Kids VT — July 2020

JULY 2020 5 SPOTS FOR FAMILY BIKING

A BLACK DAD ON POWER AND PRIVILEGE

TEACHING KIDS ABOUT RACISM

NEW COLUMNS: VT VISIONARIES MUSICAL NOTES

LEADING by EXAMPLE

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JEFF NOVAK

EDITOR’S NOTE

The patched Black Lives Matter flag in South Burlington

CONTRIBUTOR QUESTION

What’s your family’s favorite way to cool off when it’s hot outside?

STAFF & CONTRIBUTORS COPUBLISHER/ EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Cathy Resmer

Whether we’re taking a dip in a friend’s backyard pool or wading in the lake at

cathy@kidsvt.com COPUBLISHER

ART DIRECTOR

STATE PARK, we love cooling off in the water on summer days.

MARKETING & EVENTS DIRECTOR

Corey Grenier

corey@kidsvt.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Kaitlin Montgomery kaitlin@kidsvt.com

BENJAMIN ROESCH, “MUSICAL NOTES” COLUMNIST

PROOFREADER

Carolyn Fox PRODUCTION MANAGER

John James CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Don Eggert DESIGNERS

John James, Rev. Diane Sullivan Matt Weiner BUSINESS MANAGER

Marcy Carton CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Keegan Albaugh, Meredith Bay-Tyack, Sevi Burget-Foster Cat Cutillo, Gillian English, Janet Essman Franz, Marlon Fisher, Heather Fitzgerald, Sevi Burget-Foster, Sarah Galbraith, Elisa Jarnefelt Benjamin Roesch, Brett Ann Stanciu PHOTOGRAPHERS

Oliver Parini, Tristan Von Duntz ILLUSTRATORS

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CIRCULATION MANAGER

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Alison Novak

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colby@kidsvt.com MANAGING EDITOR

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Colby Roberts

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A Teachable Moment

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n June 13, volunteers — including Sylvester Owusu and his family, pictured on the cover of this issue — gathered to paint a bright-yellow, 25-foot mural with the words “Black Lives Matter” on the street in front of the Vermont Statehouse. That night, the mural was vandalized with mud and oil, prompting Gov. Phil Scott to issue a statement that said, in part, “We must redouble our efforts to dismantle systemic racism and bigotry, and stay united as Vermonters.”

A few days earlier, a similar act of vandalism happened, on a physically smaller scale, when a Black Lives Matter banner on South Burlington’s Dorset Street was slashed. It had been put there by local students and teachers — my husband among them.

The Montpelier mural was cleaned and the South Burlington banner repaired, but these two acts were reminders of the racism and divisiveness that pervade our country and, yes, even our state.

Much of this issue is devoted to how we, as parents, can do our part to raise antiracist children. On page 15, find an interview with Vermont author Kekla Magoon, in which she talks about the difference between systemic and individual racism and how children’s literature can help build a more just society. And on page 22, read a personal essay by Burlington resident Marlon Fisher, who reflects on what it’s like to be a Black father in Vermont. He urges white Vermonters to speak up and share their privilege and power.

I’m also pleased to introduce two new columns to our pages this month.

Photojournalist Cat Cutillo will highlight local educators and role models helping to inspire Vermont kids. This month, she photographed and interviewed poet, activist and teaching artist Rajnii Eddins, who has worked with students through the Young Writers Project and the Fletcher Free Library. Find Cutillo’s piece on page 16.

On page 14, find the first installment of “Musical Notes,” a column that explores the intersection of music and parenting, written by Burlington dad Benjamin Roesch. This month, Roesch chronicles his experience exposing his sons and their friend to an eclectic array of music by listening to a different album each day, a project he embarked on when schools closed in March.

It’s our hope that this issue of Kids VT will be a resource for families during this very complicated and challenging time — and that we’ll all emerge stronger on the other side.

ALISON NOVAK, MANAGING EDITOR

We invested in a STAINLESS-STEEL POPSICLE MOLD last year, and it was well worth it since we use it so frequently. We freeze up leftover smoothies, as well as experiment with different flavor combinations.

MEREDITH BAY-TYACK, “GROWING UP GREEN” COLUMNIST THE NEIGHBOR’S HOSE .

HEATHER FITZGERALD, “GOOD NATURE” COLUMNIST

We stay cool by heading over to BOULDER BEACH STATE PARK, which is not far from our house. We go in the late afternoon or evening, after the crowds have gone home, and we enjoy having the mountains, clear water and loons all to ourselves.

SARAH GALBRAITH, CONTRIBUTOR

CONTRIBUTOR’S NOTE (“Use Your Words,” page 22) is a comedian, storyteller and father.

He served in the United States Army as an all-source intelligence analyst from 2008 to 2016. He is a board member for Dad Guild and has served as a board member for several nonprofits.

In his spare time, Marlon likes to ride bikes with his two kids, cook, play ridiculously addicting waste-of-time cellphone video games, complete home improvement projects and develop his fashion identity.

MARLON FISHER

KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

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Sylvester Owusu and his family help paint a Black Lives Matter mural in front of the Vermont Statehouse on June 13. On Instagram, Owusu wrote: “I often struggle to find words to express what is going on in this world to my kids, particularly Knox who is 4 and full of curiosity.

Painting the street in Montpelier, Vermont gave him space to be a part of a response to racial injustice. Memories of this day will be a symbol that his life matters and that he can be part of the solution as he moves into adulthood.”

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TRENDING

Emma Marden

The American Academy of Pediatrics released guidelines strongly advocating for children to return to school for inperson instruction this fall. Start ordering those kid-size masks.

Celebrities, including Jack Black and Jennifer Garner, collaborated to create a homemade version of the 1987 classic The Princess Bride.

Umbrellas take the place of swords, pet dogs play an oversize rodent and Lego figurines act as a crowd — ridiculous but fun!

Though the Champlain Valley Fair isn’t happening this year, locals can still get delicacies like bacon on a stick and cotton candy at the Taste of the Fair event at the Expo, July 24 to 26. Summer isn’t complete without a deepfried Snickers bar.

A television reboot of the beloved BabySitters Club books premieres on Netflix in July. We’ve missed you, Claudia Kishi.

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KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

YOGA POSE OF THE MONTH: WARRIOR I

KIDS IN THE NEWS

Summer is a time for big fun — and the perfect time for a big, strong warrior pose!

