DUMMERSTON — Almost 150 folks, most of them members of the Brattleboro Food Co-op, sat together to celebrate the 45th annual meeting of the Co-op.
As we ate delicious food prepared by Co-op staff, we listened to reports from the board and the general manager. Soon after, the moderator opened up the floor for comments.
We heard first from a long-time Co-op member, a woman of color, who stood up and told of an extremely painful racially-based experience she had at the store.
Then, another years-long member, also a person of color, rose and, in a voice that was both strong and soft, related his experiences of racial profiling, both at our store and elsewhere in town.
A few other people spoke of injustices within our co-op. The room was absolutely quiet, as the vast majority of, primarily white, attendees stiffened their bodies and held their breath.
Several people raised their hands and, with great urgency, spoke of how horrified they were by what they had just heard.
A man in the back of the room stood up and said what we all needed to hear. To paraphrase: “Each of us is walking around with various kinds of prejudice and that, in order for people to treat each other with respect, we need to turn inwards and 'hear' our own thoughts.”
That rang true for me and I, once again, accepted the challenge of working on the issue of the hurtful pre-judgments that we all make.
This celebration of the Co-op turned out to be much more challenging and painful than most of us may have expected, but I left feeling immensely proud of all of us. At what other store in town would people of color, wounded by these experiences, care enough and be comfortable enough to express their anger and hurt?
As one of the original members of the Brattleboro Food Co-op, I walked away feeling full of pride that the members, board and staff could listen to one another and ponder their next moves as individuals, and as a group, to make the store and its surroundings a more compassionate place. I am sure that many others at the meeting felt the same.