Beneath the Surface - A Black Paper on Vermont’s Most Diverse City

As a note, this letter was read before the Burlington, Vermont City Council on August 14, 2023 in opposition to an unnecessary and unjustified audit on the Former Director of Race, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging, Tyeastia Green. 

Beneath the Surface - A Black Paper on Vermont’s Most Diverse City 

Please allow me to begin by congratulating the City’s marketing team for a job well done. For many years this City has had a reputation for being one of America’s most diverse and welcoming communities. 

We All Belong campaigns.
All Are Welcome Here signs.
BIPOC this and BIPOC that.
The list goes on. 

You have impeccably curated the image of America’s liberal utopia, which in essence, is exactly the role of the marketing team. 

Job well done.

However, what is happening beneath the surface?

Beneath the surface 

you have multiple police chiefs who create social media accounts to target residents.

Beneath the surface

you offer hefty compensation packages as consolation to officers who brutally assault and sometimes kill Black people.

Beneath the surface 

your only Black-identifying member of the Police Commission stepped down citing concerns with oppression. 

Beneath the surface

you cycle through Black-female equity directors like they are disposable and interchangeable.

Beneath the surface

Burlington City Arts dismantles their already dormant Committee on Equity and Belonging. 
**See Equity and Belonging minutes from 02-14-2023

Beneath the surface 

Your girls basketball team, a group of minors…CHILDREN…are calling on you and BEGGING each of YOU to address what they have called, “a culture of racism”. 

From the mouths of babes, children so young they are barely eligible for driver’s licenses, we hear the same unified cry that Black people have been screaming from the mountaintops for centuries:

HEAR US. HELP US. PROTECT US.

This place that claims to be “a sanctuary city” and welcome refugees and asylees with open arms is simultaneously doing everything in their power to stifle the voices of Black people. 

Shame.

This attack on Tyeastia’s character more than a YEAR after she left her role is no different than any of the other tactics this City employs to keep Black people in their perceived “place”. This is a witch-hunt that will be used to say, 
“See: it was her. It wasn’t us."
"See: we have another Black woman in this role who is performing just fine." 
"See: we really are a welcoming city.”

Please allow me to end by congratulating the City’s marketing team for a job well done.

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