PUTNEY — As the Conversations on Race series sponsored by ALANA Community Organization and the Brattleboro Interfaith Clergy Association that have taken place over the summer wind down, I am left with both an overwhelming sense of grief and of hope.
Two thoughts keep running through my mind as I replay some of the stories, like the one of the five-year-old girl on her first day of kindergarten who was told by other five-year-olds that she could not play with them because she was a “nigger,” or the story of a young woman at the high school who was asked by the adult to whom she went for help for the “proof” that she had been threatened because of her race.
The first thought was that “these are our children, and they have the right to have a childhood.”
A childhood where they are not insulted or ignored because of the color of their skin.
A childhood where they are not singled out by teachers to tell the class what it is like to be black when the class is studying the history of slavery.
A childhood where they learn that the color of their skin shouldn't determine their future professional and educational opportunities
A childhood where they are not subjected to rejection by other children of color because they are “too white” or “too black.”
My second thought: Despite the tremendous challenges these young people have encountered, they have become incredibly brilliant, articulate, and resilient young people, ready and willing to go out into a world that has misunderstood them and mistreated them, to try and make a difference.
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These are not someone else's children. They are our children, and they should not have to do the work that we should have done before they were born without us.
Not only do we need to protect and support children of color who are threatened, misunderstood, or ignored, we also need to do something to provide the children who have learned to reject their peers because of their differences, with opportunities to develop more healthy responses to diversity.
It is our responsibility as adults in this community to find ways to provide experiences for our children that will allow them to become the kinds of parents who will have the cross-cultural awareness and social skills necessary to create a kinder, more equitable, and more inclusive society for our grandchildren.
We may not be able to change the past, but we most certainly can change the future.
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Interestingly, our community has a history of creating experiential intercultural educational experiences to promote cross-cultural understanding.
This was, in fact, what propelled Donald Watt, a longtime Putney resident, to found the Experiment in International Living, now part of World Learning. The EIL promoted world peace by providing opportunities for young people to live and work with people in different cultures so that they could learn one simple truth - that we are all, in the end, members of one global community.
Our community is filled with graduates of World Learning's educational programs, and with faculty and other staff who have worked there for many years. As a community, we have the capacity to create a local application of what we took across the nation and overseas, as part of EIL, and later the School for International Training and World Learning.
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One such effort you will hear more about in the coming months is the Teen Health and Wellness program of the Heartsong Health in Community organization. This program will consist of short-term service learning projects related to community health and wellness where teens will strengthen interpersonal skills and cross-cultural awareness.
Local community businesses and nonprofit organizations will be invited to participate by sponsoring teens, or providing a site for a project.
The program intends to help our young people experience a wide variety of ways to participate in community life while learning how to create a world where everyone is included, where the environment is protected, and where maintaining community health is, indeed, a community endeavor.
Consider being the change you would like to see in our community. If you are looking for ways to do this, contact ALANA Community Organization (802-254-2972 or alana@sover.net), Lise Sparrow of the Brattleboro Interfaith Clergy Association (802-257-2776), or me at Heartsong Health (802-387-2345).