An anti-racism vigil and Black Lives Matter signs in Brighton

Posted by [email protected] | Oct 28, 2016 | Social Issues | 0 |

Signs in Brighton, most recent 10/28/16. [Photos: David Kramer]

I missed last night’s anti-racism march and rally at the Twelve Corners Middle School.

banner celebrating Brighton’s diversity outside the Twelve Corners Middle School 10/28/16

But I was not surprised the D & C reported that hundreds attended the event. Or to see Time Warner’ Cable’s footage of the hundreds marching from the lawn of the Brighton High School to the middle school gymnasium.

Democrat and Chronicle, 10/28/16

from On a “Black Lives Matter” sign in Brighton

Michael Boucher and Maritza Buitrago from What Maritza Buitrago can and cannot say on the electoral road.

In response to white supremacist literature left in driveways in Brighton, the anti-racism group CURBrighton organized the event, as well as a Family Unit walk in October.

CURBrighton is representative of the many people in Brighton promoting racial diversity and fighting racism. Last September, Michael Boucher wrote about the Black Lives Matter sign he placed in his yard.

Since then, three of Mike’s neighbors put up similar signs.

Athesia Benjamin from Athesia in the City

In I Was Racially Profiled In My Own Neighborhood Today. Again., Athesia Benjamin wrote powerfully about an experience of racial profiling. Athesia’s essay drew many supportive comments.

from New Team in Town: Roc City Steelers debut at Buckland Park,

And in New Team in Town: Roc City Steelers debut at Buckland Park, you read the story of the Roc City Steelers.

As Coach Deondre Gray explained, this year his team, mainly African-American city boys, decided to move to Brighton to play in a suburban Pop Warner league. Deondre called the move, “an urban suburban outreach based on the love of football.”

The season was a great success with bigger plans for next year. Denondre’s goal is to draw even more families and players from the city and throughout Brighton into the Roc City community at Buckland Park.

From signs to marches to vigils to football to speaking out, people in Brighton are making a difference.

SEE ALSO

Celebrating diversity on the Fourth of July at Meridian Centre Park in Brighton

At the Brighton Town Hall 1957 mural with Sandra Frankel

For Justin Delinois, all roads led to the Liberty Pole Way. And beyond.

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.