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Date: 9/15/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD — A year after West Springfield hired its first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) coordinator, amid promises to start a townwide discussion and increase the presence of minorities in town government, the position is again vacant and there are no immediate plans to fill it.
Tracye Whitfield, hired as the town’s DEI coordinator in July 2021, left in June to become executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for an Equitable Economy. That came one month after the mayor removed funding for the position from his proposed, and since adopted, fiscal year 2023 town budget.
Whitfield said this month that she thinks the town wasn’t prepared for a diversity officer.
“When I got there, there was no real structure on what areas they wanted to go,” said Whitfield. “I think that they had good intentions but didn’t really know the full extent of the work they take to really combat racism.”
Mayor William Reichelt pushed for the DEI position after being impressed by the work of an equity task force and professional DEI consultant in the School Department, and after a January 2021 incident in which a server at a bar in town uttered a racial slur to a West Springfield High School educator and athletics coach. Reichelt convinced the Board of Health, the School Committee and — in what became a contentious debate — the Town Council to adopt an “anti-racism” statement and support hiring a DEI coordnator.
Whitfield was tasked with improving town employees’ awareness of diversity, hiring a DEI consultant, finding ways to increase the diversity of the municipal workforce and leading community-wide discussions on equity.
“I still believe that the DEI work is important and that we can improve upon where we are now,” Reichelt told Reminder Publishing. “However, we need to be strategic about what our needs are so that we can deploy resources in such a way that most benefits the community and the workforce and has the most meaningful impact. When we created the position, we had not done enough of the initial analysis of what we needed, and I think that made it difficult for our DEI coordinator. We are now doing that ground-level work to determine what the deficiencies are and the best way for us to address those and improve our DEI initiatives. I did not include a DEI position in the budget not because I did not think the work was important, but because I believed that we needed to do more in order to set that position up for success.”
“I agree with him 100 percent, OK. We could have done the work together,” said Whitfield, adding, “I don’t think that they knew the emotional toll that it would take to get there.”
She said she encountered pushback on her efforts from some town employees, though she did not name which ones. There were workers who refused to attend Whitfield’s training sessions, she said, and did not face any repercussions.
“As a black woman in any professional career, if I was given a training that I needed to attend, I couldn’t just say I’m not coming back because my feelings got hurt,” said Whitfield. “When you get down to the levels where the racism exists ... people don’t even realize that they’re doing certain things.” For many people, confronting those unconscious prejudices takes a toll. Realizing for oneself, “‘like, oh, shoot, I do that all the time,’ it’s hard,” said Whitfield.
“But I’ve lived it my whole life. So the emotional toll on me isn’t new,” said Whitfield. “To [be able to] walk out of a training and say, ‘I don’t like what was said,’ [without explaining why] and never come back? In my whole career, I’ve never been able to do that.”
“Those at the top really need to buy in to the idea of, they’re going to have to do the work first, because it stems from leadership. So if they’re not ready to do the work, then you can’t expect your staff or the rest of the administration to be ready to do the work, as well,” said Whitfield.
Whitfield, who is also a Springfield city councilor, had worked as a small business owner, as a data analyst at Springfield Technical Community College and as a business and workforce liaison at Holyoke Community College before she took the job in West Springfield.
While the population of West Springfield is approximately 77 percent white, the town also has the state’s fourth highest percentage of residents who are immigrant refugees, according to a 2020 analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Last year, Reichelt told Reminder Publishing that there are 54 languages spoken in West Springfield, but the Town Hall workforce and its elected officials remain overwhelmingly white.
“I like Mayor Reichelt. I appreciate him for giving me the opportunity. I just don’t know if the leadership stakeholders were truly ready to do the work,” said Whitfield. “It’s my hope that Mayor Reichelt at least hires a consultant to help them get through the process to really see and understand where the work needs to be done,” said Whitfield.