Okay, it's time. I've been thinking about this for a while but I'm going to go there. And probably not for the last time, so get used to it.

We need to have some serious discussions about race in this town--indeed, in our whole region.

I recently gave a sermon in a Unitarian Universalist church (because of course it was, the Unitarian Universalist Association having now dedicated itself entirely to dismantling systems of white supremacy and decentering whiteness) on "Questions of Race." The issues I talked about in the sermon weren't just issues within the UU church; they were issues typical of New England. We pride ourselves on being liberal and tolerant when people unlike ourselves are being treated badly somewhere else, by other people. It's a different story when people unlike ourselves move in next door.

What's been bothering me a lot about the two recent convenience store robberies is that both stores are owned and run by people of color. I can't help wondering if they're being targeted because of that, not just because they're small and right on the state line and the suspects can hit and run into the next jurisdiction. Would those stores have been robbed if they were run by mom and pop Flanagan?

White people don't like to think about these possibilities. A writer named Robin DiAngelo has written a book called White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. But I don't think this difficulty--or this reluctance, rather--is proof of any kind of "fragility." I think white people have to expend enormous amounts of energy forcing the whole issue out of their conscious awareness, rationalizing it, and denying it. It really takes a lot of work.

Meanwhile, you can't buy gas at the Gardner Cumberland Farms without standing under the intimidating glare of two large Confederate flags in the windows of the third floor apartment house right across the street. Would you confront those people for those flags? Or would you be too scared of retaliation? And if so, what does that say?

Or maybe you silently applaud those flags when you buy gas in Gardner, in which case I can only say, "I rest my case."

I've met a few African American persons who live in Winchendon. I wish there were more. I wish we had a lot more people of color here, of all sorts. But what would make them want to move here? What would make them want to enroll their children in Winchendon schools? Would you welcome them here?

If you're a white person, and reading this makes you feel angry, or defensive...why? Think about it.

I do. Every day.

Inanna Arthen