In September, the Vermont Daily Chronicle authored and published a “where are they now?” news story on Vermont’s diversity/equity/inclusion professionals who had left their positions and/or Vermont, in almost every case citing racism as a reason for their departure.
Most of the people profiled became (or in some cases, continued to be) consultants working elsewhere on a contract, rather than employee, basis. One was Winooski Equity Director Yasamin Gordon, who resigned in 2022, citing frustration with opposition to her ‘anti-racist’ policies. Elaine Wang, Winooski’s city manager, said Gordon, who is Black, struggled with “both structural racism and microaggressions” on the job and within city government.
“She faced, certainly, microaggressions from colleagues,” Wang said in a previous Community News Service news report. City administration had “a fundamental lack of understanding of what her experience would be as a Black leader in an environment that hadn’t set expectations for inclusive behavior.” Gordon declined to offer specifics and said she still lives in Vermont, the CNS story said.
The VDC September 21 article also said she was “Director of DEI Policy & Culture” for Opportunity Consulting, a Washington D. C. firm. But according to an email received November 29 by VDC from Iris Bond Gill, CEO of Opportunity Consulting, Gordon was by September, 2023 was the former director and had no affiliation, at all. Gill requested a correction. Here it is:
Correction: Yasamin Gordon, the former diversity coordinator for the City of Winooski, was not affiliated with Opportunity Consulting of Washington, D.C. when a September, 2023 news story published in the Chronicle stated otherwise. She had been previously. “Ms Yasamin Gordon, during her short tenure with us, misrepresented her education credentials and experience, among other things,” Iris Bond Gill, CEO, told the Chronicle Wednesday. “There may be a story to write; however, the one you settled for is not it.” – Editor