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Racism

NAACP-Hosted Rally Draws Hundreds from Both East and West

by Kyle Barr - June 8, 2020

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Hundreds of cars huddled in the right lane going east along Veterans Memorial Highway Sunday, June 7. Streaming off Northern State Parkway, the caravan of cars came from Nassau County’s seat of power to Suffolk, all to promote black lives and black efficacy after the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd.

In a day which saw other protests along the North Shore including in Stony Brook and Smithtown, the rally that took place at the Suffolk County executive seat in Hauppauge drew crowds from as far east as the north and south forks and as west as the far edges of Nassau County as part of the NAACP Caravan for Change. Protesters called for an equality of access to housing, loans for businesses and a general end to prejudice. In addition to banning police use of chokeholds and stricter repercussions for officers who commit unwarranted violence, they also prompted bills in Albany to end what’s known as 50-a, a provision in the state’s civil rights code that heavily restricts people from accessing police service records.

Tracey Edwards, the Long Island Regional Director of the NAACP, said one can be for police, but also be against police misconduct. Between speakers at the podium, she added it was also time to recognize the numerous young activists who are helping to lead many protests of the past several days.

“One of the main things we need to do as a community is to identify the young leaders, and pass the baton to them,” Edwards said. “It’s critical that we let young people lead.”

Three young members of the Huntington community have led some of the first protest marches in Huntington and spoke at the June 7 rally about their efforts and examples of racism they experienced while marching. Owner of the Italian restaurant Tutto Pazzo, Luigi Petrone, called protesters animals and savages and said he wanted to throw watermelons at those marching.

“We were angry naturally, but instead of going about it in an irrational way, we decided to reorganize and mobilize again, but this time take the protest directly to his restaurant,” Kenny Charles, one of the three young protest organizers said. He added they received massive support from the community for their protest in front of Pazzo, with people even dropping off watermelons to protesters in response to Petrone’s comments.

The owner of Pazzo has since shared apologies for his comments in a video posted online.

They said the point of their protests is to show the solidarity of the community, and express the worth of their money, which would not go to support business owners who would discriminate against them. Instead, it should go to supporting and promoting black-owned businesses.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone also spoke at the rally. He cited the county replacing Tom Spota as county district attorney who was “systematically targeting black males,” he said, also citing adding more diversity to the county’s Department of Human Resources, Personnel and Civil Service

A few members of the assembled crowd yelled back at him saying “what are you planning?”

“When we talk about systemic change in law enforcement, that is needed, but that is not enough.” Bellone said. “We need systemic structural change in housing, in education and representation in all forms of our government.

Houses of Worship May Reopen This Week with Limited Capacity

by TBR Staff - June 6, 2020

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First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown. Photo by Tom Caruso

Churches, mosques and synagogues can reopen as Suffolk County enters Phase Two of its reopening this Wednesday, albeit with only 25 percent capacity.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that these houses of worship could admit community members and that religious leaders were responsible for ensuring compliance with the public health guidelines designed to limit the spread of COVID-19.

“It’s an important time for our faith-based communities to be opened back up,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “Our faith-based communities are ready to this. They understand what needs to be done.”

Separately, as protests continue on Long Island and throughout the world after the killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of a former police officer, who has been charged with his murder, public officials are engaging in ongoing conversations with community leaders bout ways to create greater equity and opportunity for everyone.

“There are areas for us to make progress,” Bellone said. “There is more work to be done.”

Bellone suggested the police department can look to make itself more diverse so that it “reflects in terms of its diversity the communities it serves across the county. That’s a priority for us.”

Bellone said conversations about equal opportunities occurred before the killing of Floyd and are moving into a “new phase” amid the protests and demonstrations.

Viral Numbers

The number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 rose by 39 to 40,239 over the last day.

The number of residents in the hospital due to the pandemic declined by 13 to 200, while the number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds declined by one to 53 through June 4th.

An additional 24 people left the hospital over the last day.

The number of people who died due to complications related to COVID-19 in the last day was five, bringing the total to 1,923.

