Gabon to the Green Mountains: Minter shares his personal Black history
Waterbury resident and Harwood Union High School graduate Maroni Minter speaks at a racial justice rally and march in Waterbury that he helped organize last June. File photo by Gordon Miller/Waterbury Roundabout.
In an intimate kickoff to Black History Month, one local man has decided to share his own personal history.
On Monday, Feb. 1, activist Maroni Minter took to Facebook Live to share his story of growing up as a biracial man in Africa and eventually moving to the predominantly white state of Vermont.
Today Minter works as a campaign director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Burlington and in recent months, he has volunteered to help organize the new grassroots Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition for which he has become an outspoken leader.
The idea of an online public dialogue about his life story was prompted by a conversation Minter said he had with his friend Life LeGeros, another member of the anti-racism group.
“We shared a bit about our background and it occurred to me that there was so much about each other that we didn’t know. It made me wonder how many of my friends and even family members still don’t know my story,” Minter said.
The event was simple and pretty commonplace as people have become accustomed to meeting virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. He streamed a live video on his personal Facebook page as well as the public page for the anti-racism coalition. Afterward, Minter said he originally anticipated that it would have been a one-off episode, but he suddenly attracted an enthusiastic audience that was keen to learn more.
“I was surprised by how many people tuned in and the number of questions people had,” Minter said. “Because of the amount of interest I received, I decided to keep telling my story throughout this Black History Month of February.”
LeGeros, whose discussion with Minter became the inspiration for the Facebook talk, said he considers it courageous for Minter to talk publicly about his background and his experiences. “Maroni's storytelling is an act of leadership,” LeGeros said. “He is showing vulnerability and opening himself up so that others can gain understanding and hope. I have so much respect and love for him.” LeGeros said that he had a similar experience growing up being perceived as another race. “Our stories seem parallel until you consider the very different trajectory - I am able to ‘pass’ as white and I gain the unearned advantage that that brings. Maroni is racialized in America as Black and experiences discrimination, bigotry, and systemic barriers because of it,” LeGeros said.
One of Minter’s goals with the public discussions is to shine light on his experience of inhabiting the world as a biracial person. “When we talk about racism, for me, it is not about white vs. black. For me, racism is everywhere,” he explained. “I experience it everywhere. I experience it from black people, telling me I’m not black enough. I experience it from white people, I’m not white enough.”
Minter started his Monday talk at the beginning. He was born in 1986 and raised in a village called Ossiele in Gabon, a small French-speaking country nestled along the West Coast of Africa. His white father, Bill Minter, met his African mother, Nalessila Yolande, when he traveled to Ossiele with the Peace Corps. His parents parted ways when Minter was about 3 with his father returning to the U.S. and his mother leaving Ossiele in search of a new life in the city. That left Minter to be raised by his grandparents. “They were my true heroes. They shaped me into the man I am today,” he said.
Looking into the camera and connecting with his Facebook viewers, Minter shared details of that experience that resonate with him today. His lighter appearance, Minter recalled, set him apart in the eyes of other villagers.
“As far as I can remember, I was labelled a white child because of the color of my skin. In Gabon, most people have darker skin. Compared to everyone else, I was lighter,” Minter said. “Even the adults in my village would call me ‘otangani’ which means ‘white person’ in my native language. I was raised to believe that I was white, that I was different. I lived with the pressure that I was different and therefore I needed to be better and do better in everything I did. There was pressure that my teachers, my friends, my family members put on me.”
With those preconceived notions came unrealistic expectations, Minter continued.
“I never saw myself as different than anyone else, I knew my skin was lighter, but that was it. Because I was a ‘white’ person in some people’s eyes, they were disappointed to find that I wasn’t the smartest or didn’t get the highest grades in class. Because to them I’m white, and white means you’re better at anything and everything. And sadly they believed it.”
Even his grandparents held him to unrealistic standards, Minter said, although looking back he said he now understands how their expectations revealed high hopes for him.
“Both my grandparents wanted me to be a doctor, that was their dream job for me. I didn’t understand at the time, but now I think of the number of their grandchildren that died and the children they saw dying in the village from diseases like malaria, which continues to kill so many kids. My oldest brother and my youngest brother actually passed away from malaria within a week,” Minter shared. “Thinking about this, it made sense why my grandparents wanted me to be a doctor. I wonder if they would be disappointed in me today.”
In 2000, at age 14, Minter said he reconnected with his father. A few years later, he was Vermont-bound.
“In 2004, I came to Vermont. I remember how terrified I was,” Minter told his online viewers. “I flew alone to France. I remember getting to the airport in Paris and seeing so many white people. This was the first time I had seen so many white people in my life. For me that was the first sign that I was not white. And then I came to Vermont, and that’s when I truly realized how Black I really am.”
Minter went on to recount the racism he endured during the three years he spent at Harwood Union High School among his overwhelmingly white class.
“I was one of the two Black students in my time at Harwood. And that wasn’t easy because I always felt like everyone was watching me,” Minter said. “I had my fair share of experiencing racism from students and faculty members.”
He recounted one particularly searing episode: “I remember I was called the N-word right in the cafeteria in front of all the students,” Minter said, explaining that it was another student who hurled the epithet. To this day, he added, he isn’t happy with how that was handled. “I came back the next day and the vice principal pulled me into his office and said, ‘You should be happy, we’ve expelled the girl for four days,’ … That didn’t do anything to help me or the girl. My approach would have been to have the student sit in a room either with me or by herself and watch a movie or read a book about the history of African-Americans. Rather than punishing her, this should have been used as a teaching moment,” Minter offered. “That said, I am happy to see the Harwood [school] board working with BIPOC students [today] to address these issues.”
Minter scrolled through the online comments and questions in real time during his presentation. One viewer asked how his identity and background influences him as an activist and organizer. He answered briefly noting that this could be the topic of an entire other discussion.
“One thing I’ve found is that people usually have an assumption about who I am or who I might be, but when people hear my story they understand what I’ve been through. My story helps to really push for change,” Minter said.
He emphasized that a frequent frustration in advocating for racial justice in Vermont is “the idea that Vermont is immune” from racism, he said.
“Especially after the murder of George Floyd when we were trying to pass legislation to address how we currently police our community. The pushback we got was, ‘Those kind of things don’t happen here. We don’t need to pass all these policies.’ A lot of that pushback comes from white people,” Minter said. “So I think my story and my experience as a Black man in Vermont, my experience with the police or the school system, is very important to highlight where the system is failing.”
Minter plans to have more video conversations to answer questions he received at Monday’s presentation. His next Facebook live event is tonight at 7 p.m. on the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition page and his personal Facebook page. He said he will discuss his experience with racism in Vermont as a biracial man and more on how his background and identity influence him as an activist and organizer.