BENEFITS: •

Raising Awareness, and a BLM flag, in Shelburne

BY GILLIAN ENGLISH

E

mma Marden, 14, of Shelburne is not afraid of uncomfortable conversations. In fact, she thinks we should be having them more often. As one of the only Black students at the Shelburne Community School, she often feels isolated. “No one else understands what it’s like to be the only person of color in a classroom,” she said, explaining that it makes it more difficult to connect with her peers at times.

After George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis sparked a call for police reform, rallies and protests have been held all over Vermont, where people have been having uncomfortable conversations and asking difMarching ficult questions. When Marden in Shelburne attended a rally in Charlotte, she asked a question of her own: “Can this happen in my community?”

She approached the organizers at the rally and asked for advice on how to organize her own event. With the help of her mom and a few other women, she got to work. “Even though Shelburne is small, it’s just as important to me to advocate for change.”

The rally took place on June 19, and even though school was out of session, more than 300 people gathered in the bus circle of Shelburne Community School to advocate for change and raise a Black Lives Matter flag in front of the building. Marden considers the event a huge success because it had an impact on people and on her. “It was so great to see everyone stand by me and support me in this movement,” she said. “It felt like those isolating feelings were gone, and it felt amazing to have the community stand by me and raise the flag.”

This isn’t the end of advocacy work for Marden. She’ll be attending Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg in the fall and plans to continue to speak up about injustices and urge people to donate to organizations that support the Black Lives Matter movement. “Change can happen anywhere, any time, starting with anyone,” she said. “It’s time for us to make a change.”

• • • • •

Promotes focus and concentration Improves balance Builds confidence Strengthens all parts of the body Stretches leg muscles Brings energy to the body

Warrior I

STEPS: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Stand in mountain pose.

Bring one leg back and bend front knee.

Reach your arms up above your head, with palms facing each other.

Switch sides.

HAVE FUN! • • •

Bring your hands together above your head for a unicorn horn!

Warrior Fireworks: Roll up a scarf in your hand and line up at one end of the room. Do three warrior walks, and then pop your firework into the sky!

Pretend you are a bird getting ready for takeoff.

Yoga pose description courtesy of Susan Cline Lucey of Evolution Prenatal + Family Center in Burlington and Essex. Find info about classes for kids and adults at evolutionprenatalandfamily.com.

#INSTAKIDSVT Thanks for sharing your summer photos with us using the hashtag #instakidsvt. We loved this picture from Tristan Von Duntz of his 5-year-old daughter Elise flying a kite at Marshfield’s Virginia Stranahan Memorial Town Forest.

Share photos of your family exploring new places this month.

HERE’S HOW: Follow @kids_vt

on Instagram.

Post your photos on Instagram with the hashtag #instakidsvt.

We’ll select a photo to feature in the next issue.

Tag us on Instagram !

PET CORNER

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ONLINE CONTENT 5

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1. Leaf and Willow snuggling 12-year-old Ethan; submitted by Carolyn Crowley. 2. Lachlan with one of his frogs; submitted by Melissa Pierce. 3. 8-year-old Posie with her 12-year-old cat Tank; submitted by Niki George. 4. Shayna and her dog Penny; submitted by Rachel Jolly. 5. Somerset with her alpaca; submitted by Melissa Pierce. 6. 5-year-old rescue dog Oscar, a Chihuahua mix; submitted by Felicity Barras.

On the Kids VT blog, Janet Essman Franz writes about her son Zac’s return to soccer practice and interviews University of Vermont exercise science and sports psychology professor Dr. Jeremy Sibold about the benefits of organized sports on children’s emotional development. Read it online at kidsvt.com.

Winooski Middle School art teacher Emily Jacobs shared drawings and artists’ statements that two of her eighth-grade students created related to racism and the Black Lives Matter movement.

By Hawa Mayange I feel sad, heartbroken and angry that Black people get killed for no reason simply because of their skin color. Just because someone has a different skin color from you and is different from you doesn’t mean they deserve to be treated differently. Just because they are different from you doesn’t mean they are terrorist, illegal or a threat. We might come from different places, but we are all human beings and we deserve to be treated the same.

For my artwork I drew a Black woman with the U.S. flag covering her mouth, with George Floyd´s name on it. I wrote Black Lives Matter across the bottom, and filled the background with names of Black men and women who have been murdered. Across the top, I wrote “Stop Killing Us.” So many Black people have been killed by police or [civilian] white people for no reason, and so the message of my artwork is that BLACK LIVES MATTER. I hope white people learn that treating people differently because of their skin is not okay, and saying racist stuff about someone’s culture, religion, skin color is wrong. Yes, I am different from you, but that doesn’t mean you can say and do whatever you want to me.

I hope my fellow Black people never feel bad or ashamed about having their dark skin color. I hope they feel proud about having a different skin color, because Black skin color is special, and Blackness is like a gift from God. I hope my fellow Black people know that their Blackness is the best thing that ever happened to them, because Black is beautiful.

Artwork by Hawa Mayange

By Nadine Ikizakubuntu The incident that happened to George Floyd inspired me to make this artwork. It’s very sad and disappointing to see this still happening to Black people just because of their skin color.

Some people say that, “It’s not only black lives matter — it’s all lives.” That’s true — that all lives should matter — but the reason we say “BLACK LIVES MATTER” is because other lives — white lives — have mattered to America and to police for as long as we can remember, but Black lives haven’t seemed to matter. That’s why we say Black Lives Matter. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. My artwork is meant to say that enough is enough. Too many Black people have been killed just because of their skin color. I don’t understand how the color of your skin matters. What matters is what is inside you.

Even though there have been a lot of our people killed, I hope that we can still stand and fight for our rights and never give up. Our skin color is not a threat. Of course, all life matter — so Black lives need to matter to America.

Artwork by Nadine Ikizakubuntu

Meg Allison, teacher-librarian at U-32 Middle & High School in Montpelier, shared this poem by an 11th-grade student who asked to be anonymous.

WHEN MY WHITE GOES TO BED If my skin color could change as often as my identity does I would be a chameleon, Because I wake up a white woman and go to bed a Black girl Because I sit and eat with my family a white woman In the car I am a white woman In math I don’t know what skin color I have but neither of them can pass In history I’m a Black woman known for being too loud for everyone else In science I’m the Black girl you see in the commercials In writing it depends on the day because sometimes my color fades away in the black and white of the page But at the end of the day when my white goes away my Black isn’t always OK Cracked by society Gunned down like the people she sees feeling like she has to fight for equality And truly I should say me is we because I am she but she is not me Because we live separately In the shell of a body Who lives in the inbetween.

KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

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GOOD NATURE BY H E AT H E R F I TZ GE RA L D

An Invitation to Slow Down “Sit spots” provide a chance for observation and contemplation

COURTESY OF BEN WANG

examine things, to come to see them more clearly. What is revealed by the coronavirus? By the Black Lives Matter marches? It all comes down to becoming aware of what I am choosing to give my attention to, and considering: Is this worth my attention?

I am always going to be highly imperfect as a parent. This is a given, a fact of the human condition.

I have clung to the idea I once read in a parenting book that what really matters is showing my son what I do with my errors and mistakes, showing him my imperfect, learning, changing, growing self.

I hope that, by slowing down and taking time to examine all of these things, I am modeling the value of quiet contemplation and close observation for my son. If I manage to do this, perhaps he will see things more clearly in time that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. K Heather Fitzgerald teaches field ecology and environmental science at the Community College of Vermont and the University of Vermont.

HOW TO HAVE A “SIT SPOT” Heather and son Jesse at Shelburne Farms’ Lone Tree Hill in 2011

L

ast fall, I signed up to co-teach a summer course for college students on observing nature through art and science. Like everything else in the past few months, the details have quickly evolved. First, the course was moved online. Then we learned that we couldn’t expect students to go outside. At first, I felt like giving up. How the heck can you teach a class about nature without going outside? But my co-instructor, the indomitable artist Libby Davidson, was resilient and creative. Lots of skyscapes, she brainstormed. Views from different windows. Individual trees, maybe? So I went back to the drawing board.

I’m trained to look at vegetation patterns and disturbances across landscapes, so that’s my way “in” to nature and the main pathway I’d planned to offer my students. I’m comfortable looking at things this way.

But there are only so many vegetation patterns and disturbances I can expect my students to be able to see from their kitchen windows. I had to find and offer students resources that will give them plenty to observe on a small scale. One of the books I chose for them to read, What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal 8

KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young, is a primer in bird language.

Here’s the catch: I’ve been a beginning birder since 1997. I’ve had that book sitting in my “to read” pile for the better part of a decade, so I would be learning right along with my students about the organisms that are not rooted to the ground.

I finally read the book, and about six weeks before we began meeting online, I started in earnest to do the things I would be asking my students to do. Though my students can choose their kitchen table if they need to, I chose a “sit spot” in an urban wild about a half mile from my house that I’ve been wanting to visit more often for years. It’s often difficult to motivate myself to go there (which is why Young advocates choosing a spot that’s really easy to get to, like your backyard), and sometimes I just sit on my porch. Wherever I am, I try to open my ears to bird language and the presence of other animals.

It’s hard! It’s hard not knowing where to begin. Seeing and understanding what is actually going on around me is such a slow process. This makes sense, if I think about it for just a minute. It takes years, maybe a lifetime, to develop knowledge and intimacy with anything.

I have started to pick up on different kinds of bird vocalizations. (I can even distinguish one of the male robins in my backyard from the others! He’s fatter than the others, has a smooth head, and likes to hang out on one of my clothesline poles and sing.) I’ve seen owl pellets and a tiny rodent skeleton. One evening I saw a fox. I have experienced a seemingly simple shift in my understanding — that there are animals around me who live here, even if they are not going out of their way to reveal themselves to me. I think I previously held an unexamined assumption that any animals I did happen upon while I was out in nature were just passing through, like I was.

Knowing differently changes the way everything feels.

Here, though, is what I’ve really learned: A “sit spot” offers an opportunity to practice being present to what is all around us. We get a chance to slow down; dig deeper; let go of expectations of seeing wild, furry mammals all the time; and examine things we think we know so well that we don’t even really see or understand them.

This year, it seems like there are so many invitations to slow down and

• Pick a place that is really easy to get to, such as your backyard. If you have a nearby forested spot with water, so much the better, but the most important element is ease of access.

• Invite your children to join you if they’d like, but, as coauthor Jon Young cautions in Coyote’s Guide to Connecting With Nature, “The sit spot works because of magic.

As soon as it becomes a chore or a punishment, the magic dies.”

My tween has had other things to do that he finds more compelling each time I’ve invited him to join me thus far, but I believe that the example I am setting by going myself will matter even if he never chooses to join me.

• For more specific advice, Young’s What the Robin Knows offers a process for finding a “sit spot” and listening to bird language there.

Scott D. Sampson’s How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love With Nature offers a very readable, realistic how-to guide for parents who want to help their children foster a connection with the natural world.

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MOM TAKES NOTES BY E L I S A J Ä RN E F E LT

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n the early summer last year, my husband and I woke up at 5 a.m. to find a black bear visiting our suburban backyard in South Burlington. It was our fault: we had not removed our birdfeeder in March as was recommended. Now the hungry bear was lying three feet away from our back door, eating seeds. That fall, I realized that I had avoided our backyard all summer.

I had not done it intentionally.

Apparently, I had just been really good at coming up with ideas for activities that did not involve our backyard (and having to think about the bear).

This summer, many spots for kids’ indoor play, such as libraries and museums, are closed due to COVID-19. This has made me realize how little time we actually spent outside during summers past.

I am a Finnish mother who is comfortable with taking my child out in the rain and snow, but does not quite know what to do outside when the temperature rises over 85 degrees. I am used to evergreen forests, where the ground is covered with low-growing wild blueberries, moss and lichen. The thought of lush deciduous summer forests, like those found in Vermont, makes me think about ticks. And just as with bears, I do not like to think about ticks, leading us to avoid the woods during the summer months.

There are only so many worries that can fit in my mind simultaneously. In my hierarchy of fears, the fear of coronavirus apparently beats the fear of Vermont summer wildlife. I am still learning how to deal with heat, ticks and the thought of meeting a bear again. But, in contrast to previous summers, those thoughts do not keep us indoors anymore. We go into the woods.

And when my daughter asks: “What sound was that?,” I answer: “Let’s listen. What do you think?” K

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KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

POP CULTURE B Y KE E GA N A L BA UGH

Silence Speaks Volumes Talking to young children about racism when you’re not an expert xplain it to me in a different way,” requested then-3-yearold Coraline as she sat on her toddler potty in our living room last month. Again, I searched for the words to use, hoping that I could help my daughter understand the conversation my partner, Stephanie, and I had been having in recent days. I made a fourth attempt.

“So the white police officer pressed his knee up against the neck belonging to the man with brown skin, and it caused him to die,” I explained. Was I being clear enough? Was I being developmentally appropriate?

“Why did the police officer make that man die?” asked Coraline.

“Because people are treated differently based on the color of their skin.