False/Misleading Posts About Protests Promote Undue Tension, Officials Say

by Kyle Barr - June 5, 2020

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Since Sunday, protesters in Huntington rallied against racism and police violence after the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd. Another protest took place June 4 with more the following day. Photo by David Luces

Despite officials saying practically all protests in Suffolk County have been peaceful to this point, unfounded rumors of potential violence are still being spread through social media, causing concern while protesters continue to call for an end to racial injustice and police violence.

Throughout the week, a flyer promoting a protest in Smithtown made its way through social media. The flyer depicts marchers holding up their fists in the classic black power symbol, though it also depicts fires from Minneapolis. It includes the words “Bring your spirit in all its inferno.” The location of the protests lists the Stop & Shop at 291 West Main St. just east of the bull statue and was set for June 7.

Residents online, in both Smithtown and neighboring townships, have taken that image and dialogue surrounding the protest to mean it would somehow involve violence. The main person promoting the protest, who on Twitter and Instagram goes by the name @plasticbagnomad, commented that it is planned to be “a peaceful demonstration. We are not advocating for violence at all.”

Her real name is Caitlin Matos-Rodriguez, of Central Islip, and she said there has been much misinformation on social media about her and the planned protest. Because of the misinformation and rumors, she has received multiple violent threats to her and other protesters from residents.

“I have never condoned violence on this protest,” she said. “My goal of this protest is to bring our voices into segregated towns of Long Island. Our roots on Long Island rival next to Jim Crow [laws] of the south — you can see that by the geography of Long Island alone.”

Referencing the general segregated nature of Long Island’s townships (Smithtown is over 90 percent white, according to census data), she added the point of the protest is to help open up more job opportunities, real estate opportunities and credit building opportunities for marginalized people of color.

The Town of Smithtown released a statement Wednesday about some of the undue anxiety from the community at large, not just about the mentioned protest, but about “a number of rumors, hoaxes, photos of fake advertisements for paid anarchists, and false posts of looting, night time demonstrations and other fictitious posts [that] have flooded social media, inflaming unbecoming verbal response and panic amidst a pandemic.”

The town said it is working with police and local fire districts to “ensure that any and all demonstrations in our community are done in a peaceful, lawful manner, ensuring the safety of all involved.”

Smithtown spokesperson Nicole Garguilo said residents were subjected to “a storm of false information,” including that bricks were being placed around the county to be used by protesters or even rumors that the Macy’s clothing store was being looted.

The Sunday protest and its organizer was a victim of that misinformation, which resulted in violent threats to her and any other protesters. Though now with the town and police having communicated with Matos-Rodriguez and other protest leaders, Garguilo said all will work to make sure the protest will be peaceful.

“This is a young woman who is motivated to express her first amendment right to assemble,” Garguilo said. “We’re are going to all be there in what we hope to disarm any community angst that’s out there with Caitlin. We want to make sure her message gets out clear.”

More people in surrounding communities have worked to clarify that it would remain peaceful. Julio Taku Jr., a Huntington resident and journalism student at Stony Brook University, said he and other community activists saw the reaction to the Smithtown protest and have sought to clarify what’s happening.

In a written statement he shared with TBR News Media, it said Matos-Rodriguez is in contact with town officials and Suffolk County Police to ensure a safe and peaceful demonstration.

“Local law enforcement from the 4th precinct will also be on hand to ensure the safety of all the demonstrators seeking to respectfully express their First Amendment right under the United States Constitution,” her statement read. “We stand in solidarity with the black community and wish to honor and support them in the best way possible. Black Lives Matter.”

The destination and route for the march is still to be determined before Sunday. A new poster for the protest sets the time at 2 p.m., but Garguilo said the time was being moved to 4 p.m.

