Sunday, March 14, 1999
Racism begs for public response
BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DAYTON — After her story made the 6 p.m. news, Laverne Wright got a call from her grandfather.
“You're crazy,” he said. “You never should have moved to a place where you're the only black in the building.”
Ms. Wright was surprised. Her grandfather had raised her to believe she had the same freedoms as anyone else. And she liked Dayton. It was quiet. It seemed like a good place to raise her 2-year-old.
Then the locked door to her apartment building was kicked in by a man who said he was looking for the African-Americans — and used a racial slur to describe them.
On another day, she was walking with her daughter and a neighbor's child when a white teen-ager confronted her and called her a slur. And on Feb. 24, she found “KKK,” “neo-Nazi” and a swastika scrawled around her door.
Today, the building's front lock remains broken. Ms. Wright hears the fire escape rattling and worries that someone is coming up.
She has decided to move.
If one were keeping score, the board would look like this: Intimidation, 1. Neighborliness, 0.
RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITIES
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• Housing Opportunities Made Equal: 721-4663
• Students Against Racism: 572-7528 (Note: NKU is on spring break this week.)
• Kentucky Human Rights Commission: 292-2935
• Building Hospitable Communities
An organizational meeting will take place from 10 a.m. to noon March 27 at Howard Hall, 25 E. 11th St. in Covington.
Project director Cathy Cox can be reached through the Kentucky Council of Churches, (606) 253-3027
For local information, contact Northern Kentucky Interfaith Commission, 581-2237.
• Recommended reading:
When Hate Groups Come to Town: A Handbook for Effective Community Response. Published by the Center for Democratic Renewal, (404) 221-0025
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I'm told the majority of Dayton's residents oppose racism. When I wrote a column about skinheads in the community, high school students protested my characterization of their town. They and city leaders criticized the media for blowing racism out of proportion. Every town has a few idiots, they said.
I believe this to be true.
I also believe many people are privately disturbed by racism but publicly unsure how to address it.
There is a way.
Communities like Dayton can form coalitions to plan immediate responses to racial incidents. These responses might include holding rallies at city hall and issuing public statements condemning the incidents.
Cathy Cox, a Lexington-based consultant who helps communities form such organizations, shared some examples from other places:
In Billings, Mont., anti-Semites vandalized a home displaying a menorah, the candelabrum that symbolizes Judaism. In response, a local newspaper printed a picture of a menorah, and residents taped it to their windows in support of the victims.
In another city, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally on the steps of the state capitol. The next day, young people brought brushes and buckets of water to symbolically wash the steps.
“People walking by joined them, because they had signs saying what they were doing,” Ms. Cox says.
She's currently working with Northern Kentucky residents on a project called Building Hospitable Communities. Several dozen pastors, social service workers, educators and residents have been meeting in Covington to organize and plan responses to racism. People from any county are welcom.
I went to one meeting. Ms. Cox is expert at keeping focused on concrete action, not just happy talk.
It would be nice if hate crimes never occurred. Barring that, communities ought to send messages whenever they can. Doing so publicly, as a group, protects individuals who are afraid to confront racists on their own.
After Ms. Wright's experience, some Dayton residents made personal efforts to respond.
“It really concerned me. This is intolerable,” says Cathy Volter, a city council member. “Bottom line, nobody should be afraid to live where they wish.”
Mrs. Volter called her husband, Jeff, the principal of Dayton High School, and asked him to make an announcement on the public-address system. He told students what had happened and suggested they contact police if they had information.
Mrs. Volter also called a Brighton Center employee who knows Ms. Wright. Through the employee, she invited Ms. Wright to come to her house and talk about the situation.
Mrs. Volter says she did what she could. She didn't want to be pushy.
Ms. Wright wishes she had heard more from residents.
“As far as the community of Dayton is concerned, only two people from the neighborhood came and said they were sorry about anything.”
She did get other support. At Northern Kentucky University, a group called Students Against Racism sent a representative to speak with Ms. Wright. So did the Cincinnati organization known as HOME, for Housing Opportunities Made Equal.
These groups are willing to work with communities like Dayton. I'm challenging people there — the ones who told me they're disgusted by racism — to accept the offer.
It's good to tell a pesky columnist that hate crimes are horrible. It's even better to take some action.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. E-mail at: ksamples@enquirer.com
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