Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Local Youth Speak On Racial Injustice, Black Lives Matter And Roosevelt Island Community In Conversaton With RIRA Public Safety And CY&E Committees - Well Worth Your Time To Watch Virtual Dialogue Among Activists Of Young And Older Generations

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Children, Youth & Education Committee Chair Adib Mansour reports:

Two RIRA committees came together and organized a June 23 Zoom meeting in response to the racial injustice we have been witnessing recently. RIRA’s Public Safety committee chaired by Erin Feely-Nahem, as well as RIRA’s Children, Youth & Education Committee were very touched by our island’s youths who initiated the March For Justice and Black Lives Matter.



We decided to invite two of the organizers,Zoe Lopez and Thalia St. Hubert, and other youths to speak with us, an opportunity to start a dialog for change in our community, our city, and this country.

The Zoom meeting guest speakers in addition to Zoe Lopez and Thalia St. Hubert were Jordan Chambers, Luca GoldMansour, and Dleanna.

Other invitees included two RIRA Committees members: Laura Hussey and Frank Farance, as well as community members: RISA President Barbara Parker, and Ike Nahem.
According to RIRA Public Safety Committee Chair Erin Feely-Nahem:
I wanted to thank everyone, including Adib, (who orchestrated this collaboration), who took the time to attend our June 23 meeting. I learned a lot. I was duly impressed by the well thought out vision offered, and the honesty of the presenter's appraisal of the community. I look forward to working with all of you, which now includes our Community's new generation of activists, in our mutual desire and efforts to monitor the community's healthy relationship with the PSD, while encouraging positive changes moving forward. It is clear now that we share a common vision for our Island, one which offers and protects the ideas and principles of equality, and justice for all.
Mr Mansour adds:
I was very touched to see the youth of the island react to the racial injustice in our country; I was brought to tears to see the youth and the community taking the knee for 9 minutes on June 3rd during the March they organized.

I was born in Lebanon during the civil war there and I know what it feels to fear being in the wrong place at the wrong time, to feel fear in my bones when leaving the safety of my house. The March reminded me of a pledge I took long ago… to fight for freedom, peace and love. I see a lot of parallels in current times, where black people are targeted and killed, even by the authorities that are supposed to protect them. I took the pledge again after the June 3rd March, and that this committee I chair will always be learning on how to bring change and increasing racial equity in our community and our city. As the chair of RIRA’s Children, Youth & Education Committee I am making the commitment that we will be engaging in activities and actions that support our black youth and make sure that we are addressing systematic racial injustices."

We learned a lot from this hour long zoom meeting



and we will address all of the fantastic ideas we heard from the youths.

Thalia St. Hubert is a Roosevelt Island resident who studies at Lee University, in Cleveland majoring in Vocal & Voice Performance.  Her statement:

I think that we really benefit from having PSD on the island. Personally, I have felt very safe and haven’t had any problems with them. I appreciate the efforts of PSD to keep the march 100% violence free and safe. To bring my small community together, to fight for something we believe in, is just so powerful.
Zoe Lopez has been living on Roosevelt Island since she was 4 years old. She studies at CUNY. She was one of the organizers of the June 3rd March for equality and her statement is:
As a young girl I always knew I looked different, in elementary school there were only three students of color and I was one of the darkest kids in my grade. Everyone treated me differently. When I grew up, I started to realize some people have it worse, darker skinned people are even more objectified than I am. I’ve experienced racism from a young age being a light skinned person, I can’t even begin to imagine the struggle darker skinned people have gone through. The problem at hand regarding the black lives matter movement is bigger than racism, it’s about cops being colorist.

On the island we don’t see the problem as much, not to say racism doesn’t exist within the island, but as a community we aren’t threatened by NYPD. Being sheltered is the biggest problem we have here, we don’t have the conversations about racism and the mistreatment of black people because it doesn’t happen in our backyards. We need to talk about it and prepare our youth, white children need to be taught not to mistreat black people. Not just to treat them equally, but to recognize their privilege and advantages they have. We need to teach the white youth especially, so that black parents don’t have to be scared for their kids.
Jordan Chambers was born on Roosevelt Island with parents that also lived most of their lives here. He currently is a student at Washington University in St. Louis. He too spoke at the march. His statement:
My name is Jordan Chambers and I am a lifetime resident of Roosevelt Island. My family has lived here since the 70s so we have all seen the island community grow from the ground up and pass through various stages of development. In my own experience Public safety has never acted as the force it is named by. It has never been something that has acted as a force of bringing about safety for the public, as much as it has one that exists solely to protect the property and capital based interests of the development corporation that is RIOC.

I grew up like most island kids, playing little league for virtually every season. I was one of the kids sitting in on the mound protesting RIOC’s cross booking of the baseball fields to Zogsports. Aside from the fact that RIOC was actively sacrificing the best interests of its 12 year old community members for profit, as a group we experienced the horrors that unfolded when my best friend’s father Adib was paraded down Main Street in handcuffs and publicly brutalized for the community to see.