In community Facebook pages, mentions of protests have been responded to with posts that suggest residents will resort to violence to stave off violent protests in their communities. So far all protests on the North Shore of Long Island have been reported as peaceful. While there have been nearly daily rallies in the Huntington area for the past several days, for eastern Suffolk in the TBR News Media coverage area, the closest rallies have taken place in Setauket, Port Jefferson Station and Riverhead, some involving hundreds of people peacefully protesting alongside a police presence.

On Wednesday, June 3, police posted to its Facebook page that there were rumors circulating around social media about piles of bricks being left at specific locations, as if to incite violence, and of bricks being thrown at cars below overpasses, but the department has not received any credible information towards those reports.

In Suffolk so far the only arrests of protesters were two people in Shirley June 1. Police said they responded to about 70 protesters who were marching down toward the 7th precinct along William Floyd Parkway, shutting the road from north of Sunrise Highway to the Seventh Precinct. Road closures stretched from Sunrise Highway to the Long Island Expressway. Police said the two people didn’t listen to police about staying in a designated area.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said in a video posted to the police Facebook she thanked the protesters while citing department initiatives with diversity training and other practices to reduce police violence.

“I want to recognize the protesters who have got their message out in a peaceful manner — we are listening,” she said.

This post will be updated with additional information regarding the protest or from Town of Smithtown.

This post was updated June 6 to relay updated times of the Smithtown protest.

Huntington Protesters Continue to March, Protest Floyd Killing

by David Luces - June 5, 2020

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For the third time this week, close to a hundred protesters marched into downtown Huntington to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, racism and police brutality June 4. The group convened at the Big H parking lot at Home Depot and then its way into the village and down New York Avenue.

More peaceful protests have been held in other parts of Huntington.

Another march is scheduled for later today.

Suffolk County’s 311 Line Will Field Calls About Hate Crimes

by Daniel Dunaief - June 3, 2020

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Hundreds of protesters stand at the corner of Routes 112 and 347 in Port Jefferson Station Monday, June 1 to protest police violence, especially against people of color. Photo by Kyle Barr

In response to the ongoing unrest in the country caused by the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by a former police officer who has now been charged with second-degree murder, Suffolk County will field hate or bias crime calls through its 311 number.

Starting today, residents can call 311 to address concerns about bias or hate crimes that they are subjected to or that they witness.

“Hate, bias, bigotry and discrimination have no safe haven in Suffolk County,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. Operators will be ready to provide information or transfer callers to the Human Rights Commission, as needed.

At protests around the county, which included seven such gatherings yesterday in Suffolk, residents are expressing concerns about hate crimes and bias, Bellone said.

The county executive continued to show an appreciation for the way demonstrators behaved during their protests and the ongoing protection and surveillance from police.

“The demonstrations we have seen have been peaceful,” Bellone said. “They represent a contrast with events that have transpired in other communities in our country. That is a credit to the people demonstrating and to the Suffolk County Police Department.”

Amid the economic devastation from the lockdown, Bellone commissioned a financial report that he presented to various public sector unions earlier today. The report anticipates a revenue shortfall of between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion over the next two years.

Bellone shared with those unions his hope that federal representatives, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) will continue to support the county and will endorse financial assistance amid the financial devastation caused by the virus.

Bellone didn’t offer the unions any specific assurances, saying that he wanted to give them the foundation of the financial issues the county was facing.

Meanwhile, outdoor seating at restaurants will be allowed throughout the state as each region reaches phase two of its reopening. At the latest, Suffolk County could enter that phase next Wednesday.

SC Taskforce Worst Case Scenario Projects $590 Mln Revenue Shortfall for 2020

None of the choices is particularly appealing, but V is certainly better than W and U.

A COVID-19 Fiscal Impact Task Force report projected a range of economic scenarios for the county, depending on the impact of the virus later this year. In a “V” case, the economy rebounds quickly and continues to climb.

A “W” scenario, on the other hand, recovers, then stumbles amid a second wave of the virus that doesn’t require a lockdown, and then stages another recovery.

The worst-case scenario, however, is the “U,” in which a second wave presents enough of a recurring public health crisis that the economy recovers far more slowly.

