week our two weeks rather and we'll have a similar format and registration process so stay tuned for that and so now we have
064an opportunity we've heard some very great historical context from Kevin and some ongoing issues that are happening statewide and in our community from our senator we've heard a great story of moving from Maryland to hear from Kira and a lot of work that lavance he's doing with black lives matter and now is the time for folks in the audience to ask any questions and we'd ask you to do that by entering them into the chat functions of zoom and then we will distribute them to the speakers so Don is there one that you wanted to push forward and some getting some great I don't know if the panelists can see but a lot of compliments on all of your presentations or in the chats not too many questions but a lot of compliments so that's
065good yes and thank you all for the positive feedbacks here I think I only saw five open questions I think the first one yes seems like housing segregation supports a lot of this problems ending that it would help a lot yes I wonder who would be this one basket director and this is for you John all this is for Jimmy Energy outage I think the senator Archer has to leave so do we have a right person here to dress this question about the housing segregation support I think I think it's an interesting observation and it's something that we should look into absolutely yeah so that's a that's a good question I don't know that I have the answer personally I think it's relate to Kevin's presentation right to school problems Kevin do you have something
066to add on this question well I believe the question really fits in when we look at a city such as Boston which is gentrifying by the year in which it is truly out pricing the vast majority of black and brown residents here in which they actually have to flee to other communities such as New Bedford and Fall River and Brockton and so how they in again it's a way this is we're going the way of San Francisco where we are just out pricing all our current black and brown residents so it does have a sense of segregation which only a particular demographic can purchase homes where you have other folks who can't even afford the rent here in Boston so I really think it you know obviously gentrification I live healing right in Roxbury I
067can recall living in Springfield and knowing what lacks Lilly was like in the 80s and the 90s and it is not the Roxbury of 20 years ago in which you had a predominantly black community which is now you know really owned in all essence of the conversation flipping to white as we as we speak and again it is simply moving everything south here in Boston it's an interesting dynamic and it does I mean it's well you have a million dollar a million dollar properties here in Roxbury what is that telling you so I really think the question and it ties in to schools because they aren't sending more students to school their children to school here in Boston and if they are aged the private schools or the Met go program so it does have
068a just play a part great question I'd like to add that you know one of one of the major another major difference between Maryland and Massachusetts is that the major unit of government is of local government is your County not your town so I attended Montgomery County Public Schools meant I could live in Silver Spring but get the same kind of quality education of the kids in Bethesda Chevy Chase Potomac we're getting so it was you know it was it was an excellent education and an excellent system and even if I wasn't in the richest part of the county and that matters because it you know it allows more kids to have access to those resources and so so just by making the borders of every school system so very small and so very limiting
069we limit the access to education and it it feels to me as a person who's not from here um really um not not personal but just like just very purposeful in the way that that that that was built and so it's frustrating because I'm not sure that that that would ever change but it seems to me but that being able to to make a larger region of schools and school districts would make it easier for more kids to have access to a great education and we combat that segregation all right thank you and before I move to the next question there are a number of people who ask whether we can make the slides available and so that's for Kevin and a carer are you company would hear them to the audience sure yes okay
070thank you thank you so much those are excellent presentations and also regarding the the webinar the whole recording I believe and the marks that we're going to make it available right in 24 hours so I guess we can lesson this again I'll share to the friends and it's all like and let's go down to the next questions here and that the next question is is from anonymous one what changes all could act in our box were do at the local level to make the town more welcoming inclusive and engaging to minorities there's another excellent questions so John maybe you can talk some of the work a initiative we have in place sure yeah I think that that's a challenge that we've been working on and it's certainly something that we have a lot of work
071to do and I think nights like this where we're learning more about people's experiences in the community and communities like Acton help us to better plan and and understand what things we can do I know the Board of Selectmen in Acton has shown some leadership and as recently as Monday night or earlier this week established our goals through the year and they're the top goal of the whole process was to pursue efforts to work on equity and racial improve improving racial equity in our community and there was actually another goal related to looking at housing and if there's any discrimination in housing so it's definitely there's a commitment from our local leadership which is great a Board of Selectmen it has made this a priority and I look forward to working on it with with
