6/3/2020
Dear BHS Student,
My education began in Brookline in 1979, in kindergarten. But it wasn’t until my BHS years, when I reached the age you are now, that I finally began to learn some important lessons about this town and country, and the way the real world works. That’s when my oldest and best friend Joe, whose mother was a white Canadian and father was Ghanaian, began experiencing overt institutional racism. Through him, I learned that in Brookline, it was just a matter of time before Black teenagers would be stopped and questioned by police officers. That parallel parking wasn’t his biggest concern on his maiden voyages piloting his parents’ yacht-like Oldsmobile around town. In fact, on his first date with a classmate, he was pulled over for “driving while black.”
Has Brookline changed since then? Who am I to say? Hang around a town long enough as a high school social worker, and you’ll end up knowing a good number of police officers personally. Many are former BHS students. I know they were as horrified as you and me by the brutal murder we all witnessed in Minneapolis. Yet, just a few years ago, one of those Brookline police officers, who I happened to know well from his BHS days, and happened to be Black, confided in me that he was on the receiving end of horrifically racist treatment from his departmental colleagues. You may know the rest of the story. He and another Black officer, who was a trusted resource for students and staff in our school district, joined together to go public with their story bravely. There is only one word that comes to mind to describe the way the town of Brookline handled the case from that point forward: shameful. The same word applies to the more recent case involving a Black Brookline firefighter who was similarly subjected to racial slurs and mistreatment. And I wonder if you all were aware that Brookline High School should now be eight years into the tenure of our first Black head of school. We are not. And race was a major reason why. Don’t believe me? Read about the case https://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20130718/News/307189747 and decide for yourself.
I know I’m not the best messenger to be speaking to you about these issues. My major identifying characteristics – tall, bald, white Jewish guy – haven’t put me at risk of being mistreated or discriminated against. Unless you count the seats at Fenway Park – were people really that much shorter in 1912? Speaking of those seats reminds me of another recent incident when a visiting player for the Baltimore Orioles told the assembled media after a game that he was subjected to racial slurs from the bleachers behind him as he patrolled center field. It was yet another ugly incident for our Greater Boston community in a long history of very public racism. I bring it up not because it happened; but rather because of the way it was responded to. Prominent figures in the media went on the airwaves and loudly proclaimed that because there was no evidence, we shouldn’t assume it really happened. Really? In what universe would he choose to fabricate and go public with a story like that? Why in the world would two Brookline police officers subject themselves to such painful public scrutiny and repercussions if they hadn’t actually suffered the treatment they were alleging? And finally, I ask, why have countless Brookline High students over the past twenty years quietly and painfully opened up in the safety of my office about being the victims of racism? I can’t believe I have to say this, but here is a message to some of the more willfully ignorant members of our community. Just because you can’t see something with your own eyes or experience it yourself, doesn’t mean it isn’t real and happening everywhere all the time. Or, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar put it more eloquently: “Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere.
I’ve spent most of my life in Brookline. I’ve chosen to raise my kids here and spend two decades working with Brookline teenagers. The naive and hopeful part of my brain wants to believe that our community is a great place for everyone to live, work, and play. But the educated part of my mind, the part that processes information and doesn’t ignore mountains of stark data points and evidence, forces me to conclude that it is not. Why does almost every Black or Brown person that I talk to say that Brookline is a very racist town? The answer, as painful as it is to say loudly and clearly, is because it is. Minneapolis, like Brookline, had a fairly widely acknowledged public reputation as a woke, liberal, and progressive community. But that public perception (clearly not one shared by everyone), didn’t jibe with the terrible record of racial injustice perpetrated by the Minneapolis police even before the George Floyd murder. And Brookline’s track record is similarly discordant with our own image.
I wish I could conclude my letter to you with some answers or solutions. Maybe in time, I’ll have some for you, or someone smarter and braver will assume the mantle of leadership and show us the way. But I do believe that taking an honest and unfiltered look at ourselves and our community is a decent starting point. My wish for you, other than of course that you continue to be safe and well during these absurdly difficult times, is that you will be a part of the generation that helps our society make a major leap forward in terms of racial justice. Tonight’s vigil, organized by BHS students, provided a worthwhile and needed pause point. It’s just a beginning. Keep leading, and we’ll follow. I truly can’t wait to see you all in person at BHS in due time.
Love,
Paul Epstein