That’s racism, and it is not OK,” I replied.

“Can you tell me again?” she asked with a look of curiosity. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Conversations like this one have been increasingly common in our household over the past month, and I often feel like I’m stumbling through them. I question whether I’m saying the right things, and I know I’m making a lot of mistakes along the way. I have talked with Coraline about racism a handful of times over the past couple of years, but lately I’ve been making an effort to increase the learning opportunities and dialogue.

During these times, I often find myself thinking: Who am I to teach someone about systemic racism? What experience and knowledge do I have?

I’m a white, middle-class, heterosexual male. I know that I have a tremendous amount of privilege, much of which I’m still unaware. I have benefited, and continue to benefit, from the many racist systems that exist in our country. Most of my own success is owed simply to the color of my skin.

I acknowledge how hypocritical it is for me to be just now increasing my

attention to the topic of systemic racism in light of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, given that horrific murders of people of color have been happening for hundreds of years. I also acknowledge that, as a parent of white children, the conversation around racism is viewed by many as “optional.” Unlike parents who are people of color, I don’t have to worry about things like my kids being killed by a police officer because of the color of their skin.

I am absolutely not an expert on the topic of systemic racism, and I would never pretend to be. There are literally millions of people whose voices should be heard before my own. A semi-aware, middle-class white dude should not be the person responsible for introducing this topic to other people.

But I’m a parent.

Regardless of how comfortable, qualified or educated I feel regarding facilitating discussions around the topics of racism and oppression, it is my responsibility to do so. As parents, we don’t hesitate to teach our young children how to read, write, count and tie their shoes. Teaching about systemic racism should be no different.

And it’s important to start early.

According to Lawrence Hirschfeld, anthropology and psychology professor at the New School for Social Research, studies show that by 3 years old, “children effortlessly sort people into racial categories and use membership in these categories to interpret behaviors in accord with … adult stereotypes.”

And I’m coming to terms with the fact that it’s OK to not know all of the answers. In fact, it’s expected.

Conversations around systemic racism can be challenging, especially if it’s fairly new territory for you.

Paul Espina, a local educator at the Centerpoint School with experience facilitating diversity training workshops for teachers, suggests that if you’re

KEEGAN ALBAUGH

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“

Keegan and Penelope reading Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby

As parents, we don’t hesitate to teach our young children to read, write, count and tie their shoes.

Teaching about systemic racism should be no different.

And it’s important to start early.

ever asked a question you don’t know the answer to, you can respond with something along the lines of: “Thank you for asking that question. I need to think about it for a while before I answer you. Can we talk about it later?” Espina says that response “can buy adults time to figure out the message they want to give the child and consult other people if needed. And it models vulnerability and lifelong learning.”

I couldn’t agree more with Espina.

Teaching your children about systemic racism starts with your own commitment to learning and action. Listen to podcasts (I started with the “Seeing White” series from Scene on Radio).

Read articles and books (check out the “Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk

About Race: Resource Roundup” at prettygooddesign.org). And the next time you’re watching Frozen with your children, try saying something along the lines of: “I notice there aren’t any people of color in this movie. That’s really unfair.”

A couple of weeks ago, while Coraline and I were filming a video to share with friends, I asked her to talk to the camera as I stepped away to wash something in the kitchen sink. As I squeezed out some dish soap, I overheard her talking to the camera. “Racism has been happening in the whole world, and we need to stop racism because it’s really unfair,” she said. Clearly, she’s listening to what I’m saying. And that’s a start. But it doesn’t end there. K KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

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Five places for biking with kids

BY SARAH GALBRAITH

TRISTAN VON DUNTZ

Enjoy the Ride

Because of COVID-19, the Kingdom Trails Welcome Center is not open and paper maps are not available, but visitors can find a PDF map online. Trail maps with current trail conditions are also available with the app On the Go, and there are signs at all intersections showing trail names and difficulty ratings. Trail ambassadors are stationed at parking areas to check in riders and can provide additional information about the trails and nearby amenities.

Catamount Outdoor Family Center, Governor Chittenden Rd., Williston, catamountoutdoorfamilycenter.org

Sarah’s daughter Elise on the Cross Vermont Trail

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hile COVID-19 has put a damper on many families’ summer vacation plans, we are fortunate that Vermont is a great place for warm-weather recreation, especially when you’re on two wheels.

The following five locations are some of the state’s best spots for biking with kids.

Pack up your bikes, helmets, snacks and water, and spend a summer day exploring one of these trail systems.

Note: All of these locations have implemented safety protocols to protect riders and, in some cases, staff from the spread of COVID-19. Please visit their websites or call ahead for detailed information on protocols and safety guidelines.

Blueberry Lake, Plunkton Rd., Warren, madriverriders.com This fun mountain bike trail system is across the street from a sandy parking lot by Blueberry Lake (note: this is not at the cross-country ski center of the same name) and about one-tenth of a mile beyond the road to the boat launch.

As you pedal into the woods on the main double-track trail, a single-track trail on your right, called Tootsie Roll, loops around a small hillside. At less than one mile long, the trail is ideal for young or novice mountain bikers, and it winds 12

KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

through a field of wildflowers, across a stream and through the woods. There are additional loops to the left of the main double-track trail, including Leonard’s Loop and Amenta’s Way, but these are more challenging in both distance and technical terrain, making them better for more experienced mountain biking families. All trails are well marked with signs at each intersection, showing trail names and difficulty ratings using a system similar to ski trails: green circle for beginner, blue square for intermediate and black diamond for advanced.

There are also easy-to-read maps at every junction.

Cross Vermont Trail Section #3, Rickers Mill Parking Lot, Route 232, Groton, crossvermont.org This section of the Cross Vermont Trail, which in its entirety runs from Burlington to Wells River, follows an old rail bed for 12 miles of easy riding through Vermont’s largest state forest.

Access the trail from a Vermont Fish & Wildlife parking lot on Route 232, where there is a trail map and information kiosk. Maps and step-by-step directions are also available online, though cell service is often not available in this part of the state. Riders can take a picture of the map on the kiosk to refer to on

their phone. This trail is a great spot to explore flora and fauna while taking in the views of pristine lakes and dramatic mountains. The trail itself is a sand and dirt surface with very slight, gradual hills, which makes for easy pedaling for all ages. While the trails are car-free, some four-wheel vehicles are allowed, so watch out for occasional traffic.

Kingdom Trails, Darling Hill Rd., East Burke, kingdomtrails.org Kingdom Trails is the classic standby for mountain biking families, with more than 100 miles of mountain bike trails for all abilities. Riders need to purchase a monthly ($35) or annual ($75) pass online ahead of time.