072them and with our community this year and I think our guests tonight on the on the room may have suggestions and I think we've already learned from them already from their presentation so I think we have a lot to work with okay thank you John and also for for the audience I think that the next session two weeks from now and we're have more discussion on that front I think we have John Benson from the the town selectman will come to keep the first presentation I think that's it's quicken can house would be ask them and there's also other effort by the residents and by the stay wraps and they were covered some of the current effort all policies all right thank you let's move to the next questions and basically I think next one
073is more asking to have the slice so this one already being answered I believe and the next one is also being answered that's down let's go so John maybe can't you can't you can check the next question now I have one here that says Kevin can you share your experience in your career pursuit yeah you know I'm a transplant I was born in Paterson New Jersey and I with the Paterson public schools throughout and the schools are in dire to pay Paterson is a very poor city in New Jersey and no contrary to your kind of I think the stereotype single mom raised by a single mom and really did the best she could and I'm really proud of what my mother produced because she was an outstanding mom and she still remains that 80
074years of age and still going strong but I actually was for you know again college even though my mother and my grandmother did not go to college my mother ended up going later on it was instilled in me from day one either you go to college she gonna be out the house so it's kind of it was a kind of easy decision for me to come going on by no means was education my field you know I was a mathematician by trade math was always ever since at being a child I wanted to get something into obviously engineering or computer science and such and I actually started out in private industry I started at mass media I went to Western as I stated earlier got a degree in mathematics and God forbid anytime you ask
075somebody you know you've got a degree where did you get it in English or physical education it was shocking to see their face when I say that the bachelor's degree in mathematics and it just throws a whole world around but I worked in practice industry at MassMutual for three years and it was just not fulfilling and MassMutual had a program in which they allowed you to leave work and tutor at the local high one of the local high schools it gave me the afternoon off and I love having afternoons off so I would go in to the tutor and I just fell in love with it fell in love with it and actually left MassMutual or three months later and started teaching in the Springfield Public Schools where I taught for six years at middle
076school I was an administrator for 16 in elementary middle and high school I left there after 22 years and went to Harford to work in central office to work on a number of things supervising principals designing new types of schools and approaches to education and this position at Madison Park opened up in a friend of mine who had actually moved out here was working in the office of human capital saying you gotta come out here and look at this you know Boston really needs what you have and came and I just said because I know you I'll just go for the interview but I'm really satisfied where I'm at came to Boston and fell in love with the with the school itself and what Boston was proposing so I've been here for five years and
077obviously we'll be transitioning a role into central office at some point in time but that's pretty much it pretty much it you know a lot of support understanding I'm having a lot of hands placed on me about for support reaching out and you know to Levinsky point you know you always gonna face those obstacles in opposition at all costs and I think it's a mindset that was instilled in me growing up in Paterson that you know you are tougher than your circumstances there you can overcome all your obstacles and the such and it has been that way for me for 58 years you know with four children and three grandchildren as well you know we try to instill that that product of power that you are empowered to do great things and nothing can deter
078you from that but yourself and that's pretty much been my experience of my career pursuits and and hopefully after 30 going on 33 years of education I know the time is coming something to stop but again as long as I can keep breathing and happy a passion to me really enthusiasm I'll continue to do this work yeah let's move on to the next questions I think the next question I think I would like to bring up this question I think is interesting so they asked the question asks about there are several working groups some social justice issues the school community the high school student group black lab mitering action and done now we have a new commission on diversity equity and inclusion so is there any plan to coordinate those things so I bring them
079together to enhance their at work I think that's a great question so maybe I think I'm wrong and maybe Tara and doing things and you can talk about these all right I will I'll defer I've been answering a lot of questions I you know I John should answer but rested I because I only know about some of the stuff that's going on at school I know I just got here so on but you know I know there's a lot going on and I think it's a great question is if we're coordinating and the answer is we should if we're not you know there should be a little coalition a little conference in a in a post kovat world I hope because it's important and and the more that we can coordinate and and so that
