Can we talk? Lynchburg's dialogue on race and racism (More on the "Know Nothings")

News & Advance ^ | June 2, 2007

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Can we talk? Lynchburg's dialogue on race and racism

Lynchburg News & Advance

Saturday, June 2, 2007

To delve into the thicket that is the question of race relations in America is always a dangerous undertaking. It’s a loaded topic that cuts to the core of who a person is and how he perceives he fits in American society - or doesn’t.

But as the face of America changes before our eyes, it’s a topic that needs to be addressed.

Race has been a boil since the very first African was brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to the highest bidder as a mere piece of property. Slavery evolved into America’s “peculiar institution” over the course of the next two centuries and became the ugly foundation of both the Northern and Southern economies, finally blowing up in the Civil War.

On into the 20th century, both Northern and Southern states made segregation a keystone of their societies: separate schools, separate neighborhoods, separate parks, separate drinking fountains and restrooms … the list goes on.

The process of breaking with that ugly past was long, tedious, contentious and bloody. Battles in America’s streets, courtrooms and legislatures over the course of decades have resulted in an America that is valiantly striving to live up to the dream that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

But it’s all an ongoing, never-ending process that every community faces, and Lynchburg and Central Virginia are no different.

Race, ethnicity, class … they all play into each other and when they converge on the public stage, there’s often the possibility for misunderstandings and rancor.

America has been known as a “melting pot” of cultures, but often in its history, the temperature required for the melting to take place has risen to unacceptable levels.

In the 19th century, as the first great waves of non-English migration began to sweep over the country, anti-immigrant political movements such as the Know-Nothings sprang up.They stirred visceral reactions against the Irish, Italians, Germans and Polish immigrants coming to America’s shores.

In light of several incidents over the past couple of years, political and civic leaders in Lynchburg recently announced plans for the Lynchburg Community Dialogue on Race and Racism.

The gang problem of a couple of years ago, the September 2006 death of Clarence Beard while in the custody of the Lynchburg Police Department and the ensuing investigation, the uproar by neighbors to the low-income housing proposal in Richland Hills: These issues and more have shined the spotlight on tensions in the greater community that need to be addressed.

Planning is already under way for what organizers hope will be the beginning of a long process that will result in a Lynchburg more comfortable and secure with itself and with its differences.

Early in 2008, there’ll be dozens, if not hundreds, of small groups meeting in locations all over the city to tackle the thorny issues of race and racism. What will be the agenda? That’ll be up to each small group’s members and their facilitator.

Working with the office of the city manager, two local organizations - the Martin Luther King Jr. Lynchburg Community Council and the Neighborhood Executive Advisory Committee - will be helping to find and train the volunteer facilitators and coordinate the arrangements for the encounters.

Is there a race problem in Lynchburg? Who knows; it truly depends on your perspective.

But perceptions can create reality.

For many black Americans, it must be incredibly difficult to shake off memories of a time when the color of their skin, not the content of their character, determined everything: where they could live, go to school, work and travel.

There’s no better way to erase misperceptions, to counter-balance the weight of history, than for people to get to know each other and to talk - often bluntly - about their problems and experiences.

So, when the schedule of community dialogue sessions is publicized, put them on your calendar. Come with an open mind and open ears and a willingness to talk openly and honestly: Everyone can learn something.

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"...America has been known as a “melting pot” of cultures, but often in its history, the temperature required for the melting to take place has risen to unacceptable levels.

In the 19th century, as the first great waves of non-English migration began to sweep over the country, anti-immigrant political movements such as the Know-Nothings sprang up.They stirred visceral reactions against the Irish, Italians, Germans and Polish immigrants coming to America’s shores...

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There it is again - immigration enforcement vs the racism label with a tie-in to the 19th century "Know Nothings."

Is the person who desires enforcement of current immigration laws now to be labeled a racist?

Somehow this reminds me of Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.

[bd476]

Also see:

Again(s)t Know-Nothingism

The Irish in America [Immigration in History]

[bd476]

Also see:

America's New Know-Nothings

[Sherman Logan]

Race has been a boil since the very first African was brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to the highest bidder as a mere piece of property.

Actually, the first Africans were brought in as indentured servants, on exactly the same footing as white indentured servants. It took most of the rest of the century to get black slaves reclassified as "mere property," with (oddly enough) the critical law case filed by a black slaveowner.

[Travis McGee]

It's all they have left.

[Ken H]

Can we talk? Lynchburg's dialogue on race and racism

Sure we can talk. Let's have a dialogue on some cold, hard facts about race and violent crime - beginning with rape and sexual assault:

http://www.roadtothemiddleclass.com/opeds.php?road=234

-begin excerpt-

If you go to the website reporting the annual National Crime Victimization Survey, as many people do, you can look up the rape statistics in "Table 42: Personal Crimes of Violence 2005: Percent distribution of single offender victimizations, based on race of victims, by type of crime and perceived race of offender."

Under "Rape/Sexual assaults" the survey reports 111,490 rape/assaults in 2005 in which a white was the victim. The "perceived race" of the offender was reported as white in 44.5 percent of cases, black in 33.6 percent of cases, "other" in 19.6 percent of cases.

Where the victim of rape was black, in 36,620 cases, things were rather different. The "perceived race" of the offender was reported as black in 100.0 percent of cases. White offenders? "0.0*" percent.

The asterisk means that the sample included ten or fewer reports.

The federal crime statistics show that white-on-black rape was almost non-existent in the United States of America in 2005.

-end excerpt-

According to the 2000 census, whites outnumbered blacks by about 6 to 1. Yet they commited nearly 50% more rapes/sexual assaults than whites.

Now go forth and dialogue.

[Darnright]

Is there racism in Lynchburg? Perhaps a better question would be, "Is there cronyism, a good old Democrat boy network and flat out corruption in Lynchburg"? See below:

Federal grand jury indicts Lynchburg Mayor Carl Hutcherson

Da mayor refused to step down at the time, but he's now gone.

[Moose4]

As a native of the area (grew up in Amherst County), I’m not surprised. Personally, I always thought race relations in central Virginia were surprisingly good, considering the school systems there were a real bastion of segregation. They didn’t integrate the Amherst County school system until 1968 (the year my brother graduated), and Prince Edward County shut their schools down for the entire 1970 school year rather than integrate. But as I was growing up there in the late ‘70s and into the ‘80s, the schools were fully integrated and everybody got on fine.

And I’m unsurprised about Hutcherson too. Lynchburg’s always had some under-the-table corruption going on, every city does. With all the suburban areas that they annexed in the ‘70s, though, I’m surprised they don’t elect an R as mayor every now and then.

}:-)4