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Hello ARC-C Community, The past few weeks have left us all without words. In the time that our small, dedicated group was trying to collect our feelings about the anti-Black tragedy in Buffalo, another young white male decided to attack children in Texas. Like you, like everyone, we are having trouble processing. Therefore, we are gathering on Sunday, May 29 at 7 PM at Cazenovia's Lakeland park. You can bring a candle if you'd like, and probably a box of tissues. At least together, we can grieve.  Ruth Whitfield, 86, grandmother, senselessly murdered while shopping for groceries. Vigil for Those We've Lost Sunday, May 29 7 PM Caz Lake, Lakeland Park Gather by the water's edge, just to the side of the tennis club Here's a poignant statement from the dean of the Washington National Cathedral. The title is: America's Gun Problem: Horrific and Incomprehensible. It brought a moment of clarity when the thought of grieving, yelling, screaming, and attentiveness were failing us. In the coming weeks, we will gather info to share about our representatives and their contact information so that when we find our voices again, we will know what to say and whom to say it to. Please read on for our original statement about our brothers and sisters in Buffalo who continue to grieve. Recently, a heavily armed white man activated by white supremacy drove to Buffalo to commit a violent anti-Black attack on as many innocent people as he could. As representatives of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia (ARC-C) and a caring neighbor of Buffalo (as well as our nearer city of Syracuse), we feel that white people have a responsibility to educate themselves and each about the history and working of white supremacy, to ask and find answers to questions about these issues, and to recognize that the success of Black people and other marginalized people benefits rather than undermines white people’s access to the good things in our society. In the words of Simone Crowley, whose 84-year-old grandmother Ruth Hatfield was murdered at the Tops in Buffalo, we must stop talking about the perpetrator and talk instead about white supremacy. What is this ideology? What is its history? Why is it spreading now? What can we do to create a Beloved Community in the face of hate? Ms. Crowley also admonishes us to address the social inequalities that result from racist ideologies and policies through support for communities that experience de facto segregation. Simone Crowley asks us to support local organizations that address food insecurity and poverty. We should also support local organizations that address inequalities in food access, housing, transportation, education, and employment. ARC-C advocates through anti-racism to transform our community through actions ranging from policy to social interactions. Buffalo and Syracuse are part of the Rust Belt and part of post-industrial America that helped to nurture white lives intergenerationally at the expense of Black lives and labor. We in the Town of Cazenovia benefit from these inequalities. How can we begin to repair the hurt and injustice to make our community more racially just and equitable and thus to flourish? Join ARC-C to educate yourself and others, engage in creating equitable policies and practices, and transform our society and ourselves.  Try to attend salt/city/blues, a moving theatre piece by local playwright, Kyle Bass, that will be at Syracuse Stage from June 9–June 26. We'll lead a discussion in the fall to discuss the challenges of I-81 and the division it has caused in Syracuse. "How does a fractured family heal when unresolved emotions of the past color the present? How can a city reshape itself if it means tearing open old, still-tender wounds? And where in a diverse but segregated city can communities find common ground, mutual dignity, and a true sense of home? These questions collide into Yolonda Mourning, an independent consultant on a vast project to take down a span of highway that has long divided Salt City. When she leaves her husband and teenage son and moves to the heart of trendy downtown, a diverse cast of characters forces Yolonda to confront Salt City’s complicated history around race, class, and urban renewal, and to reckon with her role as architect of the broken bridges in her own family. Moving, funny, poignant, and current, salt/city/blues is a fresh, contemporary, new play set in a fictionalized Syracuse and to the music of the blues."  ARC-C Summer Book Club!
Our rolling summer book club pick is Heather McGhee's book: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. If you'd like to check it out, Caz Library has graciously put some on order! Just ask Elisha at the front desk. You can also buy it from Mahogany Books, a Black-owned book store in D.C. If you want a teaser, listen to or read THIS ARTICLE with Ezra Klein and Heather McGhee. |
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