To the editor:

Barrington’s Town Council is not listening.

There has been a lot of talking and perhaps some “hearing” of sounds that are coming from the community, but there is definitely not much “listening” going on. The Barrington Town Council decided to proceed with an ill-conceived and poorly-designed “Listening Project” at the recent Town Council meeting in spite of overwhelming input from the community stating that this project is offensive and potentially harmful to our town.

The past several months of meetings are available to the public to review. I encourage residents of Barrington to listen to them and hear for themselves. It is shocking that this proposal was passed in spite of the overwhelming input (both in letters to the town council and in impassioned pleas at the town council meeting) from members of Barrington’s under-represented and minority communities stating that this project is not only not beneficial to them, but is potentially damaging.

There is supreme irony in that this “listening project” is being promoted by our town council as an effort to help our town address the racism and white supremacy that have so long divided and limited Barrington while they simultaneously ignore the input from the community members who have been directly affected by this racism. It would be a service to our town if the members of the town council did some of their own self-searching, some anti-racism training, and found some humility around this subject so that they would be better equipped to act as the white allies that they fancy themselves to be.

As it stands now, everything that we hear about this “listening project” speaks volumes about the racism and white supremacy within our own town’s leadership. It is never too late to start listening. We are begging the town council to hear us when we ask that this project to be delayed. 

Katherine Quinn

Barrington