Local Anti-Racism Task Force is Up to the Task
Task force members (left to right) Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson, Soha Soliman, Geer Harvey and Althea Casamento. Photo by Rosemary Hasner / Black Dog Creative Arts.
November 24, 2020 | Tralee Pearce. from In The Hills
Four members of Shelburne’s Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Racism and Discrimination Task Force discuss their mission and the vision they have for Shelburne.
As Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson and Althea Casamento wrapped up their online Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Racism and Discrimination Task Force presentation to Shelburne town council the evening of October 5, their closing slide was a fitting coda to an intense process that had started in June.
A photo showed the town’s diverse, peaceful – joyful, even – Black Lives Matter March on June 14. The task force had already been proposed by then, fuelled by a global sense of urgency about anti-Black racism. But for those who believe Shelburne can do better by its growing number of Black, Indigenous and minority citizens (in total, about 20 per cent of the town’s total population), the march affirmed that they were on the right side of history.
“You gotta pinch yourself – it was a moment,” said Deputy Mayor Steve Anderson, recalling how it felt to look back at the crowd from where he was walking with Mayor Wade Mills. “This is really happening. I knew we had a mandate.”
https://www.inthehills.ca/2020/11/up-to-the-task/
“The death of George Floyd hit everyone in the heart. White people do not walk out of their house with the fear they will be treated differently and killed because of something they can’t control. But Black people do.”