Northampton mayoral candidates responded to a survey about racial equity and their plans to address racism in schools, policing and the local community.
REAL (Racial Equity and Learning) Northampton is an organization funded by the Northampton Education Foundation that works to create an anti-racist culture in Northampton public schools (NPS). In October, REAL distributed a survey to the mayoral candidates Gina-Louise Sciaara and Marc Warner about their views on racial equity and what they would do to further that agenda if elected. The full questionnaire is available to read on REAL Northampton’s website.
Sciarra said, “Racial equity will be a reality when access to affordable housing, quality education, public transportation, public safety and economic security in Northampton is not determined or limited by one’s race or perceived racial identity. But it will take work to remove the barriers long faced by marginalized populations to living in Northampton, and to dismantle systemic racism that is here, as it is everywhere.” She also talked about her credentials and history working on racial issues as a city councilor. She has written and sponsored many resolutions and ordinances addressing racial equity and hate crimes.
Similarly, Warner said, “What will Northampton look like once racial equity is a reality? The improvements in racial equity will allow more people of color to access the educational, employment, housing, and recreational options enjoyed by everyone else.” He stressed the need for the city to create a “clear and meaningful policy that it will not tolerate any discrimination or unfair treatment based on race” and channels by which to follow up on violations of this policy.
Warner also talked about the need for race-based reforms in the police department, but said that defunding the police department is not the solution. “The City Council … was wrong last year to cut the police budget over the course of a single council meeting and without thoughtful consideration on how it would affect public safety and police staffing,” he said. He has stated that he would like to see it restored to its full funding.
Sciarra did not take a position on defunding the police. She, too, said that racial reforms are important in policing and talked about her role in the creation of the Department of Community Care, an alternative to armed responses to crisis calls, but did not directly call for a reduction in the police budget. She said the police department should remain responsible for some functions of “public safety, along with Fire/Rescue, and the Public Safety Communications Center (also known as Dispatch).”
Both candidates also commented on the school district’s proposed “Protections from Discriminatory Bias and Symbols of Hate” policy. This policy calls for bias incidents—defined as “conduct, speech, images or expression by students, staff or visitors to the school that demonstrates conscious or unconscious unfair or prejudicial distinctions about people based on,” various aspects of their identity — to be reported to the school’s principal or the district superintendent and then investigated. Northampton has already banned the display of Confederate flags in March 2021 and is debating banning swastikas and nooses.
However, Warner believes this to be a violation of free speech. “Anybody who comes to school (or appears on a remote Zoom screen) with a confederate flag, a noose, a swastika or any other unmistakable symbol of intolerance is an obnoxious jerk, and school officials—like all decent people—are right to point this out and to make it clear that they want nothing to do with the guy,” he said. “The limitation, however, is that the school district has a legal obligation to respect first amendment rights and to provide an education to even obnoxious jerks.”
Sciarra is in favor of the policy and the restorative justice approach to violations of the law. “In my view, the greatest strength of the proposed policy is the emphasis on teaching,” she said. “Our schools have a responsibility to create safe spaces for learning. Expressions of hate are extremely disruptive to a learning environment. Just as we do not tolerate bullying in our school community, we cannot tolerate bigotry in our school community. The proposed policy correctly establishes this goal.” She did say that the policy needed revision to hold up to legal challenges on First Amendment grounds.
In response to a question about addressing the extent and permeation of racism in the NPS system, Warner said, “I don’t believe that racism is pervasive at NPS or across the city, even implicitly.” He acknowledged that racist incidents do occur and that, when they happen, NPS needs to have the legal tools to discipline the offender, because “such action is abhorrent and completely uncool.”
In contrast, Sciarra advocated for the need for a community-wide effort to eradicate “overt and implicit forms of racism.” She said, “Administrators, teachers, students, caregivers and school committee members, of all racial backgrounds, must listen to each other, learn from each other, collaborate together, and above all, act. We cannot let the enormity of the challenge intimidate us. However difficult the dialogue, we must identify where implicit bias seeps into our institutions, educate our students and ourselves, and change any practice that perpetuates
systemic racism.”
“If I am elected Mayor, I would also chair the School Committee and would work with REAL and other members of our public school community in such efforts,” she continued. “Beyond what we change within our own school system, I would also advocate for a change in state law to end the practice of discriminatory high-stakes testing.”
Both candidates finished by talking about their personal experiences with racism and acknowledging the white privilege that they both have. Sciarra pledged to “foster a safe environment where there can be open dialogue and the opportunity to grow and learn from [these] necessary conversations.”
REAL helps to start conversations about race in schools, prioritizing the voices of people of color. They are also consulting on the district’s new code of conduct and the potential of a restorative justice approach to conflict resolution. They have created workshops, liaised with other organizations and spread anti-racist resources throughout the Northampton community.
