Protesters rail against racism
Justice for Brunch demonstrators march down the Avenue
GREENWICH — As more than 100 demonstrators stopped in the middle of Greenwich Avenue Saturday, organizers said they wouldn’t visit police headquarters, as past marches — in Greenwich and many other places — have.
Their problem, protesters said, “isn’t just with the police.”
“Our issue is with the residents of Greenwich, who consistently are racist, whether it’s going into these retail stores and making Black women feel like they are not allowed to shop in peace, or for (people of color) who are going about our (expletive) day and someone’s calling us the n-slur,” said Nicole Rincon, an organizer.
“That’s our problem,” she continued. “It has to do with the restaurant managers, who refuse to hire minorities with a darker complexion, because their white patrons are uncomfortable. Well, we’re about to make them real (expletive) uncomfortable.”
She gestured toward afternoon diners eating at tables restaurants had set out on sidewalks or in portions of the Avenue temporarily closed to cars during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“So, look at all these people who are sipping their mimosas with a pretty little smirk on their face, and let them know that we’re not going to let them be racist anymore in this town,” she said. “This is our town.”
The march on Saturday afternoon was led by six young local professionals who are part of the group Justice for Brunch, an organization that purposefully holds protests at locations and times where people are likely to be gathered for brunch.
Rincon said, the purpose is to disrupt privilege, force people to consider problems in the country and demand justice for the many Black lives lost in America.
“I think it’s great,” said Rita Roure, a Greenwich mother who sat with her two young children, clapping as protesters marched by the table they were at.
“We kind of understood that specifically Black men were having issues with police and police brutality but I think that video (of George Floyd) really woke up people, who don’t think about it day to day,” she said.
Roure said she showed the video of Floyd’d death to her children, aged 9 and 12, so that they would understand the current conversation about race and gain empathy for the plight of people of color.
“But I’m not the usual Greenwich mom,” she said. “I’m Puerto Rican.”
As the large group descended down Greenwich Avenue, toward their destination at the Island Beach Ferry parking lot, some patrons eating brunch smiled and clapped in solidarity with the protesters, while others filmed the action. A few groups sitting at nearby tables stopped their conversations and simply watched the demonstrators.
“We set this up with the intentions to disrupt the privileged people, because they need to hear this message the most,” said Fitzgerald Francois, a Black man, who lives in Stamford but grew up in Greenwich.
“I feel like they don’t believe the stuff that they’re hearing from us and that they’re really just blind and oblivious to the fact of all the trials and tribulations that we go through, the racial profiling that we go through,” he said.
Francois, who lived in Greenwich for 15 years, said he’s experienced “multiple” instances of racism while living in town. On many occasions, while walking down the street, he said, he has watched as white people have crossed to the other side of the road to avoid encountering him, only to cross back once they had distance between them.
“We’re here to disrupt, not destruct,” he said.
The mood at Island Beach Ferry parking lot was peaceful, although many protesters shared what they defined as their own traumatizing stories of experiencing racism locally.
Kiera Williams, 17, a Norwalk resident, said she’s experienced racism in Greenwich.
One day, while walking in town with her father, a white woman spat on her dad and called him a (n-word) after they bumped into each other, Williams said.
“The only difference between me and anybody else is the melanin in my skin and the kinks in my hair but underneath all that, you and I bleed the same, you and I breathe the same,” she said.
“To all the white supremacists ... you think you’re so above us, because of the history, in which you have. Ya’ll praise your history, but your ancestors kidnapped, raped, beat and murdered mine,” she said. “And you praise them for it?”
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo, who did not attend the protest, said it would be almost impossible to respond to all individual allegations.
But as a person who grew up in Greenwich with Black and white friends alike, he said, he has not witnessed instances of anti-Black racism such as those described by the protesters.
“But do I doubt there’ve been incidents? No, not at all,” he said. “I’ve been, in my life, called names — derogatory names.”
He said he gives local police credit for standing by peacefully during protests while some demonstrators have hurled expletives and accusations at them. He said he understands why protesters continue to demonstrate, and that he thinks their voices should be heard, but he expressed disappointment that, in some cases, protests have become more than verbal — including cases in which monuments have been torn down.
He vowed to take seriously any complaints or allegations from white and Black Greenwich residents alike, Camillo said.
Dre Lamont, 25, of Greenwich, said it’s not the responsibility of Black people to undo racism against them. It’s critical that white people also join the fight and call out acts of racism when they see and hear it, he said.
“Being constantly asked to speak on how we feel as a marginalized group is traumatizing,” he said, referencing the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man shot while jogging in Georgia.
“Having to re-explain our struggles, our experiences, especially when it’s happening right in front of our eyes, on video — a man was shot for jogging — and (people are) going to defend that?” he said. “It hurts having to re-explain why we’re fighting for humanity.”
When white people see a person of color pulled over by a police officer, they should also pull over, film the incident and wait in solidarity, Lamont said.
“Yes, I understand it’s uncomfortable to correct your significant others, your friends, and families and it’s even uncomfortable to confront the police, but we have to change and it starts in the home,” he said. “Staying silent to the matter, to what is happening right in front of your eyes, is the problem and it hurts — just as much as being openly racist.”