Inclusive Westwood's Successful Campaign to Demonstrate Community Support for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Image of Inclusion Group Heart by geralt from Pixabay.

The recent success achieved by Inclusive Westwood in its campaign to collect signatures to add to its statement in support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) deserves some examination. The group collected over one thousand signatories in just one month. It seems the effort has come at an opportune time.

Inclusive Westwood organizer Mandy Taft-Pearman notes that the campaign was timely in that there has been recent conversation in town questioning DEI efforts. Second, town elections are coming up. Ms. Taft-Pearman states, “We felt the timing was right, given this conversation, that it was important to show the breadth and depth of support in Westwood. And then it was important also knowing that we’re heading into town elections [ ] and the fact that we think it’s important that candidates know that this is a strong contingency in the community.”

Third, there have been a “series of negative incidents” to address from the school community. Ms. Taft-Pearman observes that within the last few months, there was “an act of anti-Semitism” of graffiti in the high school restroom and “transphobic comments” were made by a resident at a School Committee meeting.

Last week, a few weeks after Inclusive Westwood met and exceeded its thousand signature goal, the families of Westwood Public School students received notice from Superintendent Emily Parks that “hateful” and “racist” messages were sent to students and staff at Thurston Middle School. In a letter addressed to the “Thurston Community,” Principal Michael Redmon described them as “highly inappropriate, offensive, and racist messages sent by anonymous users via the AirDrop feature on their personal iPhone devices.” It is possible that there may be more incidents prior to last week’s report.

“It just shows the importance of us doing this work proactively over time, both to hopefully avoid those instances happening [ ] [and] to ensure not just our schools but our community are prepared to step in when they do happen,” says Ms. Taft-Pearman.

Inclusive Westwood’s signature campaign began in mid-January this year. Ms. Taft-Pearman estimates that in the first week to ten days, five hundred signatures had been gathered. The second five hundred signatures took a little longer.

There were challenges to collecting signatures. “Some folks feel quite vulnerable by doing this, putting themselves out there often – folks who are of a marginalized identity whether it's race or sexual orientation. . . and for other folks that wasn’t the experience,” says Ms. Taft-Pearman, describing what she learned in a group discussion about the signature gathering effort.

At that point, Inclusive Westwood member Meg Lutze jumped in to help achieve the goal of one thousand signatories. She helped to ensure that word of the effort spread among personal networks and helped ensure that a wide net was cast.

“Meg really breathed energy and motivation into getting to one thousand,” observes Ms. Taft-Pearman.

Ms. Lutze notes that all the signatories are Westwood residents but for a few names who were not residents but who have children in the school system. “We asked people specifically how long they had lived in Westwood. [ ] There were a few people who signed that said they didn’t live in Westwood so then we removed those from the list because really the purpose of the list was to represent support within Westwood,” she said.

On February 15, 2022, almost exactly one month after the Inclusive Westwood began its campaign, the group had achieved its goal of obtaining one thousand signatures. Inclusive Westwood’s membership, which Ms. Taft-Pearman equates with its listserv distribution list, grew from just under 400 to almost one thousand.

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Along with growth in membership, the Inclusive Westwood’s signature gathering effort has resulted in creating a new tool that can be used to demonstrate and remind town leaders of the importance of the issue of inclusion. “Some of them signed it so that gives us information about them. Some of them did not sign it and so it gives us reasons to ask their points of view,” says Ms. Taft-Pearman.

Select Board recently signed a joint statement in support of a different DEI statement prepared by the Westwood Human Rights Task Force. Ms. Taft-Pearman is also a member of that group.

“[The joint statement] is a starting point. . . . I think the statement’s really, really valuable. It is an important stake in the ground for where the town is heading, and now it needs to be backed up with action,” says Ms. Taft-Pearman. Ms. Lutze agrees.

Despite the joint DEI statement signed by Select Board, Ms. Taft-Pearman was disappointed to learn that no resources have been allocated in the next fiscal budget to do DEI work. The formation of the Human Rights Task Force represents a good first step, she says, but resources should be allocated to gather information about the town and best practices. She would like to see the town do an equity audit of town policies and procedures.

Ms. Lutze noted that while there were some negative responses to Inclusive Westwood’s outreach, there were far more positive responses. People were excited and seemed grateful, she said. Some in the community felt supported.

The signature-gathering effort also spurred some thoughtful conversation. Ms. Taft-Pearman emailed back and forth with one family who questioned whether such a statement was needed. Later, she saw that they had added their signatures.

Ms. Lutze also saw a theme of people questioning, “'Why do we need this? Westwood seems inclusive and welcoming to me.’” However, she notes, “Westwood may feel inclusive and welcoming to some people, but that doesn’t mean that everyone experiences the town in that way and it’s important for us to understand that.” The recent events at Thurston Middle School underscore her words.

Following the campaign’s success, Ms. Lutze comments, “I was just excited to see how excited the community got about the effort and how much support we got so quickly. We all hoped that [] would be the case, and when it was, I think that was exciting.”

Thanks to Ms. Mandy Taft-Pearman and Ms. Meg Lutze for speaking with Westwood Minute.

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Related stories:

- OPINION: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Laudable Words, Until They are Politicized

-Inclusive Westwood Appeals to Residents to Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Updated)

- SB's Statement on DEI: Making Westwood a Safe Place Free from Discrimination