080we can tackle you know my father used to say with these kind of big problems you have to eat it like an elephant one piece at a time and and there are so many great organizations and we're tackling this big huge thing so we just need to take it you know just little pieces by pieces and we can do that because there's so many of us now it's a beautiful thing so John if coordinated we should they they're not recorded I think the fact that there are multiple Congress time is a very positive thing and certainly any opportunities to coordinate would be helpful but I think it's great that there are many different people that are interested in different formats to help and try to advance this issue I don't know if Levinsky if you
081have anything to add on that front I was gonna say that you know black lives matter acting we just started so it's about almost a month and a half since we started so we are learning about the community and I'm connecting with other groups I was really I've already met with some of the news groups so this morning I met one of the students so we will find a way to work together we already make some propositions how we can work together and things they've already worked on and we will you know work together on them and probably things we will be doing in the community we will invite them I met with Emmy as well so I started meeting with you know different groups no so maybe some of them that I they mentioned
082on the Q&A question list I don't know them if there's a way to connect me with them I'm willing to connect with them and maybe we can do something together and have all of them together I mean it would be amazing to see all of these groups working together for the same purpose thank you yeah we have about eight minutes left here let's just address a few more questions here I think the next one after that their question coming from both the chat and the Q&A so we're trying to kind of balance that a little bit here and there's another question regarding how can we get more teacher and an administrator of color in the school if there is shortage of graduating in this field so who would be the best person to address it
083so I mean I'll tackle it but again I'm I'm brand new and I'm and I'm I'm not supposed to speak as a in my capacity as a committee member and and and really I can't because I I don't know all of the efforts that have better be made though superintendent light has said on multiple occasions that this is that this is important to this to the district that plans are being put in place that recruitment has happened and is active so it is it is it is not lost on the district or on the committee or on the administration I'm looking forward to being part of those efforts I hope as I go forward in my term you know I think there there are black teachers out there I know I was one of them
084and Kevin is one of them you know I think that just speaking for me as a person of color who was a teacher candidate back in the day when I was study in Baltimore on there was a you know you feel torn um you know there are kids in the city there are kids in Boston there were kids in Baltimore there were kids in Washington DC who I wanted to teach you I you know I thought deserved a highly educated black teacher who wanted to be in that classroom with them and you know what for four years I did it in Boston and and I loved my time I loved my time in Boston but I I think that those driven teachers I think that suburban kids of all colors also deserve motivated black teachers
085who want to be there too they need to have that experience of a person of color in front of them speaking with Authority telling them they got to do something having those iooks high expectations for them being disappointed when they turn don't turn that thing in there's just something about that relationship that's really important and getting used to that at an early age and so you know I do I remember being that teacher and being that that student teacher and I did my student teaching in a suburban school and and so I think that we're out there I think that figuring how how to speak to that young teacher and say yes the urban school districts are looking for you and they need you and if that's where you are called to be then be
086there but if you even have a question if you think that being caught you're being called to the suburban schools we were here for you and our kids deserve you too I mean that's what I would say if I were in an interview and again that's not me speaking as a committee member that's me speaking as a former teacher and as a mom who has two boys who deserve black teachers that's what I would say to that young teacher all right Thank You Kara and there are some a few very good question on the chat section let me pick a cup of them and one of them from and Vivian's and it's any suggestion about how best combat racism within the community of color and he black this among Asian Americans and blacks whoring asian-american
087because of the kana connect collections it's a little wordy every to say so this is little pretty big topics I don't know if we have enough time to address that and it's a good question here and so Jane you have any good salt on this I think this is I think this is a reason why we're having this event I think we like to have a good education setting here for broader audience especially Chinese Americans to get here more real stories from local black residents I hope it helps us to appreciate I think we would like to hear from from the speakers from Kara maybe Kevin and John and then to see if you have any thoughts on this if I may I think Expo because it goes to one of the questions in the
