More than half of the state’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion abruptly resigned Tuesday, citing concerns that the state budget signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu silences important conversations about race.
It is now illegal in New Hampshire to teach in schools or train public employees that someone “is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
Nearly 30 years ago, Charlotte DiLorenzo moved to Newmarket from Massachusetts, where she had lived her whole life. The lack of racial diversity in her new home state was nothing less than culture shock for her.
“I lived in Beverly, I grew up in Lynn, I worked in Boston. I was sort of used to being in diverse communities and being around a lot of diverse people,” DiLorenzo, who is Black, said. “Things were so different.”
Unknown to DiLorenzo at the time, and to many New Hampshireites today, the same Granite State that Dilorenzo met in 1993 is home to the nation’s first African American person elected to public office — in 1768.
After Asma Elhuni, Lebanon resident and Movement Politics Director for Rights and Democracy New Hampshire, was arrested Thursday alongside four other activists at the State House, she said their fight against the “immoral” legislation in the state budget that Gov. Chris Sununu signed Friday is not over.
Despite the budget being signed and sealed, Elhuni vows to revitalize community outreach efforts in the wake of the legislation. The activist said New Hampshire communities “will not be divided,” and Rights and Democracy will focus this summer on engaging more people than ever around the state.
Members of the governor’s police accountability commission expressed disappointment after Attorney General John Formella shot down a request for an emergency meeting to discuss “divisive concepts” language in the proposed state budget.
The legislation would prohibit discussing or teaching concepts like systemic racism or critical race theory in schools and governmental agencies.
But when it comes to talking about race, there are no wrong answers, said Richard Haynes, who organized the event with Kristen Butterfield-Ferrell. The duo has hosted three Culture Keepers, Culture Makers event series in the past, and started their most recent, hosted by 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, on Thursday (May 13). The series will continue for three more weeks, encouraging people from around the Seacoast and throughout the state to start talking openly about race and equity, exploring the issues through the lens of visual art.
