RaisingVoicesUSA talks systemic racism and next steps

RaisingVoicesUSA, a Rockville Centre-based community organization, gathered a group of panelists on Zoom video conferencing June 17 to speak about recent events regarding racial injustices and how to move forward.

Nearly 70 people joined the call to listen to the five speakers, all of whom have been advocating for racial justice and an end to police brutality. The virtual event was held “to listen and to learn,” said Emma Travers, co-director of RaisingVoices.

Raquel Pamas, of Rockville Centre, spoke about her experience organizing a protest in the village on June 13. She is founder of BIPOC Voices of Long Island, a women-led coalition looking to amplify the voices of black and brown residents.

Pamas said the group organized the protest to bring awareness to systemic racism locally. Along with Young Long Island for Justice, they are working on a list of demands and reforms to help root out racism embedded in education, community and policing in the village. “It’s a living, breathing document,” she said. “We are hoping to incorporate people in the community to get their thoughts.”

The document looks into divesting from police and reinvesting in the black community, cultural competency training for teachers, staff and police, more community engagement and less policing, reexamining punishment for students in school and hiring black teachers.

Pamas also hopes to hold a town hall with South Side High School students and administrators to speak about the issues people of color face. “This is the time,” she said. “This is a life and death issue, and we owe it to our communities to be better.”

Nikhil Goyal, co-founder of Young Long Island for Justice, spoke about actions being taken on the county, state and federal levels. He commended Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent signing of police reform bills. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “The state senate and assembly needs to build from here on out.”

Goyal also commented on Nassau County’s forming of the Police And Community Trust (PACT), a task force that will create a dialogue between police and justice advocates. “My personal opinion is it is way too heavy on police,” he said. “We need people who have been directly impacted by police harassment and brutality on that task force.”

The task force members are:

* Nassau County Executive Laura Curran (Co-Chair)

* South Floral Park Mayor and Defense Attorney Geoffrey Prime (Co-Chair)

* Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder

* Three members of Nassau PD Community Affairs

* President of Municipal Police Chiefs Association and Garden City Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson

* Hofstra Law School Professor and former Prosecutor Fred Klein

* Student and Community Activist from Hempstead, Blair Baker

* Community Activist from Roosevelt, Tamica Cox

* Student and Community Activist from Baldwin, Alexis Holt

* Student and Community Activist from Hempstead, Travis Nelson

Next, Jackie Burbridge, co-founder of Long Island Black Alliance, spoke on the call about starting the black alliance in 2017 in response to violent white supremacist acts in Charlottesville, N.C. “We wanted to make sure that in Long Island, there was an opportunity and a space for people to come together and denounce racism in all of its forms,” she said. “We clearly still have a long way to go.”

Burbridge said she plans on creating a coalition of organizations that will ensure that real change happens on a local level to policing systems. This includes “convening a conversation around reimagining public safety as a whole,” she noted.

Rena Riback, a Rockville Centre resident who started the Anti-Racism Project about three years ago, joined the call to speak about the project. She and the other organizers hold an eight-week workshop about identifying white privilege and confronting implicit racial bias, as well as mini workshops on the same topics.

Now, the Anti-Racism Project is receiving national recognition, she said. And the workshops have moved to a virtual format, starting up again at the end of the month.

Hon. H. Scottie Coads, the civic engagement chair and 2020 U.S. census coordinator for the NAACP NYS Conference, ended the evening’s discussion. She spoke about growing up in South Carolina as a child, when she felt afraid of police officers. “Racism was so prevalent,” she said. “With all of the police brutalities going on, it brings my mind back to the South. Now I find we have to be afraid all over again. It seems like history just keeps repeating itself.”

The NAACP is a 111-year-old civil rights organization. Coads spoke about the work they have done during the pandemic, including transitioning students back to school and helping to get people proper healthcare, housing and mental health treatment.

“All of these things in addition to fighting with, ‘when is the next black boy or black girl going to be murdered?’” she said. “And so we have a lot of issues — a lot of issues.”

She noted, however, that she is inspired by seeing so many organizations rise up for racial equality.

“We’re not in this alone,” she said. “For a long time, it seemed that we were just the only ones making the noise. Thank God we have all of you in our corners, in our communities, caring.”

For more information and resources, visit raisingvoicesusa.org.