Vermont, with is quaint image, liberal politics, and mostly white population, may seem like an unlikely home for anti-racist activism.
BUT VERMONT IS NOT IMMUNE FROM RACIAL TENSION.
During the first half of the twentieth century Vermont's Eugenics program emerged and flourished in the Green Mountain State, targeting native populations such as the Abenaki. In 1982 four Connecticut-based Klansmen, including Imperial Wizard James Farrands, tried to host Vermont's first hooded Klan rally since the 1920s in Wilmington, VT. This event gave rise to the "Hate Does Not Grow Well In The Rocky Soil Of Vermont" banners that are still seen in the Deerfield Valley today.
Racism is not just in Vermont's past. More recently, the state’s only black female state legislator resigned in the face of vicious racist threats against herself and her family in 2018. 2020 saw the leader of Rutland’s NAACP forced to leave her home due to harassment, and a family in Hartford, VT was harassed during the pandemic because of their skin color.
And the state has a long, mostly unspoken history of exclusion that has kept the state white.
Like the original RAR, Rock Against Racism VT is about recognizing that
people of color should not carry the full burden of anti-racism work
--especially as they fight personal prejudice every day.
White Vermonters rarely see the advantages we have or the assumptions we make that keep us comfortable and safe while other Americans struggle.
RARVT is about facing these advantages and showing support for minority communities
before we are forced to.
BUT VERMONT IS NOT IMMUNE FROM RACIAL TENSION.
During the first half of the twentieth century Vermont's Eugenics program emerged and flourished in the Green Mountain State, targeting native populations such as the Abenaki. In 1982 four Connecticut-based Klansmen, including Imperial Wizard James Farrands, tried to host Vermont's first hooded Klan rally since the 1920s in Wilmington, VT. This event gave rise to the "Hate Does Not Grow Well In The Rocky Soil Of Vermont" banners that are still seen in the Deerfield Valley today.
Racism is not just in Vermont's past. More recently, the state’s only black female state legislator resigned in the face of vicious racist threats against herself and her family in 2018. 2020 saw the leader of Rutland’s NAACP forced to leave her home due to harassment, and a family in Hartford, VT was harassed during the pandemic because of their skin color.
And the state has a long, mostly unspoken history of exclusion that has kept the state white.
Like the original RAR, Rock Against Racism VT is about recognizing that
people of color should not carry the full burden of anti-racism work
--especially as they fight personal prejudice every day.
White Vermonters rarely see the advantages we have or the assumptions we make that keep us comfortable and safe while other Americans struggle.
RARVT is about facing these advantages and showing support for minority communities
before we are forced to.
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