ROCKY HILL, Conn. — Rocky Hill community members spoke out against white supremacist flyers left in the town.
Dozens of people attended the Rocky Hill Commission on Inclusion and Innovation meeting to express their concerns.
“We need to have conversations. We need to have everyone open and speaking and working together,” said Brian Donahue.
They called for unity and action.
“Count yourself among the lucky and the privileged if you do not feel personally threatened by this act because there are people, likely people in this room that are personally threatened by this Neo-Natzi group,” said Valerie Triblets.
That statement rang true for some.
“I was very concerned about do I let my children out to walk the dog or do I have to worry about some white racist group coming after my kids,” said Donahue.
Rocky Hill citizens piled into the city council chambers to express their concerns about recent white supremacists’ flyers left in the town.
“We can see with our own eyes is that a very diverse community so my question is why Rocky Hill? Why was Rocky Hill targeted?”
This month, people found pieces of papers in neighborhoods that read ‘Black Crime Matters’ and ‘Defend White Communities’
“Frequently when a community faces an innocent like this, the natural response is denial. This isn’t our community. We don’t have a problem with racism, but the truth is racism exists everywhere and Rocky Hill is no exception,” said Triblets.
The Rocky Hill Commission on Inclusion and Innovation holds meetings each month, but people say Wednesday night’s meeting emphasized the importance of the commission.
“It’s too bad that it takes a horrible act to draw people here but we’re happy that they are here. Our role as a commission is to listen and get the input of our community and we got that tonight,” said Tom Cosker.
Community members calling out and standing up against racism.
“What I know is that being kind to each other is a piece of being united. I know that exploring each other’s cultures is a piece of being united, but doing the hard work of addressing institutional racism that exists in our towns systems, practices, and policies and our zoning regulations is the difference between being nice to everyone and being truly anti-racist,” said Triblets.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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