To the Editor:
Yesterday a group of Westport students and graduates of Staples high school, along with youth activists from Weston and Stamford (DOPE) held a Black Lives Matter protest in town. One of those students was Niah Michel, who earlier this year wrote a letter to WestportNow about the racism she and her peers experience at Staples High School.
Yesterday, we came to the bridge with our signs. We chanted, we marched, and we listened. I have always known how lucky I am to live in a town where so many speak out for what is right.
I have stood with many of you on that same bridge over the years, protesting the wrongdoings of our country. So yesterday, I was not surprised to see a crowd of that size coming out against racism and police brutality.
But something was very different about this protest: it made us feel uncomfortable. And that is what has been missing.
When I have organized rallies here in town, I have focused on two things:
1. Speaking out against injustice and attacks on democracy in this country; and
2. Providing an opportunity for the togetherness and feeling of community which gives us strength and energizes us to act.
These young activists reminded us that we’ve neglected the third and most important purpose of protesting: looking inward. While looking outside into the world and all its problems, we have protected our own town — and our peers — from due scrutiny.
When we protested Trump’s abandonment of the Paris Accord, we should have addressed the wasteful way we use energy with our huge houses, pools, cars, and even private planes. When we protested the caging of children at the borders, we should have addressed the abusive lives immigrants often live at our hands, as underpaid gardeners and cleaning ladies and forced sex workers in this state.
When we protested the appointment of Kavanaugh, we should have called out the sexism we experience every day in our work places, our schools, and our homes, our municipality.
When Niah’s letter was printed in February, we should have been on that bridge screaming against how she and her peers have been treated. And when I held a rally for the victims of police brutality last Sunday, I should have focused on the racism and lack of diversity in our own town — just as much as the violent acts against people of color we see on our screens. I am sorry we neglected to do both.
Discomfort is not a good feeling, but it is what children feel just as they are beginning to learn to read. It is the pain adolescents feel in their legs when they are growing. If we remember it’s the thing we feel before advancing, we can tolerate it. It’s the least we can do considering how people of color in our communities tolerate us.
I listened — and I will keep listening. I’m grateful to the young teachers yesterday who put me in that place of discomfort. Silence leads to violence.
Darcy Hicks,
Westport
