Vermont is Racist? - A Response to the Rutland Herald

Hi, my name is Adam Robles and today I have a little bit of local news actually here in Rutland the Rutland Herald Put an editorial out That asked the question is Vermont Systemically racist and spoiler alert.

They say of course it is which was pretty much what I expected. But it's interesting. They actually think that Vermont is actually one of the most white supremacist States in the Union, which is super interesting.

And so I wanted to go through this article. I actually recorded this video already once but it got a little too ranty for my liking. And so I just wanted to take a step back and sort of be a little bit more constructive about my response to it.

Personal Experience and the Editorial’s Claim of Systemic Racism

So Just full disclosure. I'm an ethnic minority. I live in Vermont in Rutland actually and You know, so I started my family here a few years ago and I've personally never experienced racism not even one time I've met a lot of people most of them have been white.

There are not a lot of Latinos here. There are not a lot of Puerto Ricans here. There are not a lot of blacks here. I've not met a lot many of them however, I have never experienced racism. So I was very interested to see the kind of evidence that the Rutland Herald pointed to to say that not only was Vermont Systemically racist but also one of the worst states in the Union as far as systemic racism, so Let's go to the article.

I'm not gonna read the whole thing. It's it's a short article and I will put it in the comments I'll put a link to in the description of this video so you can see I'm not taking anything out of context here.

But let's take a look at how this starts because it starts off with quite a doozy. Here's the article the first sentence. I remember reading this very well. I laughed out loud a Report released in the days leading into the holidays was an appalling reminder that one of our state's most obvious flaws Systemically, we have very little racial diversity.

We are too white and too willing to be so All right, so here's the here's the thing when I read that the first thing that came to my mind is So if we're too white What is the appropriate level of white?

What is the appropriate level of white so you're saying we're too white, right? So you must know what the appropriate level of white is if we're already too white. And so, you know, I one of my favorite economists.

He's a social commentator as well. Awesome guy. You should look into him Thomas soul. He has some questions that he asks Whenever he's encountered with whenever he's presented with a liberal idea, which let's just be honest.

This is a liberal idea. One of the first questions he always asks is compared to what right and so we're too white, okay compared to what right. What is the right level of whiteness for Vermont to be and so see this is a question That's not really answerable right because because typically what you'll hear is Oh, well, we want to be we want to reflect the general makeup of the United States better, right?

And so if The United States is 80 white then we want to be 80 white. But the question is it how is that how do you know that's the correct level of white, right? That's not an answerable question because it presents it as whiteness is a bad thing that we need to limit as much as possible.

But you can't prove that right because you know, here's the thing. I know plenty of white folks. They all seem like good people, right? They all seem like nice people very helpful. Very friendly, you know maybe a little bit reserved here in Vermont compared to down south, but I've never had a problem, you know, I've asked plenty of white people questions ask people for help and they are very helpful.

So Are we too white? Compared to what? You can't really answer that question at least not with any evidence or proof. Let's continue. I'm gonna go I'm gonna skip some of this stuff here. But but let's let's talk about let's let's let's talk.

Actually, let's just continue reading. It says in fact The 20-page report was that was a joint effort between the Vermont Attorney General and the Human Rights Commission Task force says we suffer from racial disparity.

Even though people of color are the fastest growing demographic in the state yet. We remain the second whitest state in the nation behind Maine. In 2016 there was a reported 33 ,728 racial and ethnic minorities in Vermont.

Our total population is about 623 ,000. You don't need a calculator to see that that percentage is ghastly. Again compared to what right ghastly. That's that's such an interesting word to use like If you're horrified by that percentage.

First of all, why are you horrified by that percentage and third and second of all? How do you know that you should be horrified at that percentage right come again compared to what? What's the right percentage of ethnic minorities to have.

I Don't know. I don't that's not an answerable question. So let's skip here here down to town to where it says. Let's see here the problem facing Vermont. Here it is. The problem facing Vermont is systemic.

It's not as easy as simply implementing some recommendations. Culturally our state is racist whether we want to admit it or not. The numbers do not lie. They suggest we have a problem so I actually looked at this report that they're referring to here because this is a very clear statement culturally our state is racist period.

Okay, and so Where do they get this right? So I expected to see some examples of overt racism. I expected to see some examples of people saying things that Were racist but but there's none of that there's no evidence that the state is racist.

