Letters

I was proud to see our community come together this past weekend to march against racial inequality, injustice and division in this country, and to honor the lives of George Floyd and others who have suffered at the hands of police brutality and violence against black individuals.

Like so many others, I have been inspired to listen, learn (or, in many cases, unlearn), and support where I can. One small way that many have found to show some of this support is to patronize black-owned businesses.

But I am disheartened that in our village — one known for its historically and culturally significant black communities — I do not know of, or cannot think of, a single black-owned business here to support. Are there any black-owned business-members of the Chamber of Commerce? What does this say about our community?

And so I encourage us all to ask how we, as residents, as well as our village leaders, can facilitate and foster a more diverse business community?

Similarly, we should be aware of the lack of diversity in leadership across all of our village departments. I hope that we are all motivated to find ways to harness the momentum of this movement to make a long-term difference.

One place to start is right here on Main Street.

Ethan Feirstein

Sag Harbor