Today we ask that you turn yourself inside out. Can you see that our hearts all tick the same, perhaps not with the same rhythm, but through the same marvel of science of God or Allah or Ganesh?
Remember the heart.
Tonight, the city council should approve the creation of a commission to serve those who feel they have been mistreated based on race, sexual orientation or gender by police officers, city officials or business owners.
Turn yourself back outside-in, because this is an issue of the color of your skin. No type of discrimination is worse than another, but it was racial tension that spurred the creation of the SIU/Carbondale race relations task force in April 2001. Students cried foul after the Carbondale Police used Mace on about 80 black students to disperse a block party in a predominately black neighborhood.
Perhaps this incident was not racially motivated. But the fact that the actions of the police, the protectors of our city, made many people in the black community feel uneasy - many who were completely removed from the incident - should be a scream for reform.
The task force recommended the formation of a Human Relations Commission that would "act independently and have substantial authority including subpoena power and the levying of sanctions" with redressing grievances. It also recommended that the task force be a joint venture between the city and the University.
Because of legal implications of an independent commission with such power, the city suggested creating an advisory board that would make recommendations to the city council. University officials said they would be supportive within their legal scope.
We strongly support the creation of this commission. For too long we have silenced the angry whispers of the black man who is followed by the police for no other suspicion than the color of his skin; or the woman turned down for a home mortgage because black implies financial irresponsibility; or the student asked to making sweeping generalizations for his entire race in a class discussion.
Overt racism is not the problem.
The majority of the racism or prejudice (call it what you will) that exists in Carbondale is much more subtle.
Leaders of the local black community, including the president of this University, have sat before our editorial board and recounted the covert racism they encounter everyday. One man with a doctorate degree and six-figure salary told of a white woman who clutched her purse when he walked past her in the mall.
It is time we stop saying that racism is someone else's problem and realize that it is OUR problem. It is time we step outside of ourselves and our comfort zones and trudge into unfamiliar territory.
There will be no change if the bottom is constantly pushing upon a stubborn group that sees they have done no wrong and will take no responsibility. If we are all truly to live as equals, the pushing must also come from the top down.
The creation of this commission would be a good first step in generating dialogue and perhaps eventually creating the bridge that will end racial injustice in Carbondale.
Councilman Brad Cole suggested the City Council serve as the Human Relations Commission to eliminate the bureaucracy of an outside body that would make recommendations to the council. Would a city council by any other name smell as sweet ... or have the commitment and time to root out racial injustice and see to its end?
We do not believe that a council simply wearing another hat is the answer. This should not be a rubber-stamp deal.
The commission should be an outside body, representative of the city and University population. It should be constructed of members with a passion for justice and equality.
Carbondale is no different from most other nameless cities in America. That doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to be better.
It will be a long process. The creation of this commission will be a good first step in recognizing there is a problem.
And then we must begin by listening with our ears and eyes.
Oh, but it will take so much more than that. Change of this magnitude cannot be achieved through the eyes or ears. It must bear upon that which resides inside of us, the part of all of us that is the same, incapable of prejudice and hate.
This must become a matter of the heart.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