Children ages 7 and under are free. It costs $5 to park at the grassy lot next to the Inn at Mountain View Farm. From there, riders can get onto the Loop and Cupcake trails, which are great options for kids and beginners, though there are some technical features like rocks, roots and hills. Village Sport Shop Trailside, also on Darling Hill Road, is a fullservice bike shop and bar that allows parking only with permission from shop staff. From its parking lot, riders can access a kid-friendly pump track and skills course that provides loads of opportunities for fun and skill-building.

Another classic location for family mountain biking, this network includes more than 20 miles of trails for all abilities. Riders do need to purchase a day pass, which can be done online or on-site, either by using a no-contact cash drop box or by going to the Hub, a staffed trailside information and welcome center across the road from the parking lot. (Check the website for Hub hours.) Maps are not available on-site, but there is a map online and riders can take a picture of a large map on the outside wall of the Hub with their phone to refer to. All trail users must fill out a waiver, which can be done online or at the Hub. After signing in at the Hub, riders can head out from the back corner of the parking lot. The trails are marked with signs and difficulty ratings, and a system of colored arrows guides riders through different loops. Despite some roots, rocks and small hills, these trails offer mellow, beginner-friendly riding.

Millstone Trails, Brook St., Websterville, millstonetrails.org These trails give riders a rolling tour of the historic granite quarries of central Vermont. Mountain bike trails lead past towering granite boulders, piles of leftover slabs, and neat carvings and historic relics. The quarries, now filled with blue-green water and surrounded by sheer walls of granite, are a sight unto themselves. For young or beginner riders, stick to green circle trails.

The terrain does get fairly technical, with lots of rocks, roots and advanced descents on the more difficult trails.

All trails are marked with signs at each intersection, showing the trail name and difficulty level. Check in with the Vermont Bicycle Shop in Barre (vermontbicycleshop.com) for up-tothe-minute trail conditions. Buy a day pass or annual membership online or at the Vermont Bicycle Shop. Maps are available online or through the TrailHUB app. K

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MUSICAL NOTES BY BE N J A M I N ROE S CH

The Great Albums Curriculum Teaching my kids to sit back and listen

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BENJAMIN ROESCH

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ike many parents, my first feeling was panic Leo learns about the when Vermont schools music of Miles Davis shuttered in mid-March for the remainder of the school year. Even though my wife, Shannon, and I both have backgrounds in teaching, I genuinely wondered how we would adequately fill the school-size void that had suddenly appeared in our children’s lives. I was optimistic that once teachers had a chance to organize and plan, a new form of school would take shape. But still, I was worried. What would we do with all this time?

In the end, I decided to do what I’ve always done when life gets hard. Turn on some music. Turn it up loud. And listen.

The Great Albums Curriculum was born.

The concept was simple.

Sit down with my two sons, 12-year-old Felix and 10-year-old Leo, plus their good friend and our neighbor, 12-year-old Harper, and listen to a great album all the way through every day of the week.

Hopefully, I thought, we’d come away inspired, enriched and refreshed by the healing power of sound. Voilà: music class.

Initially, we embraced randomness. In the first week alone, we listened to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Before each session, I’d read an artist bio or share what I knew about the album.

I challenged the boys to listen closely, to react to the music. But this was in the early days of the pandemic.

With three months until the end of the school year, I knew we had to pace ourselves. So, I went light on analysis and reflection at first, letting the music speak for itself.

Before long, though, my teacher brain had grabbed the microphone.

“This week,” I announced at the beginning of week two, “we’re dedicating ourselves to Women in Music.”

We listened to Aretha Franklin and talked about how gospel music helped influence soul, rock and roll, and even hip-hop. We watched videos of Aretha singing, including her famous cameo in The Blues Brothers. The

following day, it was piano music by Clara Schumann, the 19th-century composer whose genius has long been overshadowed by her more famous husband.

Wednesday, we fast-forwarded to the present with Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which all three boys conceded was “way better” than they expected. Thursday, we talked about misogyny in hip-hop and the undervalued contributions of female rappers, then pushed play on Lauryn Hill’s 1998 masterpiece, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Since I was still working from home, it wasn’t always easy to find the time or energy to assemble the boys in the living room for an hour each day. But with each new album, we were soothed by the ritual of sitting together and listening. Some days the boys were antsy, but they never complained. And on the day I came home to find Leo listening to Kind of Blue by himself, I knew I was on to something.

In week three, I got out my guitar and taught them about the blues and its birthplace in the American

South. We talked about lineage, about slave songs and the complicated, violent legacy of American music. We listened to blues legend Robert Johnson and learned about his abbreviated life and vast influence. Then I had each of the boys write a verse to a collective original song we aptly named “The Pandemic Blues” and sang with full-throated abandon.

Week four was R.I.P Week, featuring music

by Bill Withers and John Prine, both of whom had recently passed away. I took a video of the three boys swaying on the couch to Withers’ “Lean on Me.” I printed out the lyrics to Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” and we annotated them and talked about the sad story the verses suggested. Did I believe I was creating lifelong Prine fans right then and there? No. But there was something thrilling about watching them move toward a new way of listening.

By week five, daily Zoom calls and school assignments had filled up the wide-open days of March, and as spontaneously as it began, our daily listening came to an end.

Looking back, I can see that the Great Albums Curriculum was born from an impulse to go beyond simply making lemonade out of pandemic lemons. I knew we were fortunate to have good health and employment at a time when so many were struggling, and I wanted to use the circumstances of quarantine to create a new kind of learning for my kids, something school couldn’t have replicated. It was a listening journey we wouldn’t, and perhaps even couldn’t, have taken at any other point in our lives.

By stepping willfully into the unexpected and making the best of what life sent our way, we learned something about resilience, too.

In the process, I’d like to think my sons picked up a helpful way to manage life’s challenges that, in my experience, almost never fails.

Choose an album. Push play. And listen. K

BOOKWORMS B Y BRE TT A N N S TA N CI U

Reading About Racism

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hen he was 18 years old and living in Memphis, Tenn., renowned Black writer Richard Wright had to borrow a library card from a white man to check out books from the public library. Wright couldn’t obtain his own library card to use in the city’s segregated library. He wrote about this experience in his autobiography Black Boy, published in 1945.

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned segregation in public libraries, racial inequality remains, across the nation and in Vermont.

