I come from a place that is, and has been for centuries, plagued by racism. Being an American, I can hear some people saying, “You’re going to have to narrow it down, Chris.” Fair enough. American racism contains multitudes: We’ve got people and organizations that hate just about every ethnic group you can think of. Hell, when a hitchhiking robot named hitchBOT tried to make its way across the good ol’ US of A back in 2015, it ended up stripped for parts and decapitated in (where else?) Philadelphia, so this country will even hate-crime a robot.
But spending some formative years in North Carolina showed me there are places where the quiet parts get said a little louder.
To set the scene: I lived there in the early ’90s, when outright bigot and walking, talking shriveled prune Jesse Helms was a United States senator. Just one state to the south, you had Strom Thurmond, who clung to his miserable life for an entire century — long enough to champion segregation and father a secret biracial love child. On my first day in the North Carolina public school system — in sixth grade, no less — I was told that the Civil War was known as the “War of Northern Aggression.” So … yeeeeaaaah.
Coming to Vermont in 2001 felt like an escape from the constant, poisonous and constant racial tension of the South. But that was a rather, well, white view of the whole thing, and I soon realized that, while it might not be as bad as other places in the country, Vermont has its share of race-related issues.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Vermont has one of the worst racial disparities in prison population in the country, with Black adults seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults. Black and Latinx drivers are 2.5 to four times more likely to have their cars searched by law enforcement than white drivers. And that’s not even getting into stories like that of Kiah Morris. In 2018, the state representative from Bennington, at the time the only Black woman in the legislature, resigned from her seat following racist threats to her and her family.
On the “Beyond Busy” podcast with Graham Allcott, Robert Livingston offered some advice relevant in Vermont and beyond: “The first step to solving any problem, whether it’s racism, substance abuse, weight loss, even climate change — they all begin with an acknowledgement of the problem.”
A social psychologist and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, Livingston is an expert on the science underlying racism and bias and the author of the 2021 book The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations. He’s coming to Burlington for this year’s Black Experience, the flagship event for the city’s Black History Month celebration at the Flynn, to take place on Saturday and Sunday, February 24 and 25.
Now in its third year at the Flynn, the Black Experience serves as both party and conversation, featuring a talk by Livingston and performances by Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli, a former member of Black Star; and all-Black, all-female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.
In a press release, Flynn executive director Jay Wahl said the venue is “honored to welcome” the team behind the Black Experience and the city’s Juneteenth celebrations and called the upcoming event “another impactful, insightful, and joyous community event for all.”
The Black Experience has three thematic pillars: culture, community and education. Before headliner Kweli takes the stage, there will be panels and other discussions revolving around the Black experience in Vermont and abroad.
The Flynn is copresenting this year’s event with the city and nuwave, a Burlington consulting firm that focuses on racial equity. “It’s a privilege to play a small part in the celebration and recognition of Black Vermonters,” nuwave’s Emiliano Void said in the press release. “We continue to believe that representation is a critical component of making this place feel like home for all.”
As Livingston pointed out, the first step is to talk about it.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2024.
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