Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009

Discussion on race relations held in the center of St. Clair Square

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS -- For hundreds of visitors to St. Clair Square on Saturday, their trip to the mall became far more than a way to escape the sweltering heat outside or to scoop up summer bargains.

Instead, with the help of the Rev. John Curry's booming preacher's voice, the mall's normally bustling lower level center court was transformed into a serious, even solemn place as Curry led a public forum on race relations and racism.

Curry, the pastor of Conqueror's Christian Center in Belleville, moderated an often passionate panel discussion on the looming gaps that still separate white and black Americans -- despite the fact voters elected their first black president in November.

"We're not here to blame. We're not here to point fingers," Curry said. "We're here to talk about race openly and candidly."

Several times during the nearly two-hour forum, Curry said he did not want it to descend into "Kumbaya" moment where participants ended up holding hands in a false show of harmony.

Instead, he said, he wanted dialogue that was honest and raw and that spotlighted hard truths.

One of the places where Curry hit a nerve centered on what he called the victim mentality that afflicts many black Americans.

"The problem with African-Americans is that we have been moving so much as victims we forget at times we are no longer slaves," Curry said. "So we're free. You can be anybody you want to be." The problem emerges when people use that "as a way to keep us behind and for the white man to feel guilty about what happened in the past," he said. "What I'm saying is that we have to move beyond that."

Other panelists who spoke at the Nations Race Relations Dialogue were Curry's wife and daughter, the Rev. Sheila Curry and minister Chavon Curry, the Rev. Dietra Wise of the Liberation Church in St. Louis, Shiloh Police Chief Jim Stover, O'Fallon resident Cheryl Sommer, Swansea resident Kory May and Ted Vail, a self-described recovering racist raised in Alabama and now lives in Ohio.

Shoppers who paused to watch the forum from the mall's upper level said they liked the idea of this venue as a place to tackle heavy topics like race relations.

"I think it's a great idea,' said Bambi Good, of Caseyville. "I think there's a lot of miscommunication ... If anything we need more of this."

Missy Look, of Granite City, said forum on race relations at the mall made sense because people don't normally expect such a thing occurring there.

"It definitely can get people's attention," Look said.

A strong undercurrent of the panel discussion was the racism that still infects American society. Although racial prejudice continues, too few whites are fighting against it because they haven't suffered from it, Curry said.

"America does not just belong to white folks," Curry said.

Vail, the recovering racist, took the point further. He gazed up at the shoppers milling around the mall who were oblivious to the forum, then looked at the black members of the audience.

"It grieves my heart to see the apathy of the white community walking by," Vail said. Since they haven't suffered the pain of racism, "So they don't care."

But Jim Stover, chief of the Shiloh Police Department, pushed back, at least rhetorically.

"I think the last presidential election was a very strong voice and a very strong attitude against racism," Stover said. "That was the strongest action that any race can take to defeat racism, I think."

"But it took 430 years to get it," Curry fired back. "My point is this: One act of kindness does not stop our prisons from filling up."

After the forum ended, Curry said he was pleased with its results and hope to hold a similar panel discussions soon at the Galleria Mall in St. Louis County, as well as elsewhere across the country.

"I thought it went great," he said. "Any time you have panelists crossfiring with each other, and yet can come to an agreement that we can't agree on everything, that's dialogue. It's not about everybody agreeing. It's about everybody having the opportunity to discuss the disagreements."