Expert: David Beckett - 11/5/2006

Question
Hello. I read your response to another question posed about vermont and I have one for you if you dont mind.I am an African American woman with a family of four. I currently live in New York City. I am considering moving to Vermont to make a better life for my family. But I am concerned about racism. I am used to living in a multicultural city and am not exposed to racism. Is there racial tolerance in Vermont? Are there communities that are more diverse where we could feel comfortable? I would appreciate your honesty on this touchy subject. Thank you.:)

Answer
Jetaun -

I'll do my best here - I hope this is helpful and I hope you'll let me know in particular what other information you'd like help finding.

My initial impulse is to tell you how wonderful, enlightened and diverse VT is. But I don't want to be a Pollyanna and overlook whatever problems there may be.
You'll want to consider the Burlington area, because it's as diverse and welcoming as any place in the state.
You'll often hear VT described as the whitest state in the nation. Historically that's true, but it's meant in strictly demographic terms. There simply haven't been many African American people here until recent decades.

Vermont has a rich civil rights history, having outlawed slavery before it was even a state, and having hosted several stops on the underground railroad. Heck - the first African American to receive a degree from an American college in the USA was Alexander Twilight - from Middlebury College, right down the road from Burlington, in 1823.   

In the last couple of decades, there have been many more African Americans here. The University of Vermont, other local colleges, Fletcher Allen Health Care(the huge regional hospital on the hill, and IBM have all attracted people of all sorts from elsewhere. The sense I get is that the overwhelming majority of people in Chittenden County see this as a great thing and welcome diversity for all sorts of reasons.

Another factor is the fairly recent influx of people from elsewhere, many of them refugees of one kind or another, who add to the general vibrancy of the area who are not African American, but whose presence here makes life richer for everybody. My kids go to Burlington High School, and have friends who are Tibetan, Somali, Bosnian, Vietnamese, Italian, as well as African American.

There's also a significant community of Latinos here.

To get the flavor of Burlington, I might suggest a visit to the Burlington Free Press web site, as well as that of the local news and arts weekly, which is called Seven Days. The Free Press is owned by Gannett (USA today) and is the closest thing to a local daily. Seven Days is a bit like our Village Voice.
Also - check out www.flynncenter.org if you're at all interested in the performing arts. Burlington gets an amazing variety of concerts and so on which just don't happen in other cities of it's size - this is partly due to our geographical location in relation to Boston, NYC and Montreal. Montreal is less than 2 hours drive, Boston is 3.5 Hrs drive.

If you can tell me your interests, what your family likes to do for fun - I can suggest other www resources for you.

But the best bet of all would be to hop on a plane (Jet Blue Airlines flies direct to Burlington!) and come visit.

Best Regards,
David Beckett
david@askdavidbeckett.com
1 802 264 1888