Please join us tomorrow for our monthly Race Conversations at the Waterbury Public Library, 6:30-7:30.
We will be discussing Chapter 8 of Ijeoma Oluo's book _So You Want to Talk about Race?_. The chapter focuses on the school to prison pipeline, which Oluo defines as describing "the alarming number of black and brown children who are funneled directly and indirectly from our schools into our prison industrial complex, contributing to devastating levels of mass incarceration that lead to one in three black men and one in six Latino men going to prison in their lifetimes" (p. 125).
If you are wondering whether this is a problem in Vermont, the answer is definitely yes. Here are a few stats from the 2016 report Education Matters: The Impacts of Systemic Inequity in Vermont (on p. 12):
• Students with disabilities and students of color were two to three times more likely to be suspended or expelled, and were more likely to be restrained and referred to law enforcement by school staff.
• Vermont children as young as 10 can be tried in adult courts, and Vermont's state's attorneys, who have an unusually large amount of discretionary power, have typically prosecuted 16-17 years olds in adult court regardless of the offense.
• Black youth in Vermont are more likely to be arrested and be charged in adult court than their white counterparts. Data from 2012 shows that black youth were nearly two and a half times more likely to be arrested than white youth and one and a half times more likely to have charges filed in adult court.
• An analysis of Burlington Police Department data on traffic stops from 2009-2012 shows that African Americans are nearly twice as likely to be subjected to traffic stops, and are 2.5 times more likely to be searched than their white counterparts.
• Black Vermonters were 4.4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts, despite the fact that studies show similar rates of marijuana usage for white and black populations.
(The report is from Voices for Vermont's Children and can be found at https://www.edequityvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Education-Matters-report-2016.pdf.)
First timers are welcome, whether you've read beforehand or not. Hope to see many of you there!
Dec 21, 2024, 7 PM
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Christmas Eve Worship Services at Richmond UCCDec 24, 2024, 4 to 5 PM