Students Offer Reflections on Racial Violence at Community Vigil
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The Vigil Against Hate on Saturday March 27 at Chase Park in Scarsdale was a moment of community unity and solidarity against racial violence. For the speakers, it was both nerve-wracking and inspiring to listen to one another discuss our personal experiences as well as issues at large.
Peter He ’23 opened the event with a brief self-introduction and an opportunity for the attendees to reflect upon their reactions when learning about the Atlanta shooting. He urged empathy and for everyone to a stand to condemn racially charged violence and hate crimes. He was also the MC for the vigil, introducing all of the adult speakers.
Karen Lee ’21, co-founder of Scarsdale High School’s Asian Conscientization and Empowerment (ACE) Club introduced herself as a second-generation Korean American, reflecting upon her mother’s influence on her relationship with her identity. She recalled the eight victims of the Atlanta shooting and provided a biography for each of the following: Xiaojie Tan, Hyunjung Grant, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Daoyou Feng, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Yong Ae Yue, and Paul Andre Michels.
Following the words about the Atlanta shooting, He acknowledged the Colorado shooting victims Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Rikki Olds, Tralona Bartkowiak, Police Officer Eric Talley, Suzanne Fountain, Teri Leiker, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, and Jodi Waters.
Rishika Bansal ’22 spoke about the ten victims in Boulder and reflected on how we all need to be upstanders instead of bystanders, actively working to change the ideas in our communities, to stop this discrimination and hate.
Janmariz Deguia ’22 broke the silence with her fervent spoken word poem about the Atlanta shooter, who used a ‘bad day’ as an excuse for murder. Deguia passionately condemned the shooter’s cowardice and the absurdity of his excuse. She described how both the intersection of imperialism and racism, and the hypersexualization of Asian women fuel anti-Asian hate today. Deguia explained, “this excuse of ‘a bad day’ does not justify death nor explain the cause. The cause is white supremacy.” See her poem below.
After Linda Toh, Vivian Guo ’21, co-founder of Scarsdale’s ACE Club, took the stage and expressed her fear for her grandma, who goes on long walks nearly every day. She highlighted the resilience and kind-heartedness of the elderly Asian community who deserves to be treated with humanity. She encouraged the vigil show to take care of the elderly figures in their lives and convey their appreciation.
Last, Olivia Liu ’23 spoke about the Model Minority Myth, which stereotypes all Asians as hardworking, complicit, and the ideal minority. Even though it may seem like a positive stereotype, Liu explained its detrimental effects on Asian American’s mental health, as they are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression and less likely to seek help. She emphasized how this monolithic view ignores struggling Asian communities in need of assistance. Simultaneously, it demonizes other minority groups for not being able to ‘overcome racism’ in a similar manner. The Myth “has been a destructive tool used to perpetuate aversions toward other minorities within Asian communities, dividing us all.”
The speakers worked very hard in preparing and rehearsing for the vigil. They conveyed their personal thoughts and experiences in a vulnerable way that touched the community.
Spoken Word Poem by Janmariz Deguia
A message to those who thought this was a good excuse
A bad day is spilling coffee on your carpet, and convincing yourself that cleaning is too much of a hassle so there is left an obscure dark stain and you have no one else to blame but yourself
Janmariz Deguia with Congressman Jamaal Bowman
A bad day is tripping over your laces, your words, and your shoes, and feeling the Monday blues remain on a Tuesday
A bad day is learning that you are only desirable as an Asian if you look like the anime girls or Kpop stars and that you are not desirable as a woman, because of your scars.
you are nothing to men unless you look like sports illustrated models. But still coddle the patriarchy for your safety.
A bad day is canceling plans to the city, because you hear news about a Filipino American man being slashed in the face on the subway.
A bad day is while looking up the name of that man, you hear news of yet another Asian elder who was unprovokedly attacked on the 1 train. The train your dad would take if he needed to get downtown.
A bad day is Christian Hall getting shot in the chest while his hands were up,
When he went to the cops for HELP because he was suicidal.
As a mentally ill Asian living in the same county where he was shot, I wonder when the assumptions that I cannot understand or hear their hate will end in a deadly fate for me
A bad day is having to see your mothers face in defeat after you correct her grammar and accent. Little does she know— I need people to understand her, because I need her and the media does not need another statistic.
a woman with a heavy accent who worked at the Gold Spa called 911.
“Repeat the address,” the operator said.
“Repeat the address.”
“Okay, repeat the address. . . . You need police, fire or ambulance?”
“They have a gun,” the caller said, sounding strained, almost breathless.