Kids VT asked Montpelier resident and children’s writer Kekla Magoon for her thoughts about contemporary racial issues and the role of children’s literature to bridge racial divide. Among many accomplishments, Magoon is the author of the middlegrades novels The Season of Styx Malone — winner of a 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor — and Shadows of Sherwood, which was included on the 2016-17 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Master List. She currently teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Kids VT: Can you explain the difference between individual racism and systemic racism?

Kekla Magoon: Individual racism is when a particular person believes that white people are better than Black people, and treats Black people badly because of it. Sometimes we call these people and their behavior “racist.” There is a lot of individual racism in this country, but there are many, many more people who believe that everyone is equal, regardless of their skin color. Those people are very likely to say, “I am not racist.” It seems like creating a country full of people who are not individually racist would be all we need to create equality in the country, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, this is not true.

Our country is not just made up of individuals; it also involves a lot of systems that function across society. For example, schools are part of the education system. Banks are part of the financial system. Police and courts are part of the criminal justice system.

Systemic racism is racism within these systems. They

MAGOON’S SUMMER READING SUGGESTIONS

are very old systems, created in a time when many more people were individually racist. As a result, all of these systems have built-in flaws that make it easier for white people to succeed and harder for Black people to survive — even today, in a country where most people are not individually racist.

Systems are very powerful. So powerful that they often trick individuals who do not want to be racist into accidentally doing things that are racist.

For example, the education system is set up to give more money to schools that have mostly white students versus schools that have mostly Black students. Individual teachers in Black schools, even if they are not personally racist, have fewer resources to share with their students, which means the system is forcing them to give Black students a lower-quality education. Every system has similar examples. Stopping individual racism is important, but if we really want to reduce racism in our country, we can’t just say, “I am not a racist.” We also have to be anti-racist, which means looking for racism in the systems of our society and working hard to change them.

KVT: What do you see as the role of children’s and young adult literature in reducing racism?

KM: Books are great because they open our minds to all kinds of information and possibilities. We can learn about our history, including the history of racism in our country and within the systems that make up our society. We can learn about the many movements for positive social change that have happened over the years and those that are happening now. Perhaps most importantly, books give us windows into other people’s lives and experiences, so that we can build empathy for people who are different than we are. It is very powerful to look at someone else’s story and imagine how it might feel to be in such a challenging situation. The more empathy we have, the more likely we are to be active in building a society that serves all kinds of people fairly and equally.

Children’s author Kekla Magoon

For picture books: • Antiracist Baby, a board book by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky • The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Rafael López • Sing a Song by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated

by Keith Mallett For middle-grade titles: • Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes • A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée • The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson • Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson For young adults: • Light It Up and How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon • Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, a YA anthology edited by Ibi Zoboi For grown-ups: • How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi Learn more about Magoon and her books at keklamagoon.com.

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CAT CUTILLO

VERMONT VISIONARIES B Y CAT CU TI L L O

Find a of Ed video dins at kidsv t.com

Rajnii Eddins What follows are distilled quotes from a conversation with Burlington resident Rajnii Eddins, a poet, facilitator, activist, teaching artist, founder of the Poetry Experience at Fletcher Free Library and author of a poetry book, Their Names Are Mine, that aims to confront white supremacy. As the artistic director for the Young Writers Project, Eddins co-coached the internationally acclaimed Muslim Girls Making Change, the first team to represent Burlington in the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. Eddins says he sees art and youth engagement as a dynamic, transformative tool for social change.

On growing up with a strong mother: My mother is a profound influence in my life. She was the founder of the first Black writers group in the Northwest, known as the Afrikan American Writers Alliance. I was performing with them at age 11.

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She would have me read her pieces back to her — her poetry, her stories — and she’d say, “Read it with feeling. Give the language flavor.” That gave me a real solid base of exposure to see what you could do playfully with language.

[She] was a foster parent to over 70 children, so I was always the older brother. That was amazing because that gave me a natural way of engaging with youth.

She often says, “Children are treasure.” That echoes throughout my childhood.

On art as a means of survival: I’ve seen countless youth who have gone through pretty horrendous, traumatic experiences find an outlet and a window and a survival mechanism through their artistic expression. That then, in turn, begins to inspire their peers, and it becomes a way of living and engaging in their lives. As they grow into adults, they’re able to extend

that same raft to the next folks. I feel like that’s a crucial component of artistry. This can be a foundational basis for how we can transform the world, starting with our own families, starting with the youth and how you offer them a keen reflection of themselves.

On his outlook on life: It’s harder to judge somebody or stereotype them or put them in a box when you’ve heard their story.

I’m kind of from the James Baldwin school. I’m alive, so of course I’m an optimist. I refuse to throw in the towel.

I think that, even when it hurts to speak the truth for the speaker and maybe the people who hear it, you need to hear the truth.

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JUST FOR KIDS

Birthday Club .....................................19 Coloring Contest Winners .........19 Maze ........................................................20 Kids’ Summer Projects .................21

Coloring Contest!

Three winners will each receive an annual family membership to the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium. Send Kids VT your work of art by July 22. Be sure to include the info at right with your submission. Winners will be chosen in the following categories: (1) ages 5 and younger, (2) ages 6 to 8 and (3) ages 9 to 12. Winners will be named in the August issue of Kids VT. Send your high-resolution scans to art@kidsvt.com or mail a copy to Kids VT, P.O. Box 1184, Burlington, VT 05402.

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Title _______________________________________ Contest sponsored by

Artist _____________________________________ Age ______________ Town __________________ Email _____________________________________ Phone _____________________________________

JUST FOR KIDS

Birthday Club Congratulations

COLORING CONTEST WINNERS

to these July Birthday Club winners!

Join the Club!

To enter, submit information using the online form at kidsvt.com/birthday-club.

Just give us your contact info, your children’s names and birth dates, and a photo, and they’re automatically enrolled.

ANNA lives in Shelburne and turns 6 on July 26. She loves to sing and dance — anywhere and everywhere! She also loves to surprise her family and friends with cards and special drawings. Anna is kind and joyful and has the most wonderful ways to make all of us laugh.

These colorful bears made a big splash this month as we got started on summer activities. Addie, 5, brought out the rainbow with her colorful teddy bear. Eightyear-old Ruby made sure her bear was ready for the pool with goggles and a hand-drawn background.

Ten-year-old Ivey’s bear jumped right into the action, floating in the pool with a polka-dotted belly. Feeling creative after seeing all this artwork? Beat the heat this month and send us your amazing coloring contest entries again in July!

