Forum: 'Pick up the ball' to scale Charlotte's racial barriers

Charlotte needs to stop producing reports that do not result in change.

Black Lives Matter Charlotte, an initiative of The Charlotte Post Foundation, met tonight at Myers Park Presbyterian Church to discuss "Breaking Systemic Racial Barriers to Social Progress." James Ford, the 2014-15 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, headlined the conversation. Ford and Andrea Smith, chief administration officer at Bank of America, co-chair the Leading on Opportunity Implementation Council, which stemmed from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force Report and Charlotte’s response to being ranked 50^th out of 50 large U.S. cities in upward economic mobility.

“We need to know that we’re going to get resistance,” Ford said of implementing change. “You can get mad, but at the end of the day, we have to start engaging people where they’re at. This is what we’re going to have to prepare ourselves for if we’re really serious about changing our opportunity structure here in Charlotte.”

An area of Charlotte rooted in practices that favor whites, the forum took place in the heart of the Myers Park neighborhood.

“I was asked ‘why would you guys be interested in hosting this forum?’” Myers Park Presbyterian Church Pastor Joe Clifford said. “I think our congregation is deeply concerned about the divides that plague our community. We want to be a part of the solution, and in order to do that we need to fully understand the problem.”

Said Post Foundation board member Tiffany Capers: “We are creating a brave space this evening to have some dialogue. Racism is still the issue we must address, and not just name. We have to move past being comfortable saying it, and really interrogate it.”

Ford emphasized that change has to come from Charlotte as a whole, not just organizations like the Opportunity Task Force.

“It’s time for us to pick up the ball and start doing it,” said Virginia Sullivan, a retired nurse.

Said Ford: “The truth of the matter is I wouldn’t even be here if I didn’t believe that these problems were solvable. First you need to understand the problem intimately—then we start to work toward solutions.”

Said Clifford: “Segregation was created by people, and it can be undone by people.”

As a growing city, Charlotte wants to attract the best talent to grow its workforce, but as a transient city, how can a 20-something from elsewhere feel compelled to take care of his or her fellow Charlotteans?

“Your life is impacted by race every day whether you realize it or not,” Ford said. “Do you like your city? Then you better get involved in the struggle. ”

An forum attendee shared a story about a primarily white church going to a black church in a struggling neighborhood and the pastor express frustration with white people coming in with checkbooks acting as if that would solve the problem.

“I’d rather we empower folks,” Ford said of when people come into neighborhoods with a white savior complex.

Said Capers: “Ask how to help.”

Ford concluded by offering an outline of what needs to come next.

“We need to be race conscious,” he said. “Do not be color blind. We need to talk about race for real. We need to adopt a racial equity lens, and look for ‘disparate racial impact.’ You need to look at race. You need to see what’s going on. We need to check for race, because we know it’s been there since the very beginning. Changing economic mobility means you have to share power. Practice talking about race in conversation—particularly with people of color. The lie of all of this is that we can somehow survive without each other. The system itself is a self-cannibalizing system. It will destroy itself if you don’t fix it. You need to vote according to your convictions on race. There has to be agreement between what you espouse and what you enact. Lastly, call to action is I’m going to ask you all to take a stand. We actually have the opportunity to still get it right.”

Comments