The Youth Will Teach Us.
On Sunday, the Boston Globe ran this article on its front page. The story isn’t new to the North Shore and especially Danvers residents, who have been suffering a cloak and dagger mismanagement of this issue since June 2021, one year after George Floyd was murdered and one year after our region stood up to create this Branch, a testament of our community’s desire to eradicate race-based injustice. It’s been clear that Danvers leadership has no idea how to handle this issue.
In January this year, our Assistant Secretary Lauren Noyes alerted us to this issue and we placed it on our radar to monitor, mainly due to the fact that it was being acknowledged by the community and officially undergoing investigation, first by the Police Department and later by the School Committee. Thanks to the Globe article that was published this weekend, it is obvious that a clear way forward remains a mystery, and, there is evidence that leaders have spent their energy actively suppressing concerns that have been coming their way. All of this is unacceptable. Unsurprising but unacceptable.
But, we are not here to shame people. This is our community for better or worse and while we can’t believe this has happened on so many levels, we are not surprised. How did this happen? It might be easiest to just blame Coach Steve Baldassare and hunt for his head, but we’re not going to do that here. Sure he’s been a horrible leader, damaging to our Youth and to our community, but that’s not where we need to focus. Because we all know that his transgressions are a symptom of a much larger problem.
We need to focus on this:
First, Danvers is not exactly unique to the rest of our North Shore towns and cities that fall under our jurisdiction. Every single town ‘wants’ to move the dial and address systemic racism, but none of us actually know how to do that. Admittedly, It’s a lot of work and we all have food to put on the table. There are so many reasons of convenience why things are the way they are. One of them is the fact that our population has lived segregated, homogenized lives for over 400 years, so a majority of our population doesn’t even understand what the problem is. They can’t fathom how People of Color live in the ‘Other America’ in comparison to the privilege others experience on a daily basis. When we say privilege, we aren’t saying that white people don’t suffer economically; what we mean is that they are not exposed to discriminations based solely on the color of their skin, in addition to other life challenges.
The Danvers Hockey Coach incident is a medley of transgressions wrapped in one; racially motivated harm is just one layer of the sick and rotted pie du jour. The larger encompassing problem is that the hazing rituals perpetuated and suffered by the hockey team for who knows how long, involving sexual violence, racist hate speech and physical and mental bullying, all echoes the core problems of white supremacy, rooted in an inferiority/superiority model that is reinforced by violence. These Youth are our next generation. This makes it even more atrocious and painful to both bare witness to and see it be shrouded from view.
This is also Danvers, the town that had the issues with the Blue lives flag intimidating residents and visitors of Color on Municipal vehicles driving across the town earlier last year. In this instance, civil servants in both Police and Fire ranks just couldn't see the harm they were causing to People of Color by waving this flag because they were not given the proper training, and so fell prey to politically reactive, racially motivated propaganda. These incidents speak to the larger, more hidden problem. It is the bigger problem we concern ourselves with.
In focus of the bigger issue, here’s what we are focussing on right now:
To the anonymous Youth Victim who was brave enough to speak out and alert authorities that this was happening, we salute you. We want everyone to take minute, and instead of focusing on ‘how disgusted you are with the cover up’ to instead meditate on the bravery and strength of this young person, and think about what it must have been like for him to come forward. You, Anonymous Youth, are the shining light in this sea of absolute shame and sickness that we all suffer. Because of you and your bravery, we will heal from this. Because of you, our community is able to name this and see it and address it. Because of you and your bravery, our community has been given a chance to make things right and for this, we applaud you. Because of you, we have hope. This hope is what motivates our work and you have ignited in us a call to action to be better. Thank you.
To the Town of Danvers: You are not alone. Every single town that has been homogenized and is segregated has your problems in some form or another, and the unprocessed shame and guilt surrounding it is what hurts people. We get it, it’s complicated. It’s not a matter of whether an issue will arise but when it will arise. Your time is now, the regional spotlight is on you, It’s “all eyes on Danvers”. We want you to do the right thing, Danvers Leaders, and stop reacting to the shame you feel around this issue and instead open the dialogue. Implement DEI initiative and Policy in your schools and make the process transparent. Eradicate this toxic culture today by being honest and transparent. Let’s start the conversation, together.
Our Branch is actively forming an Ad Hoc Danvers Committee to address this issue because we know it’s not going to go away with one blog post from us, or months of work done by the good people in your town. The Ad Hoc Committee will work within the NAACP guidelines and simultaneously amplify any work done to push this dial by local entities. We are, as we write this, actively seeking to align efforts with the Danvers Human Rights & Inclusion Commision, who has been dealing with this issue from the beginning and has been a voice of reason in a sea of fear and shame. We ask all Danvers Branch Members to join our Ad Hoc Committee. Email your interest here: northshoremanaacp@gmail.com and we will send you a meeting notice.
In Service,
Natalie Bowers
Branch President
Coverage of the issue since January 2021:
Salem News Jan 26, 2021
Salem News, July 7, 2021 https://www.salemnews.com/news/danvers-high-hockey-coach-resigns/article_ee108bc0-29ce-5227-93eb-9c66482148a2.html
Boston Globe, November 7, 2021