ERASE Racism to hold anti-racist training sessions in Riverhead

ERASE Racism is holding anti-racist trainings in Riverhead in the hopes of teaching community members about racism and how to have conversations surrounding race and diversity.

The trainings will be held at the Holiday Inn Express on Route 58, with the first part being held Wednesday, May 15, and the second part scheduled for Thursday, June 13, both from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.. The nonprofit, whose mission is to “expose and address the devastating impact of historic and ongoing structural racism on Long Island, in New York, and nationally,” is hosting the event in partnership with the Long Island Hate and Bias Prevention Unit of the state’s Division of Human Rights. 

Laura Harding, the president of ERASE Racism, said in an interview on Wednesday that the organization chose Riverhead because of several incidents that have occurred in the community in the last two years. 

“First, we had an elected school board official make a disparaging comment,” she said, referring to former school board trustee Laurie Downs, who resigned last year after making “derogatory” comments about Brentwood and Latino gangs.

“Then there were incidents of anti-blackness, antisemitism, anti-immigrant, anti-Latinx,” she said. Last year, children were assaulted and called a racial slur at a Riverhead High School football game and swastikas were found drawn on desks at Riverhead schools. The Riverhead town supervisor also imposed an emergency order — which is still in place today — with the goal of preventing homeless migrants from relocating to the town, an action that was criticized by residents and outside groups as discriminatory.

“The school is doing their own work with that, but we also want community members who are interested — and some who may not be interested — to have an opportunity to participate in the training, to develop the language and to begin to do the work to heal,” she said. “And not only to heal, but to understand what it will take to ensure that Long Island as a region is an equitable place with a culture of belonging.“

The training is not meant to be adversarial, but to have an open dialogue about a challenging subject, Harding said.

“I think that many people may ask themselves, is she saying Riverhead is racist? No, we’re not,” Harding said. “But this is really an attempt by the [Hate and Bias Prevention Unit] and by ERASE Racism to address a need that we’ve seen. And hopefully we will be able to take this to different parts of Long Island.”

Part one of the training, titled “Understanding and Unraveling Racism,” will give people a shared understanding of what racism is “and how oppression plays out” on Long Island, Harding said. Part two is titled “Navigating Difficult Conversations” and will focus on responding to conflict and helping people have uncomfortable conversations, Harding said.

“What we found in this country is that there’s just an absence of civil discourse when it comes to people who disagree,” Harding said. “We’ve seen the increase of the use of dog whistles and derogatory slurs.” 

“And so this conversation, the second training, really focuses on understanding how you, as an individual, interact when it comes to conflict — most people are conflict avoidant — and how to develop the appropriate skills to have the challenging conversation specifically around race, but also around other differences,” Harding said.

Harding said conversations surrounding race and racism can’t just involve policy, and that having everybody engaged in the conversation is important.

“If we get rid of structural racism, it has to be person by person,” she said.

Anybody interested in attending can visit ERASE Racism’s website for more details about how to register and attend, or email biasprevention@dhr.ny.gov to check availability.