By Nour Habib, Granite State News Collaborative Engagement Reporter
Good morning, and welcome to the second installment of This is New Hampshire, the Collaborative's newest newsletter. Last month, we announced the launch of our multiyear reporting project focused on race and equity in the state. This month, I want to highlight some of the great work our reporters and partners have done around this project in the last few weeks.
Additionally, I hope you enjoy our new Three Questions profile, which will feature a different person of color in the state each month as part of this newsletter. This month, I spoke to Benjamin Pasley, the general manager at Bookery Manchester.
A look at the month's stories
We hit the ground running on this project. Freelance reporter Meg McIntyre looked at the changing demographics in the state. Between 2000 and 2018, the number of people of color in New Hampshire roughly doubled, to about 136,000. But some new residents told her they don't always find a welcoming environment when they arrive.
Additionally, the rising violence against Asian Americans during the last year has put a renewed focus on hate crimes. The Collaborative took a look at how the state investigates and prosecutes these crimes, and examined the limitations of hate crime data and reporting. Some question the effectiveness of hate crime legislation, and say "responses to hate must reach beyond the law into classrooms, workplaces and community spaces."
Also in the last month, the Collaborative, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and New Hampshire Bar News, published a series on restorative justice, which seeks to address the root causes of crime within an individual rather than responding with punishment. In recent months, more activists have begun calling for restorative justice as a solution to the country’s mass incarceration problem. In this story, a team of reporters examines juvenile court diversion, a form of restorative justice, and its inconsistent use across the state. Other stories in this series look into adult court diversion and the system in place in Vermont, considered a national leader in restorative justice. This series was made possible by a grant from Solutions Journalism Network.
If you'd like to suggest a candidate for our Three Questions profile feature, please email me at nour.habib@collaborativenh.org. Please follow us on our social media accounts linked below and watch your inbox for next month's installment of This is New Hampshire: Exploring Diversity in the Granite State.
Three Questions with Benjamin Pasley
Benjamin Pasley, the general manager at Bookery Manchester, wasn’t much of a reader when he first took a job at the Bookery’s café a couple of years ago.
“I just hadn’t found a book that held my attention,” said Pasley, who has Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
That changed when two co-workers dug into his interests and produced some graphic novel suggestions.
“That’s when my brain flipped,” he said. Now, he is “devouring” books, and reading to his 3-year-old son every night.
Pasley, 31, grew up in Alabama. He moved to New Hampshire to live with his sister at the age of 19, after losing both parents.
A dozen years later, Pasley is enjoying his job at Bookery, where he sees all types of people walk through the doors.
“Everything about this job is super fun,” he said.
It’s also humbling, Pasley said. He sometimes talks with homeless people when they come to the store.
“People think they’re so different, but they’re just people who had one or two mishaps in life and didn’t rebound, and the community didn’t do its job helping them out.”
Below, Pasley answers a few questions for the newsletter’s first “Three Questions” profile. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Your bookstore bio says you make TikTok videos for the store. What is it about the platform that you think resonates with people, particularly the younger generation?
This platform stands out because everyone has a voice. It’s not like Instagram, where everything is flashy, and it’s all about “my best life.” It doesn’t matter who you are or what your interests are, the algorithm is toward what you like and what you want to see. So you can grow an audience or fanbase quickly.
For us, it was new and super fun, and we couldn’t stop laughing. Especially during COVID, when everyone was scared, being able to laugh that hard in the store helped us feel connected.
What has been your experience as a Black man living in New Hampshire, as compared, for example, to being a Black man in Alabama?
Being a Black man in Alabama is still bad. It’s not as bad as 60, 70, 100 years ago. But it’s different [than New Hampshire] because it’s more diverse, so you do have areas where there are more people who look like you, who have your best interests in mind.
But, racism and bigotry are more overt over there. In one way, that’s good, because you know, ‘Bob over there is racist. He likes to say he’s racist. I’ll keep an eye on Bob.’ It’s a weird experience, but I grew up with it, and when you know someone is racist you can stay away from them.
Up here, [racism] is more silent. It’s more in the systems or establishments or businesses where you start to see it. You could be having a conversation with someone, and not be able to tell that they are racist.
It’s scarier and harder to move up here because you don’t know who is with you. And up here, it’s harder to be yourself in certain situations. There are certain mannerisms you see in how people treat you when people are being themselves, like when I have my hair down.
And I don’t see a lot of diversity in the businesses. They keep saying Manchester is diverse, but I don’t see it. You try to climb the corporate ladder, but can’t. The system is not built for us to thrive in.
In your opinion, if there is one aspect of life that can be changed that would put us on a better path toward racial equity, what would it be?
Empathy. A lot of people either don’t know what empathy is or don’t have it. It’s hard to have empathy, if you’ve never had anything go wrong. It’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes when you’ve never experienced [the same experiences].
Seeing others as human beings, as opposed to seeing everyone as so different, when in fact we’re all the same.
From our partners
This month, in a partnership between the Collaborative and Manchester Ink Link, reporter Ryan Lessard looks at Critical Race Theory, which is targeted by the "divisive concepts" legislation currently being considered as part of the state budget. The Manchester NAACP President tells Lessard one of the reasons Critical Race Theory has become the subject of political debate is an inherent divergence in perception. Read more here.
Thanks for reading! See you next time. -- Nour
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ABOUT THE GRANITE STATE NEWS COLLABORATIVE
The Granite State News Collaborative is a collective of nearly 20 local media, education and community partners working together to produce and share news stories on the issues that most impact our state. Together we can provide more information to more communities across New Hampshire than we could individually.