AMHERST — George Floyd, the Black man whose murder by police officers sparked protests across the country in 2020 and led to the pursuit of various racial justice initiatives in Amherst, will be honored with a day of remembrance on Tuesday, Oct. 14, on what would have been his 52nd birthday.
The Town Council, in an 11-1 vote Monday night, adopted a resolution stating that “we reaffirm our commitment to create a welcoming, inclusive community and dismantle structural racism.” In recalling other recent victims of police violence, both the council and community sponsors of the resolution noted they would intentionally be supplanting a U.S. Congress-approved national day of remembrance for right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, who coincidentally would have turned 32 that same day.
District 3 Councilor Heather Hala Lord spoke with emotion in applauding the contents of the resolution and recognizing how many in Amherst are already suffering at the hands of the Trump administration.
“I know this proclamation isn’t going to move the needle; there’s still going to be horrific racism, it’s in our DNA, it’s in our everything,” Lord said. “But for me, it was a moment that, thank you, you’re really seeing we’re suffering still, even more so under the daily assaults that we have to bear.”
While some councilors had misgivings about the resolution because it could potentially make Amherst a renewed focus for Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, especially with references to Kirk and his organization Turning Point USA targeting local faculty members, Lord thanked those who drafted the resolution to counter hate and harm, describing “racist chunks that we have to swallow are suffocating a lot of us.”
“It’s killing me and I know it’s killing other residents in Amherst who walk with Black and brown skin and have to deal with it every day,” Lord said.
At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker pointed to the Dec. 7, 2020 resolution affirming Amherst’s commitment to ending structural racism, which explicitly mentioned the murder of George Floyd.
“This is remaining consistent with the statements we have made as a council in the past,” Walker said. “This is very consistent with our actions, this is consistent with what we say that we stand for as a community.”
The impetus for the resolution came from flags that were seen flying half staff in Amherst, as elsewhere, in September in honor of Kirk, something that troubled residents Allegra Clark and Jill Brevik, both candidates for Town Council in November’s election.
“That felt upsetting for a lot of residents we were talking to,” Clark said.
Clark said the resolution is an opportunity to be bold, take action and live values by reclaiming the day and remembering how Floyd’s death impacted Amherst positively, such as the creation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department and the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service.
“It’s reaffirming those values by saying we don’t want to celebrate the legacy of one person who many people were harmed by in this community,” Clark said, describing Kirk as a racist whose legacy is anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women, anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic. “We want to celebrate what our community has done and honor the man (Floyd) who died to allow some of that to come about.”
District 5 Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier brought forward the resolution as a “poignant and meaningful” opportunity to reaffirm past statements focused on racial justice.
Several councilors were uncomfortable that Kirk’s name was mentioned in the resolution, as Amherst is already a target of the federal actions due to being a sanctuary community and host community for the University of Massachusetts.
At Large Councilor Andy Steinberg said the town is already in the crosshairs of Trump and this “will draw more attention yet to Amherst.”
The ones who would suffer from a crackdown, he said, would be vulnerable immigrant communities.
District 3 Councilor George Ryan, who said he is deeply sympathetic to the values in the document, worries about a vindictive national government seeing this as a chance to strike back against its enemies.
“We don’t have to trumpet that to the world,” Ryan said. “We live it.”
The lone vote against the resolution came from District 1 Councilor Ndifreke Ette, who said that removing references to Kirk wasn’t enough.
“I don’t think having the resolution is a good idea,” Ette said.
Ette said the resolution doesn’t bring the community together, but seemed instead to be a way to counterprogram the federal government, and the ones who will pay the price for using Floyd as a foil to Kirk are the vulnerable in town and institutions that depend on the federal government.
In addition to Clark and Brevik, other community members who sponsored the resolution are Debora Ferreira, Pat Ononibaku, Geneva Schmitt, Esther Azar, Amber Cano-Martin, Laura Jane Hunter and Jennifer Shiao.