A bad day is NOT using mental illness and misfortunes of manhood to make this murder manageable to whom this mistreatment might hit close to home due to daily micro-aggressions.
Asian hate did not begin today.
Asian hate is here w/covid-19 pandemic, the violence against our elders, the targeting of our women.
Asian hate was here from imperialism on lands like mine to exclusion acts and discriminatory laws and zoos and internment camps to lock up our people and massacres and murders and riots to exterminate our people.
A bad day is NOT
An excuse to purposely harm anyone on any level in any circumstance,
it is nearly an explanation to a temporary negative attitude.
This excuse of “a bad day” does not justify death or explain the cause.
The cause is white supremacy.
The cause is no penalties to white murderers yet black people being named criminals for the color of their skin. The cause is the media representation and ignorant hesitation to strike up a meaningful conversation.
The cause is disabled people being left out of every situation.
The cause is islanders, being used as an advertisement for land we own but is not truly ours. The cause is white supremacy. The cause is having to come up with MMIP because the phrase “missing and murdered indigenous people'' was too harsh to privileged ears.
The cause is what fuels islamiphobia, anti-semitism, hispanophobia, and hate against anyone other than.
The cause is white supremacy.
The cause is having to adapt in colonized spaces and queer people having not to show their true faces.
The cause is the divide between BIPOC and minorities because they know if we band together,
we can get rid of the cause before they get rid of us. The cause is white supremacy.
Your silence speaks volumes.
And there are no excuses.
This article was contributed by Vivian Guo, Peter He, Karen Lee, Rishika Bansal, Olivia Liu and Janmariz Deguia.
Carrot Souffle For Passover from Standing Room Only
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Passover begins on Saturday and there’s still time to order your dinner from holiday food experts, Standing Room Only, in Scarsdale.
They’ll provide a full dinner for six or ten including matzo ball soup, haroset, brisket, kugel or mashed potatoes, your choice of vegetables and even macaroons for dessert. But you have to order by end of day Tuesday, March 23, 2021. To order, call 914-472-3007.
Or you can order what you need individually – including chopped liver, gefilte fish, and an entire Seder plate kit with the roasted egg, sliced horseradish, parsley and even a shank bone.
Also find a delectable list of Passover desserts like holiday chocolate brownies, flourless chocolate cake with raspberry filling and an array of macaroons.
See the entire menu here – and call ASAP to order.
If you want to do the cooking yourself, SRO’s Jack Tacconi shared the recipe for his famous carrot souffle. Give it a try and email us a picture of your work at [email protected].
Here’s the recipe:
Standing Room Only Carrot Soufflé
Ingredients
5 lbs. peeled carrots
1/2 cup (4 oz.) sugar
5 eggs separated
3/4 lb. margarine
1 1/2 cups cornstarch or potato starch for Pesach
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Cook carrots soft and purée smooth
Lightly salt/pepper
Mix sugar, egg yolks, margarine, cornstarch
Fold into puréed carrots
Beat whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mix
Lightly spray baking pan, either two 9” rounds or one larger casserole
Bake 325 degrees uncovered for 45 minutes until set
Roads Closed as Con Edison Replaces Gas Mains
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If you’ve been driving around town in the past few weeks you may have found that sections of Brite Avenue and Walworth Avenue have been closed, sometimes at the same time, making it very difficult to traverse Scarsdale.
We asked Jeff Coleman, Scarsdale’s Superintendent of Public Works, for information on the work that is being done and here is what he shared:
Con Edison has two separate projects underway in that area. The work on Brite Avenue is part of their work to upgrade and replace the gas mains in the roads along Fenimore Road. They have previously replaced the main in Fenimore and several of the roads intersecting Fenimore. Unfortunately this work requires the roads to be closed intermittently when the work cannot leave a lane of travel open.
The work on Walworth Avenue is also be performed by Con Edison, however for a different purpose. The excavation work currently being performed is a series of “test pits” to identify the exact location of buried utilities (water, sewer, drainage, gas). This will guide the design and layout of a larger project to replace an aging transmission gas main that exists in Walworth Avenue in the near future. The transmission main is much larger than the typical gas main and requires more planning and design work. The test pit work requires only one day at each location and should be completed by the end of next week.
Author Reveals Surprising Stories from Westchester's Past
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Racism, cancel culture, anti-semitism and political extremism are not new to Westchester. Incidents that seem so shocking today have deep roots in our past. Robert Marchant, author of “Westchester: History of an Iconic Suburb” held a webinar on Sunday March 7, 2021 when he shared the remarkable characters and stories of struggle and success from the past, all connected to the Westchester we all call home. Marchant is a staff reporter at Hearst Media in southern Connecticut and the Greenwich Time daily newspaper. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The talk was moderated by Scarsdale historian Jordan Copeland.
