National Day Of Racial Healing Recognized In Westfield

WESTFIELD, NJ — Tuesday marks the seventh annual National Day of Racial Healing — a day that calls on individuals, organizations and communities across the U.S. to reflect on how to make a "more just and equitable world."

Westfield Memorial Library is hosting a community-wide Racial Healing Circle on Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The National Day of Racial Healing is part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial, Healing & Transformation (TRHT) efforts. TRHT is used by more than 300 organizations in the academic, artistic, civic and faith communities calling for the establishment of a US Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, according to the American Library Association.

The Human Relations Advisory Commission and Westfield Memorial Library are partnering with the Rutgers School for Public Affairs & Administration and Social Justice Matters to bring this event to Westfield.

"A Racial Healing Circle is an opportunity for individuals from diverse backgrounds to share their stories in a safe, brave, and responsible space," Westfield Memorial Library states. "Racial healing circles are designed to focus on stories that affirm our common humanity rather than on solving a problem."

For more information, or to register for a seat, visit the library’s website.

In related news, Mayor Shelley Brindle spoke at Westfield's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Interfaith Service on Monday.

"I’m grateful for this opportunity for our community to come together to remind ourselves that the fight against intolerance and injustice never ends," she said in her speech.

She said this struggle is one that the Westfield community knows all too well.

"Bias incidents, including racist and anti-Semitic graffiti, seem to keep recurring even as we continue to denounce them publicly and repeatedly pronounce that 'hate has no home here,'" Brindle said. "It’s easy to be discouraged as these despicable acts keep happening, but engendering empathy and understanding takes time."

Over the past few years, drawings of swastikas have been discovered at Westfield High School, as well as at Mindowaskin Park.

Two Asian-American families were also targets in a bias incident in 2021.

But Brindle said there are "encouraging signs of progress" in the community, as residents and various leaders have taken action.

For instance, she mentioned the founding of the Human Relations Advisory Commission and their efforts to promote equity and inclusion in the town.

She also spoke about Temple Emanu-El's recent Shadowlight exhibit that was brought to the high school. This program taught students about how the Jewish people were forcibly sent to Nazi death camps in WWII cattle cars.

Read more: Synagogue In Westfield To Host 'Hate Ends Now' Cattle Car Experience

You can read the mayor's full remarks on Facebook.

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