What there is evidence of is that there are these disparities in education or there's these disparities in health care or housing or things like that or or different neighborhoods having different ethnic minorities and stuff like that and I Agree, let's just accept all their numbers that the statistics are there the statistical disparities are true.

None of it proves racism. None of it does because a Disparity is just that it's a disparity. It tells you what is the case? What is actually the case? Now racism is an Explanation for that disparity. It's a why so so the statistical disparity tells you what?

Racism tells you why and so one of the other questions that Thomas Sowell the economist always asks is what hard evidence? Do you have and? This report according to this report. There is no hard evidence At all that that the state is racist.

There's not a single example of someone doing something racist or being racist now. I'm not saying that they couldn't find an example of an individual doing something racist but the claim here is that there's a systemic or rampant institutional problem of racism in the systems of Vermont and They have not provided a single example of that.

And so I find that to again There's no evidence of racism yet. This article is just flat-out saying we are racist systemically racist. The next paragraph stakeholders identified multiple methods of racism here ranging from outright white supremacy and circling the wagons at Levels of government to keep people of color out or setting them up for failure via segregated neighborhoods and gentrification.

It was widespread. So I went to the articles that that seems like evidence, right? So they say they have evidence of outright white supremacy. Circling the wagons trying to keep people of color out segregated neighborhoods and it makes it seem like there's evidence that Vermont has purposely segregated neighborhoods that Vermont has purposely kept people of color out of the political process.

It has and Vermont has actual white supremacists that are actually doing these things. But what I found out according to the article unless I'm reading this this report wrong. What they did was they sort of just?

Brainstormed ideas of what could be causing these disparities and these were some of the ideas. So it's a lot of anecdotal evidence, right? Because it doesn't give you quotes or proof or evidence that these things have happened.

It just says that they have happened. And I can think of lots of reasons for these disparities that have nothing to do with racism. Right, like they said that having so few ethnic minorities is so ghastly and essentially they say it proves that we're racist.

I can think of a ton of reasons why blacks or Hispanics would not want to live in Vermont that don't involve racism. Right, and so I'm not saying I have evidence of these of these things. But but why can't why can't it just be the result of preferences, right?

Why can't a black or a Hispanic person just prefer not to live in Vermont? Like it takes away. It almost takes away the agency of ethnic minorities. It's like well, we know that there are blacks and Hispanics dying to come to our state.

But they won't because we we keep them out purposely. We segregate them. We do that kind of stuff purposely. First of all, no, you don't know that because there's no proof of it. And second of all How do you know we're dying to come in or have you heard people that say yeah, I'd really like to live in Vermont.

But you know you keep me out. You know what? I mean? Like I have a hard time believing that there's even one person that said that or one person that's felt that way. And look, I really want to live in Vermont, but people are keeping me out.

See when I decided to move to Vermont, you know what I did? I just moved here. I didn't ask anyone's permission. I didn't get any pushback at any level. You know when I went to the DMV, they didn't say oh Yeah.

You know Hispanics are supposed to live in this other neighborhood. So maybe you should consider when I when I tried to get up when I tried to get a rental house. I Didn't oh, you know. Yeah. Maybe you prefer this neighborhood or I didn't.

I didn't experience anything like that. Not even once not even almost and so. Again you don't have any proof. So why are you saying that? We're just racist just because of the disparities. There's plenty of other reasons that these disparities could exist.

That has nothing to do with racism. Let's see here, let's go to the end here. People of color have waited too long for the equality. We promise in word, but not deed. It is time to remedy that wrong the authors wrote.

We need to stop embarrassing ourselves by being systemically racist here and taking right steps towards being more inclusive. Tolerant and accepting. Here's some of the steps that they want to take. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna go up to the top here.

Right here the report highlights how Vermont lacks incentives mentors support and or pathways to success for minorities in And people of color to come to Vermont or stay here in the end. The report concludes a strategy needs to put into place to examine disparities in education labor and employment.

Access to housing and health care as well as economic development the building blocks of any society. So here is the last thing I want to say. Again, it makes it seem like like blacks and Hispanics and people of color do not have equality in Vermont.

Systemically like they're not given that. And that's false. That's false. You cannot point me to one right that white people have that Hispanics and blacks do not have in Vermont. You cannot do it. You cannot do it.