Below are some excerpts from his talk with some of the more surprising stories he told.
Marchant says, “It was a great pleasure and honor to discuss local history with Scarsdale residents on Sunday, and I hope it shed some light on the fascinating history of the village in particular, and Westchester County in general. Most residents aren’t aware, for example, that a cross was burned on the lawn of a Black dentist and new homeowner in White Plains, that there was a Nazi rally at the County Center, or the extent of anti-Semitism in Scarsdale some sixty years ago. Few know about the protracted battle over so-called Communist literature in the Scarsdale schools.”
A Cross Burning in White Plains
The story of Errold Collymore is fascinating, one of perseverance in the face of ugly racial hostility. Collymore was a dentist who bought a home in White Plains in 1930 with his wife, through a white intermediary, and shortly afterwards, a cross was burned on his lawn. As he later recalled, he went out in his pajamas to take a picture of the burning cross with a camera in one hand and a rifle in the other. He and his wife endured all kinds of threats and attempts to get them to move--motor oil was splashed on his garden, for instance—but he would not give up and led civil rights initiatives in White Plains for decades.
Dr. Errold Collymore resisted a viscious campaign to move him out of his home in White Plains in the 1930's.
Nazi Sympathizers Rally at the Westchester County Center
There was a lot of political extremism in the U.S. during the 1930’s, and more than a few Nazi sympathizers. The pro-Nazi forces in the U.S. known as The Bund, held a big rally at Madison Square Garden. In 1938 they came to Westchester, holding a big rally at the County Center in White Plains that April. The Bund leaders, wearing militaristic Sam Brown belts and silver-colored shirts, marched into the County Center, itself decorated with a mix of pro-German slogans and swastikas and American flags. Speakers at the event, which numbered over 1,000 people, talked about an “international cabal” threatening the U.S.A., and used “blood and soil” rhetoric. There were over 100 police officers in attendance, and the rally ended without major incident, though a couple of teen-agers from Bronxville threw stink bombs into the crowd.
Anti-Semitism at the Holly Ball in Scarsdale
Anti-Semitism was always something of a shadowy phenomenon, keeping Jewish people from buying homes or gaining jobs in certain places. This “gentleman’s agreement” was well-known but rarely discussed. In 1961, A young Jewish man—actually a Christian convert whose father was Jewish—was barred from accompanying a debutante to the Scarsdale Golf Club’s Holly Ball, the annual holiday social event for upscale teenagers in the community. The Rev. George Kempsell, the Episcopal rector of St. James the Less Church, heard about the snub from the girl's mother, and made an impassioned sermon that captured national headlines, notably in Life magazine. Not long after the incident, Scarsdale Golf Club quietly began to allow Jewish members. The entire episode eventually came to be viewed as a turning point in the fight against anti-Semitism and discrimination, not just in the suburbs but across the country. Rev. Kempsell eventually left his clerical position in Scarsdale and moved west. He died in 1980.
Book Banning in Scarsdale
Scarsdale was the focus of a major controversy about so-called leftist influence in education. A group of activists led by a local financial executive, Otto Dohrenwend, probed the Scarsdale school district for what they saw as indoctrination by far-left authors and educators. The Scarsdale citizens committee—the Committee of Ten, as it was known—started with the school library in 1949, singling out works by Langston Hughes, the Black poet and intellectual, and Howard Fast, a leftist writer. The committee also questioned whether Scarsdale teachers had any affiliation with leftist groups. The Board of Education stood its ground when the Committee of Ten turned up the volume and the intensity of their attacks. Around 1,400 people came to a meeting in June of 1950, to hear Schools Superintendent Archibald Shaw say the targeted teachers had his full support. Thirteen years later, in 1962, the Committee of Ten protested and picketed a concert at Scarsdale High School by Pete Seeger, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, a benefit for the Freedom Riders, the civil-rights activists who were pushing for voting rights for African Americans in the South. About 1,300 people attended the concert, raising $4,000 for the Freedom Riders.
Marchant says, “I think it’s important to lay hands with previous generations, to understand their hardships and challenges but also to bear witness to their ingenuity and how they solved or at least dealt with seemingly intractable problems. It can guide us to a better understanding of our own times. Remarkable history is all around us, especially here in Westchester.”
