Statement by Coalition Chair on Language and Race

 

LANGUAGE AND RACE IN AMERICA
By Carol Barry-Austin

(A different version of this article appeared in the News-Record of December 6, 2007)

From our beginnings, the Coalition has agreed that to notice race, and to work to understand how it plays out in our community in subtle, implicit ways, is important.

We work in many different ways to support stable integration and racial inclusivity, in many different arenas, both public and behind the scenes. 

We only need to look to this year’s biggest headlines to know that issues involving race are complicated and too often divisive.  From Don Imus to Isiah Thomas and from Michael Richards to the events in Jena, Louisiana, there is one example after another of how the impact of race on our national experience and psyche continues to distort and divide. Whether or not words are spoken in a racial way, in our community they too often become racialized. That is not to call the speakers racist.  But we, as residents of a community that prides itself on its openness and inclusiveness, need to learn to recognize and deal with this dynamic.

It is our hope and belief that our community can further the much needed and all too often neglected conversation about race in this country. To that end, and in addition to work behind the scenes, we are working to put together a community conversation about language and race. 

We need to learn, together, how to create the conditions and contexts that facilitate constructive, personal, and institutional relationships across lines of race, and to eliminate those that tend to undermine or preclude such relationships. We encourage our neighbors to stay tuned and to participate with us in this important work.

If we cannot make it work here, a community where the vast majority of residents share the values inherent in diversity, integration and inclusivity, then where? 

Carol Barry-Austin is the Chair of the South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race