By David Fortier
The two citizens who met with the mayor to discuss responses to the distribution of white supremacist leaflets in the city are considering next steps after the mayor said, in so many words, that he will not be addressing the situation any further.
“I think the message we are getting right now is that the mayor’s office will not be involved in any of this,” said Adam Antar.
Antar attended the meeting in-person with another concerned citizen who had seen the leaflets and wanted to help and whom TBE has yet to reach out to.
They were joined by Camelia Lopez virtually. Antar and Lopez, concerned citizens themselves, raised questions about the city’s response to a scattering of white supremacist leaflets in the Northeast section of the city. They spoke at the June 14 City Council meeting at the Bristol Board of Education.
The point of the Friday morning meeting was two-fold: to encourage the mayor to make a stronger statement denouncing the literature, while showing support for people of color, and to discuss how to go about building stronger ties with people of color.
The mayor, according to Antar, refused to make any further denunciation and refused to consider alternatives, at several points dismissing them and lecturing the participants.
“He pretty much promised to do nothing,” Antar said about the mayor. “He was adamant about this, saying that this was a fringe group within the community, and you can’t give it any publicity because this is what they wanted.”
Antar called this a hands-off approach with consequences.
“We know as people, as people of color specifically, that when somebody is faced with this type of prejudice and they do nothing, have a stance of neutrality, that means they are siding with the oppressor whether or not they want to admit it.”
The mayor’s response following the discovery of the white supremacist leaflet incident was an email to the press which reads as follows: “I was informed by our Department of Public Works employees and the Police Department of the literature drops. There is no room for hatred or divisiveness in our city and we continue to identify those that are responsible.”
According to Antar, at this point in the Friday morning meeting when the mayor said his response was sufficient, the person who accompanied Antar to Real Cafe told the mayor in so many words that he was as bad as the ones who dropped the leaflets, called him a white supremacist, and left.
“I don’t think it was exactly tactful,” Antar said, “but somebody had to say it.”
The one recommendation that the mayor made Antar termed a hollow gesture.
“He wanted to have a food truck festival in relation to celebrate diversity,” Antar said. “It’s basically, we won’t stand with you in your time of concern and fear, but we will eat your food.”
The follow-up meeting was held at Cafe Real in the West End at 7:30 a.m. Antar remained for the allotted time, 30 minutes, which the mayor set ahead of time. Police Chief Brian Gould did not attend, as the mayor had implied during the public participation portion of the City Council meeting where he agreed to the Friday meeting.
Lopez attended for 10 minutes, but her connection to Antar’s phone wasn’t good enough to continue. The third individual left the meeting before it ended.
The mayor opened up his schedule for the Cafe Real meeting after suggesting at the council meeting that the issues might be addressed at the community forum on July 5, which Lopez challenged, saying that waiting that long wasn’t acceptable.
The mayor did not respond to a TBE email with questions about the Cafe Real meeting. Antar and Lopez were reached separately by phone after the meeting. The third individual has yet to be contacted.
“Today was basically a preliminary, ‘Hey, are you going to denounce this further? We want to take steps. Hey, what is the city doing? What does the city plan on doing.?” Antar said. “I don’t think we are going to get very far with the mayor’s office.”
Antar said the next steps for him and Lopez are to start preparing for the July 5 city-wide community forum where discussion will be more general but perhaps extend the conversation.
“We are going to give it one more shot on the fifth,” Antar said. “We are going to have to start doing some direct grassroots organizing to get people who said they are nervous to understand and get them to stand up.”
Lopez said she came prepared to the Friday morning meeting with research and suggestions, but the mayor chose to lecture her, which was disappointing and dispiriting.
“I don’t let people talk to me like that in person,” she said. “Tell me ‘You have to listen to me.’ I am not a child. You are not a teacher. You asked us for our input but every time we gave you information you shot us back down.”
At one point, the mayor dismissed a suggestion, calling himself a student of history, and Lopez said she couldn’t help thinking that was the last thing he was.
“You didn’t come to this meeting prepared,” she said. “’Every time we give you information that is backed by legitimate sources, you give us an excuse.’ He’s like, ‘We want to celebrate things; let’s have a food festival.’”
She said she knows his response has a lot to do with this being a difficult situation.
“I know it’s bad publicity,” she said. “But it’s even worse publicity to not handle the situation at all.”
Lopez echoed Antar when it comes to planning for the community forum, by identifying specific events and a program, she said.
Like Antar, she would like to put together a list of people who have concerns but who have yet to speak out. It would be one way to get the mayor’s attention, since she said he said he hasn’t heard from many people about their concerns.
For his part, Antar said, he didn’t expect a whole lot to come out of the Friday morning meeting.
“Again, this was a preliminary meeting. However, walking away from it, I believe, it’s an uphill battle to get the city to act substantively towards this issue, that of our ensuring that our residents of color feel safe and represented by our elected officials.
“I think we have work to do. What better time than now. What better place than here.”
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