Photo by The Record Journal
On Saturday, August 15, more than 100 people gathered outside the Wallingford Town Hall for the Rally Against Hate — an event aimed to promote peace in communities by uniting against systemic racism.
Motivated by the recent police killings of George Floyd and other Black men and women and the Black Lives Matter movement, members of the Wallingford community holding homemade signs convened in solidarity against violence and discrimination toward marginalized groups.
“We were there to rally for peace and to basically shed light on the issues that are happening in society around police brutality — as I call them, the modernized lynchings of Black people — and really to organize and say that Black lives matter and that Black lives are important,” said Dr. Amanda Colhoun, a psychiatry resident at Yale University and one of four guest speakers at the event. “Black Lives Matter is not about a political movement. It’s about our lives.”
The event was organized by three Wallingford residents: Ms. Alexa Tomassi and Ms. Farah Salam-Rahman, who both graduated from Mark T. Sheehan High School, and Ms. Tyanna Housley, a Lyman Hall High School graduate. They spread the word through invitations written in the Wallingford Patch, Instagram posts, and email. In June, they organized a similar demonstration on South Main Street.
At the rally, the organizers provided QR codes that attendees could scan to sign petitions in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. There were also flyers containing an “anti-racism toolkit.” The list offered ways to take action, such as supporting local businesses and urging the Board of Education to implement a more diverse curriculum.
Dr. Colhoun was invited to speak by Ms. Tomassi, one of her colleagues at Yale University. “The focus of my speech was really about exposing racism in the medical system and really understanding that the medical system is part of a larger system of racism in this country,” said Dr. Colhoun.
“Black women who are college graduates are more likely to die from preventable childbirth complications than white women who have not completed eighth grade education. The reason that is important is, for a long time, people have explained away differences in maternal outcomes with poverty and lack of education,” said Dr. Colhoun.
She began her speech wearing her white coat, only to reveal a Black Lives Matter shirt underneath. “As a physician, I know that my white coat doesn’t protect me. Just because I’m a physician, it doesn’t mean I’m not treated as a Black woman in America…I have to deal with racism all the time and people assuming I’m not a physician,” she explained.
Dr. Colhoun also spoke about the importance of voting and the prevalence of prejudice in our country’s systems that result in a heightened rate of conviction for Blacks who are then disenfranchised because of their criminal record. Racist voting barriers like this, as well as mass incarceration and the defunding of the postal system, remove citizens’ voices from the democratic process, Dr. Colhoun posited in her speech. Her speech was met by applause from the audience, many of whom approached her afterward and thanked her.
At one point during the rally, several supporters of President Donald Trump P’00 jeered at the protesters from across Main Street. One man repeatedly shouted, “White lives matter.”
Still, Dr. Colhoun felt that the rally had a welcoming, close-knit atmosphere and was an overall empowering experience. “Black people and people of color did not create the racist system in America,” she said. “I think it’s really important that we have allies of all colors and from all walks of life in dismantling this system.”
Following the event, on September 22, National Voter Registration Day, Ms. Tomassi and the other organizers held an event outside the gazebo on center street in Wallingford encouraging people to register to vote. “Voting doesn’t solve everything,” she said, “but it’s the start.
