CHARLEMONT — On the day Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn into office, a group of students, staff and faculty from The Academy at Charlemont and other area schools were in discussion on what that meant for girls and women of color.
“Based on where we are — and the uphill battle I see happening — what I don’t want is for it to be what Barack Obama’s presidency was like … where everyone was willing to take things as they are, and make incremental change,” said educator Synphany Bates Zale. “I believe we’re at a time where it has to be swift and radical change.”
The vice presidential inauguration of the first woman of color was just one of the topics discussed at an anti-racism training day held remotely at The Academy at Charlemont on Wednesday. Throughout the day, workshops dealt with subjects including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, what it means to “defund the police,” and one Black woman’s personal experience with racism in Franklin County.
The final major event of the day was a panel discussion facilitated by Penny Ricketts, who recently became the first person of color to be elected president of the Greenfield City Council, with guests Bates Zale, Talia Gee, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud and Paul Rudof.
“This is our future here, today,” Ricketts said, speaking to the audience, which consisted largely of students. “So I think it’s only fitting that on inauguration day, I’m here with all of you. This is great work you’re all doing, and I think it’s important.”
The discussion began with a reflection on the attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier in January, which was led by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“What we saw was disturbed, but not surprising,” said Amatul-Wadud, an attorney who often represents victims of hate crimes, and who ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Richard Neal for his seat representing the 1st Congressional District in 2018. “I’m curious and will be watching closely as people are charged and punished for what they’ve done.”
Bates Zale said she wasn’t surprised at the way the event was ultimately handled.
“I know what actual policing of those events look like,” she said. “What I watched was not that. I watched enable-ism. I watched people high-fiving and selfies … and all the things that seemed to be not available to people like me.”
Bates Zale paired that reaction with what she saw on social media on Wednesday, where President Joe Biden’s inauguration was also a celebration of the end of Trump’s presidency.
“That translates to me, ‘I don’t have to watch anymore. … Democracy is safe so I can turn it off and start posting puppies again,” she said. “I don’t ever get that privilege, as I’m sure many of the people of color here don’t. We don’t ever get to ‘put it down.’”
Her response segued into Ricketts’ next question, which was whether the Black Lives Matter movement — which had such a noticeable presence last summer — was over.
Gee, an attorney and educator, said she doesn’t think the movement is over.
“I think Black Lives Matter sort of became the new name for (the civil rights movement),” she said. “I think the movement will evolve itself as it did over the course of 400 years.”
Rather than fighting over people being enslaved, she said, its about fighting for fair opportunities, or against “unarmed people being killed in the street like dogs.”
“I think the movement is certainly not going anywhere, and I think people will continue to push back,” she said.
Gee added that the swearing in of Harris on Wednesday “is what Black Lives Matter is about” — equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or religion.
Rudof, referencing a conversation he’d had with a friend, said there are “tipping points” in history, during which movements rise up and “can go one way or another.”
“We often tend to slide back into the place where we were before the uprising,” he said, noting the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer were unique, even compared to the 1960s. “The question is, are we going to move forward, or slide back? … It’s on us (white people) in many ways to be the ones that make sure we move forward. It’s not on the BIPOC community, because they’re always pushing forward against immense obstacles and odds.”
Bates Zale said that while her heart “sings” as a woman to see Harris holding such an important political office, she is also conflicted.
“When I was looking into Kamala running for president, I was super excited until I saw how aligned she was with … the justice system as it stands,” Bates Zale said. “I wanted to know where she was going to go to deal with the systemic oppression it perpetuates. I am waiting and I’m withholding all of my support until I see that very laid out — until I see her willing to take a risk as a Black woman to re-examine how she aligned herself with the justice system then and now.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne