In case anyone was wondering what racism looks like in Burlington Vermont where it is alive and well here are just a few things that happened at the restaurant I work at in one night-

Patrons heckled and harassed black activists protesting on our street and refused to stand up for black lives when asked

After the protest left they continued to argue with other tables and ask them “didn’t they feel scared?”

Later that night another table discreetly offered to pay part of the bill for the table that harassed activists (these parties hadn’t interacted)

A customer came up to our host and asked him what his heritage was, and when he said he’s Cuban the customer told him “we can’t eat here, that’s part of the problem”

All this happened in one night, and this isn’t rural and poor Americans either - this restaurants average entree price is around $20. It’s upper middle class white Burlington

I wanted to share this mostly w white people who have been minimally/not at all involved with the activism for black people that’s been happening in Burlington all summer bc I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt in thinking maybe you aren’t aware of how racism in VT is/looks

It’s literally everywhere we go and it’s so important for us to protest it and how normalized it is and at this point if you’re not interested in challenging yourself to do that and step up and fight racism you’re racist, gross, and we aren’t friends. This should be alarming to u