Okay, so you have no evidence of that. Secondly, it also gives you this impression that in order for blacks and Latinos and people of color to be successful. We need mentors. We need incentives. We need support and we need extra help.

We need extra credit and Let me just be blunt that is Absolutely awfully racist. See, I know a lot of blacks and Hispanics and you know. Maybe some people in Vermont don't know that many because not that many live here, right?

But guess what the blacks and Hispanics that I know are Just as capable in business just as smart just as intelligent just as capable of Doing anything that white people can do we do not need White mentors we do not need white assistance.

We do not need white support or pathways provided by white people in order to succeed. That's not something that we absolutely need now. That's not to say that people can't have charity. You know, if if if if a black or Hispanic neighbor needed some charity, yeah, you should you can give him some charity.

Absolutely, give him a little help little assistance. Everyone needs a little assistance for every now and then even white people. But Here's the thing to say that we aren't here because you aren't helping us enough.

That you're not giving us a little bit of a leg up that you're not mentoring us. It infantiles us man. It Infantilizes us it makes us seem like children like oh, yeah, we need a little bit of help. We need that extra support, you know being that not white people don't need that support because they're capable but but but Hispanics and blacks, you know.

We need to help them a little bit. That's insulting man, that's insulting. We absolutely are capable of every single thing that a white person is capable of and so we it's we're not. It's not that we're not here because you're not helping us enough.

You know, why take away our agency like that? That's the other thing again. What why is it that a group of white people know what blacks and Hispanics want and where they want to live? But Hispanics and blacks don't.

Because I chose to live in Vermont for a variety of reasons, right. Lots of people do not choose to live in Vermont. Also for a variety of reasons and I'll admit when I moved here. There are definite downsides of being a Vermonter definite downsides.

It's expensive. Taxes are too high. And there's not a lot of businesses here. You know, if I all of a sudden needed a job I'd be hard-pressed to find. I'd probably have to move if I couldn't make ends meet anymore.

All of these are reasons why someone wouldn't want to live in Vermont, but you see. No one wants to deal with the real issues here, right? No one wants to deal with the tax rates. No one wants to deal with the lack of incentive for businesses to be here, right?

No one wants to deal with that instead. They want to fight this boogeyman of white supremacy, right? Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. If Vermont is the second most white supremacist state in the United States of America.

We need to do something differently with our politics, right? All you liberals who vote Democrat every single election. Maybe you should consider the fact that you're saying that the state is so racist yet.

It's also so liberal. Maybe we ought to do something different. I'm not a Republican. Right. I'm not a Republican so I would never tell you to vote Republican. But maybe it's time for a change man. If we're this racist and we got this way through liberal politics.

Maybe it's time to do something different. And so that's that's what all I wanted to say here. I hope this one was a little less ranty than my last video, but look. If you're gonna say we're systemically racist.

You're gonna bear false witness or you know bear witness like that against the people of the white people of Vermont. Then you'd better have a good reason as to why you need to have good evidence solid evidence that we're racist.

You know here in Vermont. But you also have to have a reason why you would why you would say we're too white or too. We need more Hispanics compared to what right also you need to have real good ideas about how to fix it right because the other question that Thomas Sowell always asks is Okay, we're gonna fix this problem.

Okay at what cost at what cost? Because nothing's free. There's always trade-offs, right? So if we're gonna fix this supposed problem of whiteness in Vermont at what cost what's it gonna cost us? What are we gonna do about it?

So that's pretty much all I have today and and again like look I'll tell you right now this article makes Rutland Vermont or in Vermont in general seem like the most the most racist place that you could imagine.

There's no evidence for it and I gotta tell you anecdotally, you know I've never experienced it and so white Vermonters not everyone thinks that you're racist. Not everyone thinks that you are an evil discriminatory bigot.

But the Rutland Herald apparently does and so I would probably write to them and say hey, okay if you're gonna call us racist. We're gonna need a little bit more than just statistical disparities because there could be lots of reasons for just statistical disparities.

I have nothing to do with me being racist. And so I would recommend writing to them. I'd recommend moisten your opinion here and Hey from one Latino to a bunch of white people here in Vermont. I love living here.

Thanks for your hospitality, and I appreciate Everyone that I've met. Love you guys. God bless.