The three possibilities will likely dictate the extent of the revenue shortfall over the next three years.

About $329 million of the overall revenue shortfalls come from actual declines in sales tax collection so far in 2020. Additionally, the task force, which included Emily Youssouf, Larian Angelo, Michael Kelly and Nathan Leventhal, anticipates a 4.9 percent shortfall in property tax collections, which translates into a reduction in collections of $35 million.

The group also projected a $30 million revenue shortfall from OTB/ casino and motel/ hotel taxes.

The range of revenue shortfalls through 2022 are from $1.136 billion to $1.518 billion. The biggest single-year gap between projected revenue and actual revenue would be in the “U” scenario for this year, for which the county would come up $590 million short.

The task force concluded that the current economic outlook requires a swift and dramatic response to prevent an economic disaster.

“Even the most optimistic scenario which the task force has examined will place enormous pressure on the ability of the county to maintain an acceptable level of government service which the County’s residents have every right to expect,” the group warned in its conclusions.

Viral Numbers

The number of residents who tested positive for the virus was 82, raising the total with confirmed cases of COVID-19 to 40,062. With 4,840 tests, that represents a 1.7% percent positive rate among those tested, which is well below the rate for positive tests in April.

The number of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 declined by 11 to 236 as of the 24 hours ending on June 1. The number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds also fell by six to 61.

The percentage of people in hospital beds with COVID-19 was 63 percent, while the percentage in the ICU was 52 percent, both of which provide the kind of flexibility in the health care system the state hoped to provide.

Over the last day, another 11 people left the hospital. Six people have died over the last day due to complications related to the coronavirus, raising that enormous human toll to 1,915.

Port Jeff Station Protest Against Racism Draws Hundreds

by David Luces - June 2, 2020

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“No justice, no peace” and “I can’t breathe” chanted hundreds of protesters gathered near the intersection of routes 347 and 112 in Port Jefferson Station. Wielding signs condemning police brutality and racism, scores of passing cars near the intersection honked their horns in a show of support. The June 1 rally was one of many peaceful demonstrations occurring around the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a now-fired and arrested police officer.

“We have seen the murders of black men, women and children, this wasn’t an isolated incident,” said Skyler Johnson, a Mount Sinai resident and Suffolk County Community College graduate who organized the rally. Johnson is set to primary several other Democrats in the race for state Senate 1st District seat. “We are here to show that we won’t stand for this anymore.”

Anthwan Newell of Uniondale said he was glad to see an ethnically diverse group of protesters.

“I’m happy to see so many people stepping out of their comfort zones and really letting their voices be heard,” he said

Newell, who made the trip to Port Jefferson Station with a group of friends, reiterated the need for immediate change.

“As black people, we sadly have gotten numb to seeing someone killed by police brutality,” he said. “We’re all out here for the same reasons, we’re fighting for change. It has to happen, and it has to happen fast.”

Josh Parish and Ashley Barry of Centereach said white people can’t ignore this issue anymore, especially on Long Island.

“It is important to not let people forget what is going on,” Barry said. “People can’t drive past us today without seeing and reading the signs and hearing the chants.”

He stressed the need for institutional reform in law enforcement and to demilitarize police departments.

“It is not just one cop, it is a systemic issue — it starts from the top,” Barry said.

Denzel Johnson of Coram said conversations on racism need to continue after these protests.

“It is still here, and it won’t go away until we make a change,” the Coram resident said. “The only way to make that change is by taking that first step and that’s what we’re doing today. This is a great demonstration, it is good to see people of all colors standing together against racism.”

Suffolk County Police Department’s 6th Precinct was on hand and reached out to organizers beforehand to ask if they could stand with the protesters. More than a dozen police officers monitored the rally.

The nationwide protests were sparked by a video that was shown on TV and circulated on social media showing Floyd on the ground as a white officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Chauvin, who was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, has been charged with third-degree murder. Three other officers who were at the scene were also fired but have not been charged with a crime.