Interested in Westchester history? Purchase your copy of Westchester History of an Iconic Suburb at Bronx River Books, 37 Spencer Place, in Scarsdale or directly from the publisher here:
To Affect the Quality of the Day, that is the Highest of Arts: Interview with Village Trustee Jonathan Lewis
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Jonathan Lewis is running for a second term for Scarsdale Village TrusteeFinancier, philanthropist, author, and community volunteer Jonathan Lewis is now running for his second term as Scarsdale Village Trustee. A former member of the Scarsdale School Board, President of the Scarsdale Forum, President of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Westchester, and treasurer of the Phi Beta Kappa Society he is well versed in budgeting and leadership. In his interview for his first run for Village Board he said, “My father was a decorated officer in World War Two and he taught me that the most important duty in life, after taking care of your family, is service to your community. When the Citizens Nominating Committee asked me if I would consider serving as a Village Trustee, my answer was yes.”
Now, two years later, and contemplating his second term on the Scarsdale Board of Trustees, Lewis shared thoughts on his experience and the state of the Village. Here is what he said:
-What have you enjoyed most about your first term?
Exchanging ideas with my fellow trustees, staff, and neighbors; sharpening policy through debate; and trying to make a difference in my hometown all make it an honor and a great life experience to serve the Village of Scarsdale as a trustee. When I was in high school, and we read Walden, I wrote down a quote that I kept in my wallet for years: “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” That year, I asked my father to take me to visit Walden Pond for my 17th birthday, and that value and aspiration from Walden has stayed with me ever since. So, what I enjoyed most about my first term was being given the chance to affect the quality of the day in Scarsdale.
-What are some of the challenges facing the Village today?
The Village of Scarsdale entered the COVID-19 crisis with great strengths: a strong fiscal position, a highly professional staff, great neighbors and volunteers who serve on a wide range of Village committees, boards and councils, and a great brand name as a wonderful community that offers an exceptional lifestyle. During this crisis we have been tested and demonstrated resilience in how we have approached the management of the crisis. Yet, the choices we make during this crisis, and the choices the communities around us make, will likely determine who emerges from this crisis stronger, with a healthier market position, and who emerges weaker. This will impact property values, which in the long term impact our fiscal position. This is a time when we need to pivot and take the long view. Thankfully, Scarsdale is a community that is prepared for challenges and capable of addressing them.
-Do you think residents might be willing to pay a bit more to maintain services at the current level?
I am listening carefully to my neighbors when they speak at public comment. We are fortunate to have a cadre of committed neighbors who show up and share ideas with the Village Board. Yet, the small number of participants at these meetings gives me pause about offering a view on my neighbors’ willingness to pay more during a great financial and humanitarian crisis. So, I stay focused on the fairness of our tax burden relative to the broader economic landscape, and the consequences of higher taxes on our relative competitive positioning versus our peer communities. It is natural that my fellow trustees and I will continue to engage in vigorous, but non-partisan debate on these issues as we try to strike the right balance. Given that so many of our neighbors in our community are suffering economically, and have experienced personal loss due to the pandemic, I think we need to try to strike a balance that leads to the lowest possible tax increase consistent with a Scarsdale quality of life.
-Sometimes it feels like a few very vocal residents are the only ones giving input to the Village Board. Do you believe that the Village hears from a representative swath of residents? How can you know if you’re voting in the interest of the majority if so many are disengaged?
Our traditional Village Board meetings, and the format of these meetings with public comment periods are wonderful and they remind me of the type of New England Town Meetings that were the bedrock of building a democratic society in our nation. Yet, we only hear from a very small portion of the community at these meetings. We need to find a way to take this 17th century idea of an open town hall meeting and find a way to create a virtual town hall consistent with 21st century lifestyles. We have begun to move in that direction. The pandemic led us to conduct our meetings via Zoom, which certainly has made it easier for people to participate; yet the numbers are still very small. This leads me to conclude that this town hall format, even when it is online, has its limitations as we move deeper into the 21st century. While we will always want to maintain our traditional meeting format, we must offer new ways for neighbors to participate. Is it too futuristic to imagine a Village of Scarsdale app that everyone can download on their cellphones so we can gather information and views more broadly and rapidly to inform our discussions? I think we need to reimagine how a village government should operate in the 21st century, and how we use technology, as we think about how we build a more sustainable business model for village services.
-What do you think can be done about the Scarsdale Pool which is in need of renovations and improvements?
The Scarsdale Pool is a cherished community resource. I applaud the vision of our neighbors who decades ago conceived of a pool complex in harmony with nature and its surroundings, emphasizing lawns and open spaces. Yet, membership is down, the pool is no longer as financially sustainable as it has been in the past, and we need to rethink how to revitalize this great resource so it not only survives, but thrives, and draws home buyers to our community and brings happiness to our neighbors and their children. To that end, we need a strategic planning process centered on the pool, and a true market survey to understand what will make the community usage rate rise. Informed by that data, we can better understand the strategic investments we need to make to increase the competitive positioning of the pool, and as a result, Scarsdale. We likely need to make major capital improvements to achieve these goals, and we will want good data to drive those decisions.
