Reparations Task Force

Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting* 12/6/2022 149 Church St. City Hall Burlington VT, Sharon Bushor Room December 6, 2022 05:30 PM - 7:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Reparations Task Force Draft Minutes Recording: Reparations Task Force Meeting - Zoom Start Time: 5:30 PM Attendance: Pablo Bose, Rebecca Zietlow, Kim Carson, Phet Keomanyvanh, Sydney VanTassel, Christine Hughes, Kathleen Kemp, Lydia Diamond, Empress, Mark Hughes, Adam Kersch, Al, New Baptist Ministry, Isaac, Alexander Mitchell Agenda Pablo motions to adopt the agenda, Rebecca seconds Minutes Pablo motions to approve the Minutes from Aug 23, 2022 & October 25, 2022 Rebecca seconds. Public Forum No Comment Current Reparations Discussion Introductions and Background: Background on the Reparations Task Force and the history of the task force. Discusses Human Right Commission’s appointment, Bor Yang, and in her absence, Amanda Lucia as the replacement. Discuss Deacon Hill being added to the task force. To appoint the next member, we would have to add that to the next agenda. Discussion on the task force’s background including the hiring of a consultant and historian to look at census data and archival records. One part of the historical context was to look at the broader context of the economy, like businesses and would like to also focus on these components, such as residential segregation. What are models of reparations? Dr. William Darity spoke with task force with his reparations and economics background. We looked at other cities like Nashville and Evanston. California has a reparations task force that created concrete proposals on what reparations could look like. City worked with task force to digitize land records to take a deeper look in it and we looked at migration trends. We could look into ways that discrimination has been happening, for example, doesn’t have to be in convenance - could be in other fields. Differences of discrimination that could look different for Burlington than larger cities, however, there is evidence of discrimination there. Why isn’t there a migration north? Why didn’t people come up here? Discuss background on Operation Phoenix Rising that began the movement for reparations, which lays out the context about the history of the reparations work done in Burlington. We are framing this work on the fact that systemic racism is Page 1 of 4  Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting* 12/6/2022 the legacy of slavery. Work has been going on all around the country and we need to look at the resolution. Discusses hope for additional funding to get additional research about how the economy developed. As the biggest city in Burlington, the economy developed from the economic advantages of slavery with connection between income and slavery. Discussion transition from rural to urban, as well as Vermont shift to being about poverty, which didn’t include blackness. Housing and spaces Housing and spaces became metropolitan and how black people were not included in the conversation. How do we connect data with these conversations and what do we want for data? States like Delaware & Iowa are creating curriculum into systems. In Iowa, there are CLEs focusing on the History of Blacks in Iowa and part of the process could be focusing on the history of a certain people in a state and in a community. Could we do that to have a rendering of blackness and how it was defined before and what it means now? Talk about resolution and asking City Council for more direction. How are reparations defined? Has it been defined? Task force has not defined reparations, but could be good to focus on specific areas, like health, wealth, ownership of homes. How do we show a connection between slavery and reparations? Would we require people to show ancestry? Consider impact without ties to slavery. Need to define what emphasis on research will look like, maybe a Root Cause Analysis. Are there local colleges that could help or have uncovered information pertaining to reparations in Burlington or Vermont? Amani Whitfield has done a lot work exposing of self-perceptions of being an anti-slavery state. Vermont’s Eugenics movement has been exposed, but not necessarily focusing on black residents. Have discussion about securing additional money for research and developing an RFP for community engagement sessions at the Richard Kemp Center. African American community members who know they are decedents of slavery and is open to others. Do we want to create a space for those who are decedents of slavery, rather than to everyone? It is important to take ethnographic data. Before we add other people, we have to make sure we have resources for it and we need more information to create more proposal. Identifying who that would be for the listening session and can talk offline about designing those sessions. Reparations vs. Restorative processes after. Reparations is about a group of people, which is more specific. As you move forward in time, it might be come inclusive in restorative methods/methodologies. Include immigrant & refugee populations in restorative process, but reparations have to be about chattel slavery. As we do research, we are creating a record and revealing it. May need to define city connection vs. state connection for reparations. Thinking about DCF, use of force, and impacts already recorded and connected with data. Waiting for Pablo to go through his report and highlights. When the task force started this process, what conversations happened about defining the work/honing out the work? We divided the original work in blocks of time. A lot of the work we’ve done was develop an RFP on the subjects and the history of slavery in Vermont. The convenance and the information that Pablo and team – we were waiting for that. We are trying to figure out what to do next. Page 2 of 4  Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting* 12/6/2022 Look at nine deliverables to do on resolution and consider going to city council to define reparations task force resolution. What should we be reporting back or what does city council want us to do? Kim will try to find more clarity or information on this resolution. At the REIB Council Committee, there wasn’t a discussion about specifics of charge or deliverables. We have only really thought about home ownership, and we haven’t reached other subjects. Medical history, prison labor, and what historical systems we still use in Vermont haven’t been explored yet and each of these domains talk about education. All of the ways systemic racism is harming people as a legacy of slavery all over the country. I feel like it is problematic to say “prove it”. Can be hard to prove. Could take research nationwide and scale it to Burlington. There’s no reasonable way that it couldn’t have it. Talk about what’s happening now. We have data. There are disparities in all systems. Disenfranchisement vs. Discrimination not given equal access to the systems vs. individual experience. Disenfranchisement is how we were disenfranchised from the gains, the systems, the growth, and taken out of gaining as others did. Restorative measures would work with those disenfranchised systemically and disproportionately impacted. Will continue relationship building for this meeting. Will reaching out to Bor Yang & Roy Hill. We will reach out tomorrow via email to individuals and invite them to next Reparations Task Force Meeting. Phet sent Christine a format for a proposal for RFP and Kim could connect with Christine offline. Next agenda items include: a vote for new members & chair would recommend talking with Karen Paul and Zoraya Hightower about taskforce, background, and clarity agenda on next meeting: proposal of how much money we would like Continue Meetings on the 4th Tuesday of the Month. Next meeting is January 24, 2023. Will send out calendar invites and draft agenda. Adjourn Kim motions to adjourn. Christine seconds. End Time: 7:11 PM Page 3 of 4  Reparations Task Force Meeting, Tuesday, December 6th, 2022, 5:30 pm *Hybrid Meeting* 12/6/2022 Notetaker: Sydney VanTassel Page 4 of 4