Group Discusses Everyday Racism In The Valley

SHELTON — Ominous storm clouds and a driving rain didn’t stop about 18 Shelton residents and community officials from gathering at the Veterans Memorial Park last Saturday to share personal stories of racism.

Organizers Breon Sanders and Michel’le Sanders teamed up again with Maya Donald after arranging the protest on the Derby-Shelton bridge. Shelton resident Julia Meyer contacted the group to arrange last weekend’s forum as a continuation of the discussion on systemic racism.

“I feel like this community unfortunately has a problem,” Meyer said. ​“There’s definitely a growing generational culture of racial bias and racism that has run rampant throughout this community and many others nearby. I just felt like we needed to come together as a community and talk about this issue, and listen to people who have experienced this first hand. Our community is not immune from this problem even though we are small.”

Some Valley incidents:

• In September, the NAACP held a rally and press conference outside Shelton Intermediate School after a series of student blackface incidents in Connecticut, including in Shelton. Speakers at that event explained how wearing blackface is an assault on Blacks. ​“Our skin is not your costume,” they said.

• In June, an Ansonia official resigned from a local board after social media posts resurfaced, including one in which she said welfare is reparations for Blacks.

• In late June, a Seymour official resigned from a board after sharing a meme that said Blacks never thanked whites for freeing slaves. The meme was denounced by the (Republican) First Selectman, town Democrats, and members of the Board of Selectmen, but a former GOP party head defended the meme as not racist.

• On Facebook, a Seymour resident publicly shared that items had been stolen from his property. At least two people responded with virulent racist posts, which were then exposed to a wider Facebook audience through a Shelton community Facebook group.

Don’t Be Discouraged

The Valley Indy live-streamed the Derby-Shelton bridge protest in June. During the event, some Valley Indy Facebook readers misinterpreted the ​‘Black lives matter’ slogan as ​‘only Black lives matter,’ discounting the systemic and institutional racism on which the group was founded to combat. Another reader falsely claimed the protesters weren’t from Derby or Shelton.

At Saturday’s event, Breon Sanders talked about the pushback on Valley social media against the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.

“Don’t let anybody stop you or discourage you from doing something,” Breon said. ​“I can guarantee Julia had to fight. When Michel’le organized the last protest it was such a struggle to the point people were on Facebook lying saying that it had been canceled. We are making certain people uncomfortable and that is okay.”

Maya Donald talked about how sitting in her car outside her residence prompted a neighbor to question her.

“This guy is looking at me as if he has never seen me before. He’s just staring at me. I see this man everyday,” Donald said. ​“He asked what I was doing here. I said, ​‘I live here, do you not know me?’ Why do I have to be questioned for just sitting in my car for five minutes?”

Kevin Kosty, vice-chairman of the Shelton Democrats and a former candidate for Aldermen, pointed to racism in politics by referring to a conversation at a city hall meeting about affordable housing and the redevelopment of downtown.

“Someone as a throwaway comment said that we don’t need affordable housing because we have a bus that goes to Bridgeport,” Kosty said. 

He said that Shelton’s demographics are changing.

“When I was going house to house campaigning for the last two elections, I ran into a lot of long term residents who talked about Shelton being a white community that will never change,” Kosty said. ​“Almost every door, I would hit a house or apartment that no one spoke English at. So there’s a lot of new residents and diverse residents that our older, long term residents aren’t familiar with. Shelton has already changed, so we need to catch up on the times. We shouldn’t be segregating people.”

Michel’le Sanders pointed out racism doesn’t stop at the Shelton border.

“All of the people in Shelton who keep saying that racism isn’t happening here. That it’s not real. It didn’t happen until George Floyd got killed,” she said. ​“No, it’s been happening but now people are so tired of it that they’re speaking up.”

Once the forum was dismissed, the circle only broke to form two smaller ones. Conversations circulated for almost another hour until there were only two left standing as the sun came out, Rep. Kara Rochelle, D‑Ansonia, and Flahn Manly, owner of ICD Creative Studios LLC in Shelton.

“I’m very encouraged with the positive conversation that occurred. I think that it’s really important that people in our community are listening to each other and respecting each other’s experiences,” Rochelle said. ​“I was here to listen and collaborate with people who are looking to do positive things.”

“I think we should have more conversations and use our privilege properly to educate each other on what’s occurring,” Manly said. ​“It’s going to take awhile but we’re getting there.”