As the Conversations on Race series sponsored by ALANA Community Organization and the Brattleboro Interfaith Clergy Association that have taken place over the summer wind down, I am left with both an overwhelming sense of grief and of hope.
Two thoughts keep running through my mind as I replay some of the stories, like the one of the five-year-old girl on her first day of kindergarten who was told by other five-year-olds that she could not play with them because she was a “nigger,” or the story of a young woman at the high school who was asked by the adult to whom she went for help for the “proof” that she had been threatened because of her race.
The first thought was that “these are our children, and they have the right to have a childhood.”
A childhood where they are not insulted or ignored because of the color of their skin.