Current Town Councilor Portia Bordelon was not nominated by the party for reelection to the council. I was among those to support Portia, and staked my future in the party on it: threatening to resign as a member and secretary if she did not get the nomination.

Later, I was in a meeting with Portia and party leadership to discuss how the party would move forward. I took a brief moment to reaffirm that I was resigning from the party. I was advised to not burn any bridges, to which I replied, "I have the napalm ready to go."

Here is the napalm.

The reason why I left the party is because power is being maintained behind the scenes by old, privileged, white racists. I cannot express in words the cringe of listening to older white people calling a passionate younger black woman "rude" and "loud." The Groton Democratic Town Committee is not a party that I want to be a part of, and so I left.

I stand in solidarity with my friend Portia Bordelon, who gave years of commitment and hard work to a party that snubbed her.

I am not done with local politics, but I am done with this party.

Dane Stevenson

Groton

Editor's note: Bordelon was nominated to run for Board of Education and RTM.