088Q&A about you know what suggestions I think exposure to each other's communities it's something and because I think we don't expose ourselves enough when there's an N double ACP meeting why don't we invite you know the Asian community in to have these types of sessions and what you know and similar to here one of the things that we did one of the activities we did with another school that has an all-white population we did a student exchange program where we took 30 of our students and they have 30 embeds and we just exchanged the students for an entire day and staff members and it was just such it was almost unrecognizable ation is cathartic for everybody it was such it was one of the greatest days in 33 years and I've seen in education because
089he was such effective learning and understanding going on and saying if we can do that in a public school setting you mean to tell me we can't do that in our vast communities here in Massachusetts and I think that's a create an opportunity for people to hear about the history of folks hear about some of the culture the customs and what you believe even because you'll see a lot of similarities of what we believe in want the best for our children and the best opportunity to be successful in life so again just simply opportunities right here create forums that we can all sit down and discuss all the issues that may separate because I'll guarantee we have a lot I to community Asian comedians in black communities have a lot in common more so than
090our differences yeah thank you I think that's excellent answers I do agree those kind of forum is an excellent place for us to know each other better and to appreciate each other's challenge or more thank you for that and there's another good question from the chat where this organizer of forum be waiting you're able to take the lead in greater boss like Asian communities in black life and better information actions and if so where you know what information grab it easy salmon ate it I think we are definitely open to share the video and the slice to all the participants and and feel free to pass I guess we currently we will have a second accession to come in two weeks and this is definitely a great star here and we definitely will think about
091how we can make a more impact to extend the communities okay and let's look at it's a little harder for me to look at the new message here I think that covered a lot of questions here I think there's couple quick quick we are actually right around the time I think we did quite a while covering a lot of questions I think there's one maybe closing comments for the speaker Kevin Kara and the Levinsky and ask you if you have maybe one suggestion anything you think you can make our Tom better first again thank you for providing this forum for for all of us that made me personally I think any opportunity that I had the opportunity to come out and speak up and I act in the PAC's barrel area and bringing some folks
092out there with this and I would welcome you to come to Boston as well when we have certain events because we definitely want to open those lines of communication to create the kind of communities in society that we want our kids to relish so thank you thank you so I think with that I think of this conclude this session that John any closing comments here yeah I definitely appreciate everybody's time and if this is the excellent presentation and great effort from everybody yeah thank you all yes thank you again for having us no this was really wonderful yes and I guess my closing thought would to speed you know Acton is changing and it's dynamic and it's wonderful and I'm proud to be here and I'm proud to you know be part of all of
093this so just thank you so much for this opportunity let me close by saying that like maybe when we first started blacklivesmatter Acton I received an email from somebody who was living in Acton and then he left because you know all kind of races and stuff like that discrimination and then he sent me the text he said but he is so happy and so joyful to see what Acton is doing now he is he is far to say that he's from Acton so you see like he wasn't proud to see that to say that now because of inclusion and how we are open to work together so it gives him an another you know view of octave so that's what we were trying to create black lives matter acting you know make it more welcome
094to everybody and a peaceful area for everybody to to work or to walk and I don't want to be you know to be afraid if I see a cop I don't want my son to be afraid if he I mean if he's worth working down the street and sees a cop I mean it's the same for all blacks in the community we don't want that to happen in Acton and we don't me wanted to in other communities around because like you may make like acting the best place to live place to live but the other town over you can even cross so that's why the effort must not only include acting its most on include you know all the surrounding towns and the work is I am let's all the leaders let's open you know
095be open to talk we open to not just invite people and you talk to them and you send them home and it's over but we open to talk and make decision to make better changes thank you so each chance to hear I think we're perfectly on time here right yes very great you know everybody this has been a very very helpful night for everyone I think we learned a lot and got some got to meet some some of our members of our community and thank you allowing me to participate in this as well do you want to shut it down Don yes thanks everybody for making the time to attend today's meeting and thanks all the speakers and all the organizers and have a wonderful evening hope to see you in two weeks thank you
096see you in two weeks you have a great night everyone