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"Some days up here I felt like was going through shock therapy." -- City Administrator Fred Russell, after spilling his Coke on the lectern while addressing to the Augusta Commission
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| | | | ARCHIVES 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | Editor's Choice Issue #19.22 :: 12/26/2007 - 01/01/2008 How do you fix race relations? | AUGUSTA, GA. - Brandy Deaver and Jessie Tyson at the University of South Carolina-Aiken came up with a tool to improve race relations. They call it RACE, and it’s an acronym to encourage people do four things:
- Remember that all people are human;
- Acknowledge that race is defined by society;
- Cease prejudging people; and
- Educate and do not tolerate discriminatory remarks.
“This may be just the humble idea of two college students, but we believe that if we start small, if we start local, we can be an example to the United States and even the world,” they wrote in their letter to the Metro Spirit.
In all, more than 20 members of a sociology class at USC-Aiken wrote letters
advancing their thoughts on improving race relations. The class, under the guidance of Professor Beth Williams, responded to an article in the Metro Spirit published July 25, “chronicle.hate.com.” That article looked at racial intolerance on The Augusta Chronicle Web site message boards and comment sections.
“I must admit that after reading your article, ‘chronicle.hate.com,’ I was disheartened by the amount of intolerance in our community,” Williams wrote. “Being a problem solver by design, I wanted to come up with a plan that would manage this overt hatred.”
She turned it into a project for her social problems class. Her students came up with creative ideas.
“There could be government sponsored and advertised National Hug Days,” wrote Jami Meiggs and Amy Steele. Steele and Meiggs would fill National Hug Day with multicultural and social events “from block parties to masquerade balls.”
Joseph Francis designed a “walk in their shoes” experiment in which people of different races switch places. “They would have to live their everyday lives as another race.”
De’anna Glover reached to what some say is the ultimate answer for everything — prayer, specifically prayer in school.
If only we could apply such ideas.
Imagine schools where daily prayers were said in multiple religions, as Dr. Kapil Bhalla of the MCG Cancer Center remembers from his youth in a Gandhian school in New Dehli. Perhaps sharing prayers of Islam and Judaism and Christianity could bridge cultures.
Imagine Austin Rhodes volunteering to spend time in a Black Like Me experience recreating John Howard Griffin’s six-week experience traveling in segregated parts of Alabama and Georgia. Even if Rhodes’ views were not changed, his credibility would be heightened.
Imagine National Hug Day featuring a makeup session between Michelle Vann and Rhodes. As you recall, Rhodes called Vann a “media whore” and referred to her son as “wee-wee boy.” Vann responded by calling Rhodes “butt wipe” and saying he had “KKK buddies,” which she even attached to her complaints to the Federal Communications Commission.
With Vann planning a Unity Summit on April 4-5, 2008, here in Augusta, would she invite Rhodes to stand with her on the podium? Would she allow him to speak? Would she hug him, even if she didn’t forgive him?
Sadly, even though Rhodes and Vann may be far advanced in experience and education when compared to our students at USC-Aiken, they are far less likely to allow such reconciliation to come to pass. They have chosen their sides.
Diego Sevi asked Rhodes in an e-mail, “Be the good guy you want to be and probably a more dynamic force in Augusta than ever before. Write and broadcast a public apology and especially to the Vann family for at times being insensitive. State your feelings of bridging the racial divide. Tell all that you believe in justice and equality for all Americans. Offer an olive branch.”
Rhodes responded, “They put a 6-year-old boy on TV for no reason other than to drum up support for their campaign of lies. I blasted them for that and am proud that I did.”
Though I’ve defended Rhodes publicly, saying I don’t think he’s a racist, I’m far from proud of what he said about the Vanns. But his pride illustrates the difficulty facing idealists like those students at USC-Aiken.
Many of us have made up our minds. We have judged. And we are too proud to reconsider. Lord knows, I am too. For the past year, I have been reading materials that challenge my beliefs on the issue of race and intelligence. And I am unwilling to change my mind because it so disrupts my worldview.
But it reminds me of what Wade Herlong and Brian Henderson of USC-Aiken wrote in their essay, “A favorite professor once told me, ‘You will never hate a man you take the time to understand.’”
I take solace in the fact that I am still trying to understand — even though I resist changing. I am encouraged that Rhodes has said he may have been wrong about Corey Johnson. I am pleased Vann says the conference is about unity and not division.
And I am heartened that so many students at USC-Aiken would recognize the problem and begin looking for solutions. They could have thrown up a wall of denial as so many of us do.
As Tekara Odom wrote, “How can you solve a problem if you don’t know you have a problem?” Perhaps RACE, prayer and Hug Day are imperfect ideas. But Rhodes and I are so 2007.
Happy 2008. Thank God for those with fresh eyes and ideas. | |
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