The safety that I feel in my community has nothing to do with the presence of PSD, but simply the familial nature of the island itself. This is what makes the island so special. Yet, as others may speak on, the opportunities for youth of all colors (especially those of color) to cultivate this sense of community are limited by the age of around 14. The resources that are being directed towards what is effectively a property protection force, should be completely reallocated to providing more opportunities for our youth and young community members of color. Extracurricular activities, places to congregate and feel included, educational opportunities, etc. It is important now, more than ever with the island at peak population and gentrification setting in more than ever, to focus on what makes the island such a great place to grow up and build up and support our community.
Luca GoldMansour, was born and lives on the island. He went to Penn State to study Astro-Physics but then had the calling for justice and equality and is changed to Political Science at CUNY. He is currently interning for the Metropolitan Council on Housing. His statement:
Hi I am Luca GoldMansour, a lifetime resident of Roosevelt Island, and the son of Adib, Mr. Blue Beard, who along with Erin, was gracious in giving me a platform to speak today on public safety on Roosevelt Island.

I just wanted to take a moment to honor the essential workers who are on the front lines of this pandemic, keeping our Island, city, state, country, and world safe at the moment. The sacrifice of these nurses, doctors, teachers, food service workers, and public safety officers will not go forgotten. We mourn their losses.

I also wanted to acknowledge that the land we call home was ransacked from its original residents, the Lenape people, who used it as a sacred burial ground. Something to keep in mind as the last meters of untouched land on this Island are currently scheduled to be destroyed.

Like I said I am a lifetime resident of the Island and I have been so fortunate to call this place my home for 21 years now. The people I love the most in this world live on Roosevelt Island. I participated in all the youth sports programs: kinderkickers, T-ball, little league, soccer, basketball. So every saturday morning was always the most exciting as I would have a game to look forward to where I could play with my best friends and show off my abilities. Baseball was my favorite.

Around the age of 12 it was baseball season, and our official little league games were going unfinished almost every week because RIOC, a real estate development corporation we get to call our government, had rented the baseball field to an organization named Zogsports, leaving no time for any delays which may have occurred during the course of our games. And who was the face of these policies to a bunch of 12 year olds devastated that they couldn't finish the 6th inning? The public safety department. PSD would treat us like trespassers in our own backyard to make room for 30 somethings who were not residents but were paying for field time.

So at age 12 one week my friends and our parents staged a sit in on the pitcher's mound and refused to leave. I’ll never forget this, my first protest that I can remember, and I’ll never forgive PSD for brutally arresting my father for taking pictures of the event, twisting his arms behind his back and ushering him into Public Safety headquarters. So I can understand the psychological work that this can do to a young child, and to a community, but I can’t imagine how it must feel to see a racist police beating of one that you love.

Around the age of 15 you lose a lot of the opportunities that were afforded to you in your youth on Roosevelt Island. There's no more organized sports, at the moment there's nowhere inside to play pool, ping pong, or video games with your friends. And so you hang by the river and talk shit with your friends and make a good time for yourself. Now I’m 21 and I can say that during these formative years I felt criminalized and still do by public safety’s presence and their eagerness to exact their power over the young residents of Roosevelt island, as we forge our own connections with our environment, ourselves, and each other.

We are blessed not to have NYPD presence on our Island, and further, I am glad that we have a department called Public Safety, which i think grants us a unique opportunity to rethink what that means as so many across the country are doing right now.

To me public safety is the access to well maintained housing as a human right, free from the patrol of those who would criminalize quality of life infringements.

Public safety to me is adequate social services like health care, education, child care, and youth programs.

Public safety to me is feeling incorporated in the decision making processes that determine our community’s future, instead of landlords and real estate developers who are not residents.

Public Safety to me is a defunded public safety department, as reforms like oversight boards do not address the underlying intent of PSD, which is to enforce the dictates of RIOC, which I will mention once again is a Real Estate Development Corporation.

Most of all public safety to me is our community taking it upon ourselves to organize and demand change from the powers that would rather displace us and sacrifice us for their own profits. So I hope to be seeing you all in the voting booths, but more importantly, forming tenants associations and protesting in the streets year round to utilize our power for change.

Thank you!
Dleanna, one of the young activists that spoke at the June 3rd March, is a 6th grader and has a vision for the island we should all follow. From personal experiences she says “no child should ever witness a family member being thrown on the floor and beaten by the authority that should be protecting us on the island. She also wants equal opportunities on Roosevelt Island. Her statement:
I have lived on Roosevelt Island my whole life. Whenever I see Public Safety Officers, I greet them with a hello and they always say hi. When I was six years old, I saw my uncle get hurt by officers who are supposed to protect us from harm. They pushed him to the ground and he got injured. I was only SIX years old, so witnessing that should’ve rattled me, but today I look back and I realize that something has to be done about the abuse. Now, I am motivated to see a positive change between the Public Safety Department and the black community by creating events where they work together. For example, an art and craft day.

As a community we have a responsibility to work together to be an example for the rest of the world. Showing others that being kind and united can bring about much needed changes.

I hope RIOC will give black owned businesses an opportunity. Some of the current businesses don’t hire black people.

Our community school needs to hire more black teachers.

Systemic racism is seen everywhere, dismantling racism is hard work. People need to stop being racist, ways people can do this is by showing empathy, respect, and acceptance for black people. I know a lot of people are hesitant to speak up and help stop systemic racism, but if we work together as a team it will encourage more people to stand with us. Organizing protests and making posters are another way to speak up. It’s not going to change right away but it’s a start. These are historical and alarming times and we can change history for the better. Which side of history is Roosevelt Island going to be on? Black Lives Matter!

“Stand up, speak up, and work together for a change”"
More work is needed and both our committees will continue our plight for a permanent change. Another similar meeting will be announced.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 2:47:00 PM

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