To the Editor:

The Newtown Democratic Town Committee is deeply disturbed by the hurtful letter from Legislative Council member Cathy Reiss. At best, she did not seriously think through the implications and errors of what she was writing, failing to comprehend the offensive nature of such writing.

Author of How to Be an Antiracist and National Book Award-winning author, Ibram X. Kendi, has said, “The heartbeat, historically, of racism has been denial…” Reiss’ words indicate her denial.

“Systemic (or structural) racism” is defined by NAACP President Derrick Johnson as “the systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantage African Americans.”

Reiss claims there can be no systemic racism because “Americans voted for a black man to be president — twice” and Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire. In 1960, there were several wealthy African Americans in Alabama. According to Reiss’ logic, there would be no systemic racism in the Jim Crow South. We still see evidence of systems and structures that have disadvantaged Blacks in today’s America.

*In 2016, at $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family was nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150). (McIntosh, et al, Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap, Brookings Institute, 2/27/2020).

*The student loan gap between whites and Blacks has continued to grow: Black college graduates have an average of $52,726 in student debt compared to an average of $28,006 for White graduates. (White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans).

*”Black and Hispanic graduates are far more likely to have attended for-profit colleges and less likely to have attended four-year public or nonprofit institutions. [They] also generally have attended institutions that have less money to spend on offering a quality education.” (Libassi, CJ. The Neglected College Race Gap).

*In 2019, 9.8% of non-Hispanic whites were uninsured, while 14.8% of Blacks were uninsured. (Rudden, Jennifer, Percentage of Americans Without Health Insurance by Ethnicity 2010-219, Statista.com).

*The unemployment and underemployment rates between whites and Blacks remain significant even in prosperous times. From 1972 to 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reflected the Black unemployment rate to be twice or more than that of whites.

Reiss excuses the scourge of American slavery with the same Confederate argument that it was “a world practice since at least 6800 BC.” She claims the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement is “more a Marxist movement than a civil rights movement.” Despite loose Marxist roots amongst a few organizers, BLM is a worldwide civil rights movement with the obvious objectives of democratic and constitutional systemic changes for racial equality.

The rest of the quote from Ibram X. Kendi is “...the heartbeat of antiracism is confession, is admission, is acknowledgment, is the willingness to be vulnerable, is the willingness to identify the times in which we are being racist, is to be willing to diagnose ourselves and our policies and our countries... to be antiracist is to admit when we are being racist.”

We hope Reiss and like-minded Newtowners consider these words.

Eric Paradis, Chair, Newtown DTC

Joan Plouffe, Vice Chair, Newtown DTC

9 Sturges Road, Newtown July 27, 2020