When Helen Archontou, the chief executive officer of the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, heard 9-year-old Bobbi Wilson’s story last fall, she shared it with her son and daughter, who are the same age as the Essex County girl.
Bobbi’s family accused a neighbor of racial bias last year after he called Caldwell police to report he was scared because “a little Black woman” was spraying something on trees and sidewalks. When police arrived they found the girl killing invasive spotted lanternflies with a homemade solution in her own yard.
“I told them the story about what happened because I was so disturbed by it,” said Archontou, whose family is white. “My daughter, who’s Bobbi’s age, said to me, ‘Mommy, I bet that man wouldn’t have called the police if it was me out there.’ And I said, you’re right.”
The conversation on the impact of racial bias in New Jersey will continue Wednesday when the YWCA of Northern New Jersey hosts a 7 p.m. in-person town hall at Caldwell University.
State attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, will be providing opening remarks at the event.
The panelists will include Dr. Lena Campagna, a sociology and criminal justice professor at Caldwell University and two Black women who have stories to share — Bobbi’s mother, Monique Joseph, and Dr. Chris Pernell, a public health physician and former University Hospital executive who alleged racism pushed her out of her position as the hospital’s diversity and inclusion officer.
The “United against hate: The state of bias crimes in New Jersey” event is part of a month-long series the YWCA, a non-profit group whose mission includes fighting systemic racism and gender inequity, created to address the increase in hate crimes in New Jersey and around the nation.
“Hate crimes go unreported in every one of these communities out of fear and out of people not knowing what to do, and so it was important for us that the series does a couple of things,” Archontou said. “We wanted to make sure that people knew where to go to get support for themselves and their family members.”
At the end of the series, the YWCA will publish a toolkit on its website that includes resources collected throughout each of their events, officials said.
As of earlier this week, about 150 people had registered for the town hall at Caldwell University. The panelists were chosen because they have a perspective or related story to share on the topic, according to the event’s organizers.
“Sharing stories is key in this because that creates racial and cultural empathy that is so needed for us to be able to ... go that next step,” Archontou said.
“The Attorney General, making the time to be there at all, alone shows the importance of the conversation,” she added.
The town hall will include a discussion of ways to heal as a community after incidents of racial bias and hate crimes. Pernell, the former University Hospital executive, and Joseph, the mother of the girl targeted by a neighbor for killing lanternflies, will share their stories.
Pernell was University Hospital’s diversity and inclusion officer until her departure in late September. She left the public hospital because her decisions and efforts were constantly questioned or hampered, Pernell said at the time.
“I received a fair amount of pushback around my decisions, and I do believe it was tied to that fact that as a Black woman leader my expertise was scrutinized and questioned in ways that others were not,” she told NJ Advance Media in September.
Alongside her older daughter, Joseph spoke at a Caldwell town council meeting last November about the call to police about her younger daughter, Bobbi. The family accused their neighbor of targeting the girl because she is Black and said they hoped speaking out would spark a conversation in the Essex County community about racial bias, diversity and equity.
“When I speak on Wednesday, it will be less about the specifics of the incident,” said Joseph. “I want to use this as a teachable moment, in how to be a neighbor and how this affected my family’s life.”
Since the family spoke out, Bobbi has received awards and recognition from multiple towns and institutions, including honors at an events in Princeton, Montclair and at Yale University.
“There’s more to the story than Princeton, there’s more to the story than Yale,” Joseph said.
Registration for the town hall event at Caldwell University’s Alumni Theatre at 7 p.m. Wednesday is free via the YWCA of Northern New Jersey’s Eventbrite link. The discussion will also be broadcasted on the nonprofit group’s Facebook page.
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Nyah Marshall may be reached at Nmarshall@njadvancemedia.com
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