Protests have rocked the country, with some of them turning violent in several major metropolitan areas, including New York City. Long Island has already seen several such protests in places like Brentwood, but most have remained peaceful. Late on Monday, June 1, police said a group of approximately 100 protesters marched toward the 7th Precinct building in Shirley, but police set up a skirmish line along William Floyd Parkway, and after two hours the crowd disbursed.

Throughout the week, local officials have weighed in on the issue.

“In my 30 years of service, I have never witnessed such a cruel and heinous act of violence by anyone wearing the uniform as we saw in Minnesota last week,” said Errol Toulon Jr. (D), the Suffolk County sheriff. “The killing of George Floyd is so contrary to the mission of law enforcement, and to the oath that officials take to uphold the Constitution. We must never forget that we are here to protect the rights of the people.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) called Chauvin’s actions a type of racism.

“Perhaps the most disturbing thing is the lack of concern that this officer showed in knowing that he was being videotaped,” Bellone said. “That suggests this officer felt that there was no accountability.”

SBU forum broaches segregation, housing, education inequality on LI

by Kyle Barr - March 4, 2019

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sbu-forum-2- — From left: ERASE Racism President Elaine Gross, Duke University professor Kim Manturuk, John Hopkins University professor Nathan Connolly, SBU professor Christopher Sellers. Photo by David Luces

By David Luces

While de facto segregation among Long Island’s school districts and housing has been entrenched for decades, there is a growing academic movement to bring people closer together.

As part of the forum, “Housing and Racio-economic Equality” Elaine Gross, president of the Syosset-based advocacy group ERASE Racism, which co-sponsored the event, along with professors from Duke and Johns Hopkins Universitys discussed the history of racism and segregation in the U.S. and how it has affected public housing and education. Gross argued that there is racial segregation and inequality crisis in housing and public education on Long Island.

“There are folks that think that things are fine how they are,” she said.

At the forum hosted at the Hilton Garden Inn at Stony Brook Univesrity, Gross argued that there is severe government fragmentation on Long Island, which in turn makes it easier for racial discrimination in housing and public education.

“Segregation is profitable, and it didn’t end — it is still ongoing.”

— Nathan Connolly

Nathan Connolly, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University, said we have to rethink what we know about segregation.

“We are under the impression that segregation ended due to a combination of moral arguments, like [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s] I Have a Dream Speech, and that segregation was too expensive to maintain,” he said. “Segregation is profitable, and it didn’t end — it is still ongoing.”

Connolly added due to many Jim Crow era policies, white supremacy has been baked into our political and governing structure.

“In the 1920s people began to institutionalize groups like the Ku Klux Klan,” Connolly said. “They had chapters in cities like Detroit, Chicago and Washington, D.C.— it was a dominant force of political organization.”

In many ways, the experts argued Long Island, in terms of its development of housing, is the perfect picture of what structural racism looks like.

Gross stated some towns and school districts on Long Island are more segregated than others, showing areas like Levittown, whose black population has only risen 1.2 percent since 1947. At an ERASE Racism forum in December, Gross provided data from New York State Department of Education that shows a school district like Port Jefferson is made up of 80 percent white students, while in a district like Brentwood close to 80 percent of students are Latino while 12 percent are black.

The panelists argued this racial steering of populations dates back to the time of the Great Depression.

“[There was] a notion that anything that allowed unregulated movement of people would lead to economic instability,” Connolly said. “You had to generate a way to keep everyone in place, while at the same time ensuring broad economic growth.”

One way this was done was through redlining, or the denial of services to different races through raising the prices on services, or in this case, homes.

Connolly said by removing these people’s options in moving around or getting a loan with a low interest rate it meant they couldn’t own homes and couldn’t accumulate equity, which in turn generated a racial wealth gap.

Gross mentioned examples of this racial steering on Long Island. Three years ago in Commack, African American renters asked about vacancies at an apartment complex. They were told there were none. When white individuals asked, they were shown the vacancy, given applications and were encouraged to apply.