HONORABLE MENTIONS “BEAR AT THE BEACH”

The winners of annual family memberships to the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium are…

“Rainbow Colorful Teddy Bear” Addie MacKinnon, 5

5& under

LYNDONVILLE

Sunny Randall, 5, Moretown

Anna, Mia and Ben each win gift certificates to local businesses.

! l i a M Wee

MIA lives in Huntington and turns 10 on July 18.

She will go to Camels Hump Middle School this fall. Mia is a friendly and kind kid who loves reading, playing sports and playing with baby dolls. She loves spending time outside with her friends and family, and especially enjoys skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer.

“BEACH BEAR”

Iyla Snyder, 5, Georgia “PARTY BEAR”

Mila Marie Therrien, 7, Colchester “FUN IN THE SUN”

Evelyn Huard, 9, Craftsbury “SUNNY BEAR”

Alice Loan, 8, Jay

“Pool Bear” Ruby Tygar, 8 BURLINGTON

6 to 8

“IT’S BEARY FUN TO SWIM”

Seamus Sullivan, 5, Bradford

BEN lives in St. Albans and turns 14 on July 21. He is a skier and an avid swimmer. This summer, Ben is swimming with the St. Albans Sharks Swim Team.

Ben is also a TikTok creator.

He likes to create creative and humorous videos in his free time.

“BASIC BEAR”

Shiloh Skalka, 10, Burlington Find information about local events and parenting resources every Monday and Thursday in the Kids VT Wee-Mail. Visit kidsvt.com/ wee-mail to subscribe today.

“Pool Ready Bear” Ivey Lawrence, 10

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JUST FOR KIDS THIS WAY “OAR” THAT?

BY MARC NADEL

When the summer sun shines through, Lake Champlain turns greenie blue.

Raccoons row in their canoe, Big enough for just those two.

Picnic plans on Isle of Knight, Knight-time snacks while sunshine's bright.

Watching ducks and geese in flight, Lovely lake, a day's delight.

With winding waves, which way would you want Wodney and Wanda to wo — umm — would you want Rodney and Rhonda to row, to get to Knight Island in time for their picnic?

ANSWER P. 22

MARC NADEL

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JUST FOR KIDS MAJOR MINORS: MAKING THE BEST OF IT DURING A LOCKDOWN COMPILED BY SEVI BURGET-FOSTER The COVID-19 pandemic has created a strange new normal for young people around the state suddenly spending all of their time at home. Some kids are trying to make the best of it. We asked them about the projects they started during quarantine. Below, find some of their responses.

NAME: WISTERIA AGE: 15 TOWN: WHEELOCK FUN FACT: I ONCE CAUGHT A GOAT IN A CANOE WITH 4 PEOPLE AND BROUGHT IT SAFELY BACK ACROSS THE RIVER.

Quarantine project: I participated in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. I domesticated a wild horse in 100 days, then did a virtual show to showcase its abilities. This brings attention to the plight of the wild horses and gets one more horse off the government feedlot. It also kept me very busy during the pandemic.

NAME: NOAH AGE: 10 TOWN: JERICHO FUN FACT: I LOVE TO BUILD/RIDE MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS WITH FRIENDS.

Quarantine project: During this pandemic I have been building mountain bike trails in the woods behind my house. Right now I am working on clearing a tech trail.

This requires trimming branches, weed whacking ferns and other plants, and raking leaves and sticks.

NAME: MYLES AGE: 13 TOWN: EAST WALLINGFORD FUN FACT: I WAS BORN IN A SNOWSTORM ... THEN THE 2007 NOR’EASTER HIT.

Quarantine project: I did my best to assist my parents with our family business, Thrive Center of the Green Mountains. The hours were even longer than normal, so I would help clean a lot, mail letters, organize files, water plants, take out the trash and, most of all, stay on top of my schoolwork — because they did their best to help me but were often preoccupied. My mom often tells me that my ability to stay upbeat without complaining, plus being patient, is a huge help. We had to really come together as a team to stay afloat and be available to help patients.

NAMES: SOPHIA AND ETHAN AGES: 11 AND 9 TOWN: ST. ALBANS TOWN FUN FACTS: SOPHIA: I’VE BEEN PLAYING THE PIANO SINCE I WAS 6 YEARS OLD. ETHAN: I LOVE SNOWBOARDING BECAUSE IT’S FUN GLIDING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN.

Quarantine project: Sophia: My brother changed the words in the song “Hallelujah,” which he found easy to write because of what was happening in the world. He played the piano while I sang the lyrics. It turned out to be a funny parody for people to enjoy.

Ethan: It was fun changing lyrics and making it rhyme.

NAME: LEVI AGE: 10 TOWN: JERICHO FUN FACT: I LOVE TO MOUNTAIN BIKE, SKI, AND PLAY SOCCER AND GUITAR.

Quarantine project: I am a Cub Scout, and this spring I am working on earning my Messenger of Peace badge. I have put up signs along my road to help bring awareness of individual(s) who are routinely littering and/or drinking and driving.

We can all do our part to spread the word of “Don’t Litter” and “Don’t Drink and Drive.” We also don’t have to wait until the annual Green Up Day to clean up our roadways/community.

I think I have touched a nerve of the individual who is doing most of the littering with their small green-and-yellow wine boxes. We found five empty wine boxes around one of my signs. Thursday evening, one set (two signs) went missing.

NAME: REBECCA AGE: 10 TOWN: JERICHO FUN FACT: I LOVE RIDING HORSES.

Quarantine project: I watched YouTube videos to learn how to sew masks and found a website with a pattern I could use. I tried a few different kinds and found one with a wire that I like the best. I made them for friends to keep them safe, and then I decided to sell them. My mom put it on her Facebook page, and I ended up selling a lot of masks. I used the money to buy more fabrics, and I also saved some money.

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USE YOUR WORDS B Y M AR L O N FISH ER

Stockpiling Privilege Someday I will rest, but for now I am a Black father

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Spending Time

with the Fam? The Kids VT team is rounding up resources for parents looking to entertain and educate their children at home. Find inspiration in the Wee-Mail newsletter.

Subscribe at kidsvt.com Wee-Mail sponsored by:

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5/28/20 10:47 AM

or hundreds of years, Black men have been trying to figure out how to stay alive in this country. Black mothers and fathers have struggled for generations with the knowledge that even if their children are alive and well, they can never truly be safe.

I was born into this knowledge. Most Black babies are — especially those who, like myself, were raised with community violence around them. From an early age I understood the connection between privilege and safety, between privilege and power. I lived day in and day out in a world where my mother, my brother and I were considered “less than” by the country we called home and where my safety was never assured.

