This Black Upstate New York Family Is Fighting Back Against A Racist Neighbor – Essence

Amanda David and her children moved into their Tompkins County, N.Y. home in 2020. But for more than two years, the David family has been the target of persistent racist and sexist attacks from their next-door neighbor.

As a single Black mother, David has been working hard to create a loving home for her family, even starting a community garden with the hopes of helping others nurture a love of “nature and tending to the land, like she did as a farmworker traveling around the country to pick crops,” Syracuse.com reported.

But their neighbor Robert R. Whittaker Jr. has been actively working against David’s idyllic dream, disrupting what should be a tranquil home and business. According to papers filed with the court, Whittaker has been spewing “racial slurs for years at David and her family and encroached on their property…He has kept up his abuse despite being arrested twice and put under a court order to stay away.”

In May, CNY Fair Housing, a social services organization in Syracuse, N.Y., filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of David, arguing that Whittaker’s actions were in violation of both federal and state laws, such as the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act.

The complaint laid out how Whittaker “has called David and her children the n-slur and ‘handouts’ on many occasions and even threatened to attack one of David’s sons with a stick. As further alleged in the complaint, Whittaker has vandalized the Davids’ car twice, both by spray painting it with expletives and by forcing an object through the front grill and causing mechanical damage.”

When the situation ceased to abate even after these abovementioned measures, in June David requested another order of protection against her neighbor. This time, the judge issued an order for Whittaker to turn over any firearms in his possession.

“My children and I should be able to feel safe and secure in our own home, but we don’t. Mr. Whittaker’s persistent and horrendously racist and sexist intimidation and harassment has made that impossible,” David says.

“If you heard this story and it was happening in Mississippi, you’d be like, ‘Oh, well, maybe,’” continued David. “Having this happen in 2024 here is extra shocking and really sobering as to what it’s still like.”

“His discriminatory behavior hasn’t just harmed my family, it has also harmed the entire community of BIPOC gardeners and herbal medicine practitioners that I work with,” added David. “There are already so many barriers to the fields of agriculture and horticulture for people of color, and it makes me both discouraged and deeply sad that Mr. Whittaker’s harassment is yet another obstacle that I and the community I’m part of have to confront in our efforts to engage in this work.”

CNY Fair Housing’s Executive Director, Sally Santangelo stated, “Fair housing laws guarantee a right to every family to choose and enjoy their home free from discrimination.”

“The racial and sex-based harassment perpetrated against the David family by their neighbor is not just morally abhorrent, it’s also a flagrant violation of both federal and state law,” Santangelo said. “CNY Fair Housing will do everything within its power to ensure that the David family’s rights are not violated further and that they can enjoy their home without living in constant fear of being harassed because of their sex or the color of their skin.”