ERASE Racism, along with the nonprofit Fair Housing Justice Center, took property owners Empire Management America Corp. to court, arguing it had violated the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Suffolk County Human Rights Law. The duo reached a successful settlement of $230,000 and required changes to the rental operations at the apartment complex.

Kim Manturuk, associate director of research, evaluation, and development at Duke University provided possible solutions to segregation on Long Island.

“Adapt a metropolitan approach, that has these cross district governing bodies that try to simplify, organize together things like education, infrastructure development among other things,” she said.

Though she cautioned that even when you have these procedures in place, it’s no guarantee that you get the desired results, and they need to find ways to make desegregation profitable.

“We need educators that buy into this change.”

— Elaine Gross

She mentioned in her own community of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, they have something called the Penny for Housing Fund.

“One penny of every property tax dollar collected in the entire county goes into a housing fund. We use that money to incentivize developers to build housing that has an affordable housing component that cuts races and ethnic lines,” she said.

If developers want to build a housing complex in the North Carolina county, they would have to set aside 10 percent of the apartment to families that are making 80 percent below the median income in the area.

Gross said the change needs to begin on the local level. She stressed the importance of building diverse communities.

“We need educators that buy into this change,” she said. “Also students — educating them about our history, one that is not heard about in schools.”

Gross said it will take a collaborative effort to show that something like this can work.

“People don’t believe — it is hard to dispel myths to them in the face of facts,” she said. “Unless they can see it and see the students and the community thriving, they won’t buy into it.”

ERASE Racism forum questions long-held thoughts on race

by Kyle Barr - December 6, 2018

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wErase-Racism-Panel-122918_Kyle-Barr — Elaine Gross, Christopher Sellers, Crystal Fleming, Miriam Sarwana and Abena Asare speak about race at ERASE Racism forum. Photo by Kyle Barr

In a politically charged time, race is seen as a third-rail issue, one that if touched leads to political headache in the case of a politician or a rough time around the holiday dinner table for everyday folks.

Which is why Elaine Gross, president of Syosset-based ERASE Racism, which wishes to examine and make meaningful change to race relations in New York, said Long Island was the perfect time and place to start meaningful conversations about race and racism, both in the overt and covert displays of prejudice.

“Even though we are becoming more diverse, that doesn’t mean we have what we want going on in our schools,” Gross said. “Long Island is home to 2.8 million people so we’re not a small place, but tremendously fragmented.”

The nonprofit, which was originally founded in 2001, made its first stop at Hilton Garden Inn, Stony Brook University Nov. 29 during a five-series Long Island-wide tour called How Do We Build a Just Long Island? The mission is to start a dialogue about meaningful change for race relations in both Suffolk and Nassau counties. Four panelists, all professors and graduate students at Stony Brook, spoke to a fully packed room about their own research into the subject and took questions from the audience on how they could affect change in their own communities.

Christopher Sellers, history professor and director of the Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, has studied what he described as “scientific racism,” of people who look at the superiority and inferiority of other races as an objective truth, an idea that was born during the enlightenment and colonial period used to justify conquering nations overseas. It’s a form of understanding identity that lives on in many people, Sellers said.

“It’s as old as western society itself,” he said.

Race is an important issue in a county that is very segregated depending on the town and school district. An image created by the nonprofit and compiled with information from the New York State Department of Education shows a district such as Port Jefferson is made up of 80 percent white students, while in the Brentwood school district 79 percent of students are Latino and 12 percent are black.

Panelists argued that racism exists and is perpetuated through local policy. Abena Asare,
assistant professor of Modern African Affairs and History said that racism currently exists in the segregated schools, in lack of public transportation, zoning laws and other land-use policies created by local governments.

“Many of the policies on our island that insulate and produce structural racism are based on a false narrative on what Long Island was, who it is was for, and the fear of where it is going,” Asare said. “Creating new futures requires that we expose the version of the past that justifies or separates an unequal status quo.”

