GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Human Rights Commission’s first forum on overcoming racism was prompted by an incident involving an off-duty police sergeant displaying a Confederate flag in his garage several months ago, but some members of the community came to the meeting with a more recent incident in mind.
Resident Rui Santos spoke during the nearly three-hour meeting to voice concern over the way Greenfield High School administrators and police handled a fight at the high school Monday morning, during which his 16-year-old son was arrested. He said his son was walking by to see what was going on and ended up in handcuffs, spent three hours in court and was served a 10-day suspension.
Santos questioned whether his son’s race played a role in the arrest and the young man’s step-mom, Rachel Silverman, said, “When I talk to my son’s friends, they’re already recognizing the otherness that they have there. The staff doesn’t look like them. There’s nobody there that’s giving them a voice.”
Contacted after the meeting, Police Chief Robert Haigh said there is nothing to indicate the incident was racially motivated and urged those who have concerns to contact the Police Department.
“Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and I can say based on the information I have and the investigation, as well as information from past events, it’s not a racially motivated incident,” he said. “It certainly is hard to hear some of these things without having the opportunity to speak to the people who are bringing up these concerns. … I welcome anybody to speak with me directly.”
Lewis Metaxas, chairman of the commission, said he had not heard about the incident until it was brought up at the meeting and said what the commission needs going forward is a set of facts about what happened.
“I have no reason to doubt what I heard tonight. I don’t want that to be an implication, but I think it’s important to know what the police are saying, what the children are saying. …” he said. “I would think that asking the police chief and school superintendent to come to us is not such a bad idea in terms of getting it straight from them in terms of what’s going on.”
Organizers from Racial Justice Rising stood on the corner of Main Street and Bank Row before the forum, holding signs promoting racial justice.
It was standing room only in the Town Hall meeting room, with about 40 community members in attendance. Several shared their own experiences with racism and discussed ways to overcome it, with many agreeing holding cultural events in town and maintaining a constant dialogue are important steps in the process.
“It has to be a fluid, living organism that we keep nurturing,” said commission member Momodou Sarr. “If you don’t live in this skin, you have no clue what I go through. My very name evokes doubt about who I am.”
Metaxas said he’s excited about the cultural sensitivity training the town of Montague is looking into for its employees, saying a similar program would be perfect for Greenfield.
Rodney Madison of Turners Falls, who originally proposed the idea in Montague, attended the forum and said he fears once the meeting was over, the momentum will fizzle out. He added it was telling that the Police Department didn’t send a representative to the forum, considering the issue began when Sgt. Daniel McCarthy, the department’s liaison to the Human Rights Commission, displayed a Confederate flag in his garage.
“The issue began with their Police Department and there’s no one here today,” he said.
After the meeting, Haigh said he was not invited, but would be happy to attend if asked to speak on a particular issue. He added he’s been in communication with Metaxas, but the two have yet to find a time to meet.
During its last meeting, the commission formally recommended to the mayor, Town Council and Public Safety Commission that Haigh replace McCarthy as liaison to the commission. Metaxas said the commission will revisit that recommendation in April or May.
Haigh said Monday night that he has no intention of replacing McCarthy.
Swan Keyes, who is coordinating the proposal for sensitivity training in Montague, said during the meeting she believes the solution to overcoming racism is to create an environment where community members can explore issues of race more deeply instead of pretending everyone is colorblind.
She said there’s a reason why when white students fight, parents are usually called and when black students fight, the police are usually called.
“Whoever observed that fight (Monday morning) didn’t think any overtly racist thoughts,” she said, adding racism is constant, pervasive and many times subconscious.
Keyes added a good way of dealing with those types of issues is to turn them into skits.
“What you do is you get a community engaged in playing together. Once you do that, you can approach anything,” she said.
At-Large Town Councilor Penny Ricketts, who is also a commission member, said a challenge for the commission is getting those who might not ordinarily come to the forums involved in the discussion.
“It’s always the people who get it that show up,” she said. “We’re there kind of leaning on each other, but everyone who should hear the message just isn’t in the room.”
Ricketts added another crucial step is getting children involved in the dialogue, which was echoed throughout the forum by many others.
Metaxas said the commission will come up with an action plan based on the consensuses reached during the discussion and encouraged those present to do the same.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re not going to let this drop, that I can promise you,” he said.