Democrats call for drastic overhaul by Pelham governments to battle racism; PUFSD admits it needs to do more
The Pelham Democratic Committee last week called on all levels of town government to “fight for drastic overhaul in Pelham’s policing and schools” and to “boost diversity in hiring on local boards and governing bodies” following reports from residents of racist treatment by officials of various bodies. A day after the letter was released to the press, the Pelham Union Free School District said it needed to do more about racism.
“We have begun to hear, some of us for the first time, stories of differential, racist treatment of persons of color in Pelham at the hands of Pelham police officers, teachers, school administrators and fellow Pelham residents,” said the Democrats’ letter, sent last Thursday to town, school district and village leaders and emailed to the Pelham Examiner on Tuesday. “Pelhamites have been sharing stories on social media, with neighbors and friends, at recent rallies and in a remarkable exhibit at the Pelham Art Center that should break all our hearts.”
On Tuesday, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Cheryl Champ wrote to residents the district recognized “the urgency of dealing with systemic racism and the need to more clearly define action steps and accelerate our work” beyond the current program, which is called “cultural competence.” She said the district was working to set up a partnership with an outside organization to speed those efforts.
The two letters follow the news the Village of Pelham is forming a steering committee on racism and the police. The local steps come after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis and protests and marches that followed. Floyd died when Police Officer Derek Chauvin held him down by his pressing knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, while three other officers at the scene face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
According to the Pelham Democrats, “We have learned that North Pelham is referred to as Parlem; that school children have suffered slights and taunts from their peers that were dismissed by teachers and administrators; that some Pelham youth think nothing of using the N word in casual conversation; that Pelham police officers have referred to Pelham youth as thugs; that black and other minority students are disproportionately subject to school residency checks by police; that black and brown Pelhamites suffer slights, or worse, on a daily basis; that our black and brown neighbors in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and the Bronx, expect to be targeted by the police in Pelham and consider us a racist town. We are sure you agree it’s time to shine a light on racial injustice in Pelham and get to work.”
Champ’s letter echoed the statement: “We have continued to hear from students and parents about instances of racism and discrimination that have occurred in our schools.”
“Sunlight is often the best antiseptic,” she wrote.
Her letter did not provide specifics on the incidents that have been reported to the school district.
As a first step, the Pelham Democrats called for a public meeting with town, village, school board and police officials “to address first-hand accounts of racial injustice in Pelham.”
The Democrats also said government organizations and the community should pursue a set of five social justice goals, including a transparent system for reporting and addressing racist incidents and a plan to build community support for low income and affordable housing. The school district was singled out in the Democrat’s demand for a broad review “to ensure that antiracism is actively taught, outdated materials replaced, diverse viewpoints represented, and course materials include the contributions of all ethnic groups and the often painful history of discrimination and injustice in the U.S.” The document lists six changes the Democrats plan to make within their own organization.
“We remind our community that a mechanism for systemic change already exists: voting,” said the Democrats. “To those without the time or temperament for activism, voting changes everything.”
sydney thayer • Jul 7, 2020 at 6:09 pm
Mr. Luciano:
I agree, “There is no denying being black in USA is a whole lot harder than being white,…”. And, I surmise, we both agree again in spirit as your comment suggests you don’t think that situation is a fair one. So let’s Talk? Let’s Discuss this point of common agreement?
The problem today as I see it, is not the “issues” that challenge us as Americans but, as I recently read, it is our current environment of discourse on these issues. Warren Farrell wrote, “Throughout my life I have always been amazed that people couldn’t listen to other people, that they couldn’t hear their best intent, that there seemed to be an enormous need to demonize.” Why must we draw lines in the sand? Ideas are messy and disparate and certainly everyone never agrees, but isn’t it possible to look at the issues raised in the Pelham Examiner article without demonizing and generalizing? The starting point for debate and discourse shouldn’t be to accuse the other-side of being completely wrong but instead, we should offer to “hear their best intent” and find common ground.
As you say and as we seem to both agree, “There is no denying being black in USA is a whole lot harder than being white..,”. So what can you and I and Pelham do about it? Blacks, Whites, Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives… Pelhamites, Americans? What can we do?
Mike • Jul 6, 2020 at 11:25 am
Charles, your comments disturb me in many ways. Primarily, they have no place on this local news article, or at least you show no reason for them to have a place. Instead, it appears that you saw the word ‘Democrats’ in the headline and, without reading further, went on to spew eerily familiar talking points in the Examiner’s usually-constructive comments section. Now let’s take a look at what you said.
You mention that you don’t see the need to ‘have history rewritten or erased,’ and I am inclined to agree. But what in this article gave you the idea that Pelham is erasing history… or are you talking about statues coming down nationwide? This article has nothing to do with rewriting anything. And if statues are your only source of history, I’d suggest you pick up a book–there are actually quite a number of good ones on history.
Then you vaguely throw around the term ‘liberal white policy,’ only elaborating with ‘lack of school choice’ and ‘inferior education.’ While ‘inferior education’ is not in itself a policy, the discussion of the historical efficacy of school choice in improving education in underserved communities is a rich one. However, little of what you have to say on the matter, neither the implied unequivocal success of school choice nor its supposed consistent opposition from the left, is grounded in reality.
The propulsion of the school choice campaign in the ’50s and ’60s was a calculated result of the civil rights movement. Desegregation of schools is the paradigm of school choice itself, and no doubt a liberal one. Later, school choice vouchers were a direct product of progressivism in the 1960s, especially in the ways that these policies were intended to help Black communities in the era post integration of schools–take a look at Christopher Jencks’s public school voucher design. The very act of using taxpayer money to subsidize school choice through vouchers is a purely progressive–dare I say, socialist–policy. Regardless, empirical results of school choice as a vehicle to improve education for impoverished communities are generally mixed in the long term.
I wholeheartedly agree that the school administration should step down if they don’t see their own actions to have been enough, and coincidentally the principals of the high school have both left in the past year.
As for the movement to defund the police, a demand coming not just from liberal whites as I’m sure you know, you ask how this would help low income areas. The answer is crime prevention rather than crime reaction. Wouldn’t you rather see these millions of dollars that go to police departments be diverted, at least in part, to better funding social services and public education in their communities? These are programs that bring down crime–and as for ‘black-on-black crime,’ surely you know that crime is related more to income than to race. To build up communities, to reduce poverty and to raise living/education standards would be the goals of such programs.
If nothing else, I want to reiterate that these national discussions have no place on this article or this site, the scope of which includes Pelham alone.
Charles Luciano • Jul 2, 2020 at 11:37 pm
Not to mention the liberal whites want to reduce funding to the police – how does that help people living and working in low income areas that must have a police presence? Less police is answer to what problem? No problem with black on black crime – murders apparently are ok. White liberals are using the black community to push for their agenda, nothing new sadly.
Charles Luciano • Jul 2, 2020 at 11:22 pm
There is no denying being black in USA is a whole lot harder than being white, having said that I don’t need to have history rewritten or erased to make liberal whites feel good. The liberal white policy has hurt the black community from lack of school choice and inferior education, the exporting of jobs etc. So now I am to believe the liberal whites are going to correct their failed policies of the past 50 plus years, vote them out!! Demand the superintendent of schools step down, principals step down, they admitted they were not doing g their job. Why would they get to keep their job? I. Private sector they would be fired or demoted. School choice is a huge win but the lib politicians get a lot of funding from teachers union- no surprise why school choice vouchers and charter schools are not favored, no payola coming from the teachers union!