Crystal Fleming, an associate professor of sociology at Stony Brook, spoke about how historically the idea of white supremacy is ingrained in America’s social consciousness, that lingering ideas of one race’s entitlement to security and citizenship over other races have helped perpetuate racist ideas and policy.

“When we talk about systemic racism, it’s not black supremacy, it’s not Native American supremacy, it’s not Asian supremacy, it’s white supremacy,” Fleming said. “We need to be brave and talk frankly about these matters.”

Miriam Sarwana, a graduate student in psychology at Stony Brook, said after the civil rights movement of the 1960s racism did not simply die, but it became subtle, only used in the safety of the home. This is compounded by the lack of interaction between races on a daily basis.

“These biases are influenced by the social, societal and cultural [elements] in our lives, and can be influenced both directly and indirectly,” Sarwana said. “A white adult has little or no interaction with African-Americans, and then starting childhood this person may be exposed to negative images of African-Americans.”

The panelists said that the extreme segregation in school districts has resulted in an even greater disparity of resources and attention for nonwhite races. The issue, Asare said, after the forum, was that the 125 public school districts on Long Island have remained insular, leading to communities becoming disparate and inclusive. She said the best way to deal with this is to consolidate school districts, even along town lines, which could lead to bigger savings for school districts, more resources to less-served districts and allow for better cross-pollination of races between schools.

“The fact that those types of discussions are not normally occurring here speaks to a larger issue, that segregation works for a lot of people around Long Island,” Asare said.

The final Erase Racism forum in this series will be held Dec. 10 at the Radisson Hotel in Hauppauge at 6 p.m. Visit www.eraseracismny.org for more information or to register for the event.

Forum on structural racism on Long Island coming to SBU

by Alex Petroski - November 28, 2018

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erase racism2w — Erase Racism is holding events across Long Island. Photo from Erase Racism website

A Syosset nonprofit and a Stony Brook University department are teaming up to open up a public dialogue pertaining to one of Long Island and America’s oldest societal problems.

ERASE Racism, a regional organization founded in 2001 that advocates for public policy to promote racial equality in housing, education and more, and SBU’s Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, a department founded in 2017 that provides a forum for the promotion of various forms of student and faculty engagement on the same issues, will co-host the first of a series of forums meant to jump start a community conversation on racial inequality.

The series of forums, entitled How Do We Build a Just Long Island? will kick off at the Hilton Garden Inn on the SBU campus Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.

“This whole thing is premised on the fact that everybody can educate themselves,” ERASE Racism President Elaine Gross said in an interview. “It’s not about anyone calling anyone a racist. It’s not a blame and shame kind of thing. Let’s make sure we have all the facts, let’s make sure we understand the context.”

Gross said so far about 400 people have registered to attend the event. She said from the organization’s inception its goal has been to identify institutional and structural racism and seek to educate the public about the history that has led to places like Long Island being so racially segregated today.

“It is embedded — it doesn’t require that all of the players be racist people, or bad people, it only requires that people go along with the business as usual,” she said.

Christopher Sellers, SBU history professor and director of the center, said part of the thinking behind the forums is to frame the conversation in a way for people not exposed to racial inequality or injustice on a daily basis to see barriers and exclusions they may not have viewed as such. He said the goal is to ultimately expand the discussion from the confines of the campus and into the community. He called Long Island the perfect place to begin this dialogue.

“Demographic change causes people to get more defensive and fall back on these racializing tool kits they may have picked up from their own past,” he said, adding that data suggests Long Island has become more racially diverse during recent decades, specifically seeing an increase in those of Hispanic descent.

Sellers said he feels a sense of urgency to begin a wide discussion on racial intolerance despite the perception from many that in the decades since the civil rights movement society has made sufficient progress in creating a just America for all. In “Hate Crime Statistics, 2017” released Nov. 13, the FBI reported a 17 percent increase in incidents identified as hate crimes from 2016 to 2017, with nearly 60 percent of those incidents being motivated by racial or ethnic bias. From 2015 to 2016 there was a roughly 5 percent increase in these incidents. From 2014 to 2015, hate crimes went up by about 7 percent.

