To our media leaders:

I would like to thank Channel 12 for attending last night's Peekskill City Council meeting and getting a report on the air so quickly.  A number of us saw the report last night and thought it was an important step toward bringing more attention to a significant concern.  By covering this you are helping to make sure that discrimination faced by people of color will not continue to go unnoticed.  That is incredibly important.   It conveys a message to our leaders who are responsible for addressing these issues that they have a job to do and we expect them to do it.  Word are not enough.  We expect action.  That's the responsibility of their offices.   Perhaps more importantly the Channel 12 report conveys a message to the people of color who are dealing with discrimination that they are not invisible.  We see what is happening, the community sees what is happening, we find it unacceptable and will continue to show up at the City Council meetings until the City's leadership not only says they find it unacceptable, but actually does something to change it.

We are not willing to see this as the issues of individuals that can be explained away one by one.  We see this as a collection of experiences that indicate there is an underlying problem.  By focusing on individuals the City continues with "business as usual," attempting to distance themselves from the larger problem and preserve the status quo.  As long as they take this approach they will continue to have problems because people of color will continue to face discrimination in City offices and public housing.  We are asking the City to stop trying to explain away individual cases and take this as an opportunity to exercise constructive leadership.  They need to take a new approach.

Last night I left copies of two short articles for Mayor Foster and Mr. Finn, and will e-mail them to the rest of the City leadership this morning.  The articles are "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh  http://http://tracybreneman.net/storage/McIntosh%20privilege.pdf  and "Whiteness as an 'Unmarked' Category" by Ruth Frankenberg.  I attach them here for your review as well.  With these, we are asking City officials to start learning about white privilege.  The privilege that white people have in this society makes us blind to the experiences of people of color.  If you take the opportunity to read the attached please pay attention to your own responses, which often include, "I never thought about it that way."  That's privilege.  Not having to think about it.  Our institutions and social structures were made to benefit us, 'white' is the neutral against which everyone else is considered different and measured.  The implications for people of color are significant.  Because we don't see these dynamics it too often it takes a terrible act of hate to get our attention.  What usually doesn't get reported on are the countless daily acts of racism that people of color endure as part of "business as usual."  Channel 12 helped change that last night.  Thank you. 
 
Members of The Cortlandt Peekskill Anti-Racism Collaborative (http://tracybreneman.net/anti-racism/) and the Westchester Anti-Racist Alliance (http://antiracistalliance.com/) will continue to attend the City Council meetings as long as the City continues business as usual.  WESPAC Foundation is also taking an interest (http://wespac.org/index.php/component/myblog/from-tracy-breneman-about-peekskill.html).  What we offered the City at the Council meeting two weeks ago and again last night is an opportunity to rethink the relationship they have with their community.  If they are willing to learn about white privilege and examine the impact it has on people of color through the institutionalization of racism, then we have countless other resources to offer them including examples of racial impact statements and programs that cities across the country are beginning to adopt in an attempt to undo structural racism.  But first, they need to understand the problem.   We are far from being on the same page about that.  In fact, we are speaking different languages altogether.  Since the Mayor ended our two and a half session with them last night by saying, "See you in two weeks," it's clear they are not ready to work for change yet.  So our work continues.  I hope yours does, too. 

Thank you,
Tracy Breneman
914-402-5842