RIPTON — Middlebury College’s 104-year-old Bread Loaf campus is a scenic bastion of serenity and creativity, a storied education hub adorned with a collection of yellow-ochre, green-shingled buildings nestled among lush trees and deftly manicured fields off Route 125 in Ripton, a mere slalom away from the Snowbowl.

But that Rockwellian portrait was momentarily shattered by a senseless act of racism at around 7:10 p.m. on Sunday, June 30.

Louis Smith, a scholar, educator and a returnee to the Bread Load School of English, was inside the campus apartment he’s sharing with his family this summer. His spouse, Millie, and their two children — ages 3 and 5 — were playing outside. Their laughter dissolved into stunned incredulity, however, when a young man in a dark, old-model pickup truck slowed on Route 125 as he neared the mom and two children and yelled, “Go home (f-word) n****rs,” and sped off.

Others on campus heard the hate speech, too. Sadly, all were too stunned to get a license plate number. Vermont State Police are investigating the incident.

Smith is Black, his wife is white, and their children are biracial. He believes he and his family were specifically targeted.

“It was unnerving; if it had just been me, I wouldn’t have been as concerned,” he said during a recent phone interview.

“Racism if one of those things that’s always there, sadly. It springs up from time to time. But it’s still shocking when it’s so directed, pointed and aggressive.”

Smith said the act was cowardly but acknowledged “cowards do hurt people from time to time.”

So, for peace of mind, Smith stayed awake during the night of the incident, on the off-chance the drive-by racist might return to harm his family.

“You think of people being threatened during the time of reconstruction, with people sitting on their porch waiting for the Klan to show up,” he said. “Your mind starts to go there. That was a lonely night.”

But Smith would soon learn he was far from alone.

Members of the Bread Loaf and greater Addison County communities rallied behind the Smith family, showing support that culminated in an on-campus event on Tuesday, July 2, at which more than 20 supporters shared food and created signs bearing messages like, “We are your neighbor,” “I belong here; we belong here” and “All are welcome here.”

“It’s been awesome,” Smith said of the response. 

SAMANTHA LANGEVIN, LEFT, and HaQuyen Pham were among more than 20 community members who made signs in support of a family that was targeted by hate speech at Middlebury College’s Bread Load campus in Ripton on Sunday, June 30.
Photo by Antoine Waithe

Bread Loaf colleagues and staff have continued to help the family in both tangible and symbolic ways.

“A number of people said, ‘You’re not going to sit out on your porch (to keep vigil); we’ll sit out there for you. Go inside and be with your family, we’ll keep watch,’” Smith said. “The feeling of being taken care of was huge.”

The Smiths have taken a stance of being more visible in the face of a random act of ignorance and hatred.

“I’m not going to hide, I’m going to be here,” Louis said, “and to have that echoed by two-dozen people who are saying, ‘You’re our neighbor, you belong here and we want everyone to know that,’ is pretty awesome.”

Serena Kim provided a key spark in rallying the community for the July 2 “art-in” for the Smith family. In addition to being co-owner of Middlebury’s Swift House Inn, Kim is a second-year Bread Loaf student seeking her master’s degree in English literature. She’s a member of Addison County BIPOC+, the Vermont Releaf Collective, and Middlebury’s Students of Color Consortium, which supports the college’s BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) community as it navigates an institution — and state — that’s predominantly white.

“It triggered a lot of horrible memories for me in experiencing racial trauma and I felt shock, because it seemed like such an ‘Alabama, circa 1940s’ thing to happen. I felt we had come so far that this was so stunning,” Kim said.

Kim noted Smith’s first impulse after the racist event was a desire to make a sign saying, “I’m not going anywhere.” She reasoned that other members of the BIPOC community could so the same, in solidarity.

“A lot of people, regardless of their race, felt sad and frustrated, and wanted to show their support,” she said.

Kim liked the idea of having “a lot of people of color on Route 125, being joyful and making art and showing we’re here. It was important to me that we be people of color at this (event), even though I know how supportive white students and the administration are. They want to help us and be present. But what happens in Vermont is if a lot of white people get together, it can look like any other day in Vermont. But if Blacks, Asians and Latinos gather on Route 125, it’s quite visible. I felt even our bodies were a protest.”

Like Smith, Kim believes the culprit in this case had prior knowledge of the family.

“The focus was a woman and two very young children who really don’t present as Black. That meant that Louis was being monitored and it was an attack against his mixed marriage; that was really painful to me. We have to stand up as a community and show that’s not tolerated,” she said.

Smith and his family continue to feel the love in the aftermath of a hateful incident.

“I didn’t have to be the engine for all this happening,” he said, with gratitude. “There was this feeling of, ‘We’ve got you; you’ve got enough on your plate, we’re gonna take care of this for you. I feel like ‘ally’ can be a trite term, but to me, this is what ally-ship actually looks like: ‘You take care of yourself, we got the rest of this.’”

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].