“We need as a university to do something, we as academics can no longer sit on our hands,” Sellers said. “This is maybe a more urgent matter than we’ve considered before.”

Gross said the aim of the events is education.

“We didn’t plan to be doing this at a time when the country is so divided and there’s so much overtly biased comments, racist comments being said at the highest levels,” Gross said. “We planned this because we felt that even though with all of the work that we’ve done, we felt that was really needed was a regional public discussion and understanding of how things are connected.”

To register for the event and to get more information on the remainder of the forums — slated for Riverhead, Hempstead, Melville and Hauppauge — visit www.eraseracismny.org.

Racism in America: A letter to my grandson

by Leah Dunaief - January 25, 2018

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Dear Grandson Adam,

Thank you for lending me your book last weekend. While you were off skiing with the rest of the family, I was totally absorbed reading your high school homework assignment, “A Raisin in the Sun,” in front of a crackling fire in the lodge. Lorraine Hansberry wrote the play, you know, in 1958, which was the year I graduated from high school, so I can tell you how remarkable her characters and themes are for that time.

The story takes place in Chicago, on the city’s gritty South Side, and tells of a poor black family living in a three-room flat with a bathroom in the hall that is shared with others. The grandmother, Lena, whose apartment it is, sleeps in one bedroom with her daughter, Beneatha, who is in college. Walter, Lena’s 35-year-old son, is a chauffeur for a wealthy businessman, and he shares another room with his wife, Ruth, who works as a cleaning woman in different homes. Travis, 10, is their son and he sleeps in the living room/kitchen on a sofa that is made up for him each night, which means that he doesn’t get to sleep until any visitor leaves.

When we meet them, the family is excited about the imminent arrival of a “big check,” that turns out to be the proceeds from an insurance policy on the life of Big Walter, Lena’s late husband. The value is $10,000, which in today’s money would be about $160,000. The introduction of this money into the plot is the fulcrum around which the characters, their roles in the family dynamic and their situation in society are defined.

Walter desperately wants to start his own business with the funds, viewing entrepreneurship as a way to rise above a humiliating life stretching out before him as a chauffeur. There are tense exchanges between him and Lena, as he passionately explains to his mother that he can go into partnership in a liquor store with a shrewd friend who has figured out the financing, but they need startup capital.

Lena, for her part, thinking back to their not-so-distant ancestors of slaves, values freedom more than financial success, and certainly doesn’t appreciate the prospect of selling liquor to their neighbors. However she wants to see her son as the prideful head of the family and recognizes his despair at the life in which he feels trapped in mid-century America.

Ruth, who is pregnant, loves her husband and understands that his grind, as they enter middle age, is eroding their marriage. She is the life-giving mother of the next generation and it is she who ultimately urges optimism after Lena makes her pivotal decision. I hesitate to tell you what that decision is because I don’t want to ruin the plot for you. This is a play well worth reading if you have the chance, if only for the messages that continue to be so relevant today.

Beneatha is a most interesting character, attracted by the romantic allure of the distant continent from which her people originally came, albeit unwillingly, yet determined to make her own way through education, the upward mobility ladder presumably offered by the American Dream. She eschews the idea of advancing herself through the traditional female strategy of marrying rich, much touted for her by Walter. At a time when most medical schools were admitting only one or perhaps two women in each freshman class, she is planning to become a doctor. She will need money to pay for that education, and Lena recognizes that fact.

The play is about poverty, masculinity, femininity, opportunity, integration, honor, tradition and especially racism in American, and looks into the future with remarkable prescience. Has much changed in our country over the ensuing 60 years? In 1959, the play received standing ovations and critical acclaim. It was, after all, the first play offered there by an African-American woman, only 28, that purported to tell the truth about black lives. Hansberry came from a wealthy family and could present her initially optimistic message of a different life.

In answer to the question, it could be said she at least started the conversation on Broadway. Racism discussed is, however slowly, racism destroyed. It is up to your generation, Adam, to continue the fight.

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