-The Village Board made a few recommendations to reduce home bulk and sent those to the land use boards for review. We haven’t heard back. What is your view of these potential changes?
I, like my fellow trustees, value private property rights. I believe it’s important that we adopt reasonable measures, collaborating with our land use boards, listening to our neighbors, and staying aware of peer community regulations to ensure that we are effective in our policy objectives, maintaining the character of our community, without being overly restrictive. Finding the delicate balance between private property rights and these community quality of life objectives will always be challenging, and always be of the utmost importance. The way our Village looks, the character of our neighborhoods, is an important contributor to our Scarsdale brand and how we manage these will impact everyone’s home values. That is why this issue is such an important policy matter.
-The Village Board just heard an appeal to raze a historic house which challenged the current Village preservation code. In your view can our preservation code hold up? Does it need to be strengthened?
While I cannot comment on any specific case, preservation is an important matter for our Village as are property rights. Years ago, when I was on the board of the Scarsdale Historical Society, I led and organized a Saturday morning series of family programs. These events included educating our families about our community history and our local heroes. We see this history every time we take a walk in our community, appreciate the balance between nature and development, and enjoy our parks and appreciate our historic homes. Preservation laws should evolve, our approach to preserving open spaces should evolve, just as our municipal government should evolve. We should think about more structured conversations on this subject to ensure we are always making progress.
-As a second term trustee, what issues do you hope to work on?
Jane Veron, who is running for mayor on the slate with me, has offered a valuable framework for how we should think about the future. Jane has proposed four pillars to guide our conversations and I believe these are exactly right:
Quality of Life
Infrastructure
Public Safety
Economic Revitalization
In order to execute well within those pillars, Jane has offered that we need consider how to make progress in three key areas:
Communications
Sustainability
Technology
In a second term, I would hope to contribute to how we develop this strategic framework, so we can move our approach to municipal government deep into the 21st century. Our Scarsdale School District is a national model and our Scarsdale Village government can lead as well. If we execute well in communications, we are likely to better engage our neighbors and improve the feedback loop needed to drive the conception and implementation of effective policy. From a sustainability standpoint, if we intelligently integrate sustainability concepts into our four pillars, we will become a leader in sustainability. As our municipal government reduces its carbon footprint, protects our environment, and promotes more sustainable practices in our local economy, we will thrive. This approach can have meaningful financial benefits for the Village. We are likely to make meaningful capital investments in the years ahead, some of which will likely be financed by debt issuance. Municipal investors are searching for bonds issued by municipalities with good governance, social practices, and sustainability policies. If we execute well on these plans, bonds issued by the Village of Scarsdale may not only be AAA rated by credit agencies, they could also be the ESG investment of choice for tax-efficient investors. This could potentially lower our cost of capital and improve our financial profile. From a public safety perspective, I have worked on moving forward our cybersecurity posture as public safety enters the virtual world. Thinking through how a municipality responds to the public safety threats of the 21st century, whether they are weather related, cyber related, or otherwise, is essential. I would hope to continue to contribute to those conversations in a second term as well.
-In the next few years the Village may need to raise taxes or look for other revenue sources. Is there a possibility Scarsdale will be eligible for any COVID relief from the government? Can you envision any other potential sources of revenues?
We are hopeful to receive COVID relief direct aid, yet hope is not a strategy and we cannot budget our dreams. There are a variety of possible outcomes and we may be most likely to benefit from the administration's developing infrastructure plan, which could potentially offset the costs of some of our own urgent infrastructure needs. At this time, for example, we are in the midst of developing our own strategic water infrastructure plan, both to modernize our infrastructure and to enhance its sustainability. We have sought to access state and federal support for infrastructure improvements in the past and would hope to be successful in winning grants in the future for projects like these. It’s still early to know what the post-pandemic world looks like, yet we need to move forward optimistically, and that includes rethinking how we finance our municipal government. Studying how to develop Scarsdale’s economic base, as more companies move out of the City, is an area we should explore to diversify our revenues. Scarsdale should be the destination of choice of entrepreneurs looking for a home for their start-ups and their small businesses.
Anything else?
Making a difference in my hometown, improving the quality of life, and ensuring the sustainability of our Village, are the reasons that I run for Village Trustee. I am impressed with the quality, experience, and stature of my fellow candidates, and I am optimistic all members of the community agree.
