Boston Voices: Yvonne Spicer On What It Means To Be Anti-Racist 

BOSTON (CBS) - "I think people were outraged," Yvonne Spicer said, recalling the series of protest marches across Massachusetts after the death of George Floyd.

"It was a resounding sense of enough is absolutely enough. And we are going to fight, all of us are going to fight," she said talking about the racial diversity she saw in nearly every crowd of demonstrators.

"When I was born, Black people didn't even have the right to vote," she said remembering back to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. "People thought, Barack Obama is the President of the United States. We are all done now; we have solved racism.

"I look at myself as I am the first Mayor of the City of Framingham. I'm the first African-American woman popularly elected by the people in the entire state of Massachusetts. It sounds like something wonderful to celebrate, but it's also something sad because this is Massachusetts, we are a progressive state."

When asked to define anti-racism in the simplest way possible, she said, "Anti-racist is someone that sought to everybody having equitable rights."

"The more you call people out for their bad behavior, the more you are proving you are not just an ally. Allies are like, 'Hey, we're marching.' Active anti-racists will get in there and fight, use [their] white privilege to fight for someone who does not have privilege. That's being an active anti-racist.

"I know we've moved the needle over the last 50 years, and I would be remiss if I didn't say that the needle has been moved, but we have some more work to do.  For us to get out of this, we have to work together a little bit better.

"If I'm not free, you're not free either."