Curtiss Reed: The difference between benign neglect and malicious intent

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity https://vermontpartnership.org/ in Brattleboro.
When controversy surfaced within our family or in the neighborhood, Mama Bea, my great-aunt, was fond of saying, “It is what it is, but it ain’t what it seems!” When I first saw “Everyone Loves A Parade!,” the mural on the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, my first response as a b