When I was 6 years old, a group of well-intended, wealthy white people offered me privilege, status and wealth in the form of a college scholarship. In 1988, Merrill Lynch and the National Urban League partnered to send 250 students from 10 inner cities to college, and I was among those chosen. Even as a young child, I knew this opportunity was my way out. It was the beginning of a lifelong strategy I developed of staying alive by amassing as much privilege as possible, as quickly as possible. I sought to grab it whenever it was given to me by white people, and to scrape it together whenever there was an opportunity to get it on my own.

As a young man, I went into the military, which afforded me all manner of privilege. I was able to get an education, and I am now able to receive low-cost physical and mental health care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, being a vet has created a greater likelihood that white people will be at ease around me.

When I get pulled over and I hand the white officer my driver’s license with my veteran status, I am protected. When I meet a white person and mention I was in the military, they are far less likely to assume I am a criminal, dangerous, previously jailed or mentally ill. They feel safer because, they reason, I served in the Army to protect their rights.

(The irony is that my military service traumatized me and exacerbated my mental illness.)

When I moved back to the U.S. after serving overseas, I built upon the privilege afforded by my military service, obtaining a job for the State of Vermont at the Department for

Marlon and his family

Children and Families. More privilege came when I married a white woman with some means, and we were able to buy a house in the suburbs. I joined the board of the beach club in our neighborhood and other community boards. I began working for the Department of Corrections as a youth probation officer and received a badge. I now carry this badge of literal and figurative privilege everywhere I go.

I also make friends with as many police officers as possible. I do this because I want them to know my face and my name — so they’ll see me as a human being instead of just a profile. I do this so when a police officer comes after me, there is a higher likelihood I will be recognized and my life will

be spared. I also chose a job working side by side with five different police departments, responding to mental health crises as a community outreach specialist for the Howard Center before becoming a probation officer. I earned police officers’ trust by showing up for them every single day to take crises off their hands and moving smoothly through chaotic situations caused by trauma, oppression, pain, substance use and mental health issues. They knew I would stand up for them, and that made me and my family safer.

I have done all this “stockpiling privilege” because if I hadn’t, the statistics say I would be dead or in jail by now. I began doing this early in life so I could survive. I continue to do it now

so hopefully one day my children will be safe and survive. This gathering of privilege has come at a substantial cost to my integrity. I had to accept the possibility of a legacy of early death or jail or swallow my pride and manipulate a system to scrounge together as much safety as possible. I traded my mental health for a license that says I am a veteran. I bartered not being able to spend nearly enough time with people of color for protection from the police.

I was trying to stack a deck evenly that has been inequitable for generations before me. When white folks chained my people to the inside of a boat and forced them across the ocean, bought and sold them, took everything good from them, raped them, and coerced them to do hard labor, and no one has leveled it since, that is when my privilege got decided. So I took matters into my own hands.

I was trying to stack a deck evenly that has been inequitable for generations before me.

Make no mistake: None of this privilege-gathering guarantees my safety. Sometimes the privilege I have managed to collect is not immediately visible to a white person — or they willfully ignore it — and, in those cases, I am any other Black man. They clutch their purses, sneer, stare, verbally insult me and my family. I have been profiled by police; I have been accused of crimes I didn’t commit; I have been the victim of constant racial harassment by white Vermonters. I have been asked over and over again where I come from and when I will be leaving. I have been on the receiving end of microaggressions about my hair, my skin, my shape, my size, my penis, my love, my work, my family and my life. I have been followed, demeaned, excluded, shamed, threatened and made to feel uncomfortable just because I’m daring to take up space in a world built to advantage white people.

To keep my boys safe, I teach them that other Black people are their friends. I also teach them that police are their friends, even though this is not always true, and I know we may have to have a much different conversation about the police when they are older. There are police officers who, while I initially befriended them

to ensure my safety, I now consider forever friends. They check on me and my family and show us love and care.

I hope that someday I do not need to work so hard to convince the police to keep us alive. For now, I want police officers to see my sons’ smiles, their faces and their humanity, in order to circumvent the societal brainwashing they receive that kids who look like mine are automatically the enemy. I’m passing the privilege of “being friends with the police so they don’t kill you” along to my kids at an early age.

As I look around at my Black and brown brothers and sisters who have been falsely accused, who have been profiled, who are being arrested, sentenced, incarcerated and killed at greater rates, I am heartbroken. The system is built to benefit white communities. Because of the privilege I have been given, and gathered for myself, and because of a little bit of dumb luck, I have managed to survive thus far.

I’ve tried to pay that advantage forward; I’m out there trying to help Black and brown kids every day — not just my own — by sharing my strategy of “stockpiling privilege.” I give them the secret tools that will mitigate their personal risk and keep them safer in a society that is built to suspect and suppress them. But I know it is not enough. For these kids to be truly safe, the system must change. And it won’t change unless white people participate in the dismantling of a system built expressly for them.

White folks, when you are silent and inactive, you perpetuate this system — one that has been designed to disadvantage, imprison and kill my babies. As I struggle to build a fortress around these two beautiful children of mine, your unwillingness to act tears that fortress down, brick by brick, endangering their lives.

So, please: I ask you to share your privilege liberally with those who need it. Share your power. However uncomfortable it may be, whatever you risk by doing so, whatever sacrifice it may cost, it is only a fraction of what people of color have felt every minute, every day of our lives.

As long as a racist system is kept in place by the fear and unwillingness of privileged white people to act or concede any amount of power, we will never dismantle it. Though in my lifetime I may never be permitted to feel equal or know that I am truly safe from harm, I want these things for my children, and for the children of all my Black and brown brothers and sisters. K

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Summer

2020 ARE YOU A GOOD CITIZEN? Stand up and show it by participating in the Good Citizen Summer 2020 Challenge! Read a book, paint a rock, watch a video, visit a historic site: There are lots of ways to show that you’re a Good Citizen this summer. Do an activity and send us the evidence. We’ll enter you in a prize drawing, and maybe publish your work in Kids VT or Seven Days to inspire others. Here’s one of our favorite recent submissions:

ACTIVITY 3 Start the Venture Vermont Outdoor Challenge, created by the Vermont State Parks.

It’s full of ways to interact with and enjoy nature, like doing a handstand underwater.

“I couldn’t get my feet to go up into the air. In the end, my dad had to hold my legs up for me.”

TAYLOR SMITH, READING

With support from:

Evslin Family Foundation

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New activities posted at goodcitizenvt.com on July 8!

KIDSVT.COM JULY 2020

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