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06/03/2020 07:00 AMOn May 31, about 40 people wearing masks and carrying signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George Floyd” spread out around the southwest corner of the green, joining a nationwide movement of recent protests that have called for change and action against police violence. On June 1, an even larger group of Guilford High School students and others returned to the spot to hold what they called a solidarity demonstration.
The demonstrations in Guilford, like many others in cities around the United States, sought to bring attention to violence perpetrated by police against black Americans, part of an ongoing wave of protest and civil disobedience sparked by the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd, who was publicly killed by a white police officer on May 25.
In Guilford, demonstrators sought to emphasize how affluent, segregated suburban towns have a particular role when combating these issues.
In a statement put out by the May 31 protestors and provided to the Courier by Tyler Felson, one of the organizers, the group emphasized that “[w]e aren’t standing here today to express our independent views.”
Instead, the statement says their goal is “to amplify the messages of a national movement that must be supported. Anyone with a conscience should be disgusted and outraged at the persistent, ruthless murders of black Americans by law enforcement.”
Black men in America are nearly twice as likely to be killed by police as white men, according to recent data compiled by the Washington Post. According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, non-lethal use of force data is scant, though a recent Yale study showed that black and Hispanic Americans were 50 percent more likely than whites to “experience some form of force” from police.
Though most of those present on May 31 came from a core group of Guilford residents, news of the event had spread on social media, according to Felson, drawing in a slightly larger group than anticipated.
Members of the Guilford Police Department (GPD) were on site early, including Deputy Chief Warren Hyatt, who said he had a “great dialogue” with the protestors.
GPD officers are just as outraged as many others in the community, Hyatt said, and he hoped to show “our solidarity with the message they were trying to get across.”
Annie Kennedy, a Madison resident, told the Courier she had simply heard that “something was happening” that morning, and shown up to show her anger over Floyd’s death and the continued police violence.
“I think we’re just sick of it,” she said. “I’m uncomfortable living in this country right now.”
Felson emphasized that the goal in Guilford was not to put on a feel-good, perfunctory show of solidarity, but to identify and act in real ways to support those suffering and fighting on the front lines for equality.
“It’s easy to honk your horn [in support], and then forget about it as you drive away,” said Felson.
On both days, the focus on Guilford’s majority white, wealthy population was explicit, with many signs and slogans calling out complicity, addressing being an ally, or condemning silence as being complicit in oppression.
Actively leveraging the kind of privilege residents enjoy in Guilford—financial, geographic, education, or whatever else—is what Felson said he and the other organizers hoped to build with the protest, something Felson said they researched and learned through listening to black activists.
A handful of signs displayed on May 31 had QR codes attached to them that, when scanned by a smartphone, linked either to anti-racist educational resources or to donation opportunities for Black Lives Matter, the NAACP, the Connecticut Bail Fund, and other organizations combating police violence and racial injustice.
According to Felson and another event organizer, Brendan O’Callahan, leveraging financial privilege was one of the most important things Guilford residents can do in the fight for equality.
“There are systems that we are taking part of as white people in Guilford,” O’Callahan said. “We need to start a dialogue in our own community.”
Guilford’s median household income is nearly double the national average, according to U.S. census data, and the town is around 90 percent non-Hispanic white.
Many protestors had written “Don’t honk, donate” on the backs of their signs, and would flip them around when a passing car beeped their horn at the group.
Both Felson and O’Callahan described the “bubble” of suburban white communities like Guilford, which are perpetuated by things like a lack of affordable housing and comfortable, performative activism.
“Complicity is racist itself, to a degree,” O’Callahan said.
Felson said that pushing back against that bubble will require more sustained action, carrying on past a weekend of demonstrations and driving for real change and awareness in the community.
“This is the start of a greater effort in our community,” the protestors’ statement reads, “to both use our abundant resources to support the black community’s struggle against systemic racism and understand our place within those systems.