East Belleville YMCA town hall meeting tackles issue of racial biases
Stephen Brock, who grew up in East St. Louis and now owns a construction and distribution company in the metro-east, said he’s had to endure racist people while building up his business.
But as a Black man who’s dealt with racism, Brock promotes a message that there’s “more good than evil” in the people he meets.
“There’s some good people out there,” Brock said. “I believe that there’s more good than evil and I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to break down those walls.”
Brock was one of the panelists who spoke during The Power of Change virtual town hall on Thursday sponsored by the East Belleville YMCA. Organizers decided to host the meeting in wake of the protests and riots over racial injustices across the nation following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May.
Brock’s company, Supplied Industrial Solutions Inc., was established in 2003.
“One of the things I’ve learned since growing up is that racism is here to stay,” Brock said. “Certain people just have issues with people of different color.”
Brock noted that it can be a white person with a racist prejudice toward a Black person and vice versa.
“It’s here to stay but I was taught not to let that hinder me from pursuing my goals in life,” Brock said of racial stereotyping.
“I’ve had blatant racism in my face in certain instances … but I’ve also had people that you would have never thought that have helped us, gave us opportunities and some have become very instrumental in our growth.”
Communication needed to stem racism
Those who spoke during the town hall said meeting and talking with people of different races is one way to promote racial understanding.
Brock said that he has gone to rural areas for business and didn’t encounter many Black persons.
“I had to coach myself out of the fear of ‘what if this person feels a certain type of way towards African Americans?’” he said.
Brock said when you meet people, “you learn that a lot of times we all have the same common goal, you know. We just want to raise our families, we just want to contribute to society in a positive manner…”
“We’ve got more in common than we do in differences,” Brock said.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert said he grew up in a predominantly white town of Belleville but that he made friends with Black youths. He said talking with members of another race is the key for positive race relations.
“We were not taught to be afraid of people because of color,” Eckert said. ”We were taught to judge people equally. I think that starts at home.
“And I think the more we break down walls and get to know people, the less scary some neighborhoods or some situations are if we just open ourselves up to more of getting to meet people.”
Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Elbert Jennings described his experience as a Black student encountering white students when he started community college.
Jennings, who was raised in Washington Park, said his “mindset started to change” when he met “people that didn’t look like me.”
Illinois State Police Sgt. Calvin Dye Jr., who is Black and served as a panelist during the town hall, told the audience, “Nobody’s born racist.”
“You know it all starts in your home,” Dye said. “You’re a product of your upbringing.”
Dye echoed Jennings’ comments about the importance of meeting various types of people.
“That’s exactly why diversity is important in this world,” Dye said.
Community policing
One of the topics discussed at the virtual meeting was how to maintain good relations between residents and police officers.
“Police officers in uniform, people look at us in a different light, especially what’s going on in the country,” Jennings said. “But once we open our mouth up and once we start to converse with them and start to talk to them, they really get to see that, ‘Hey, I’m like you, you’re like me. Let’s do this together. We’re all one team.’ But it takes communication to do that.”
Dye said he believes overall there are positive relations between police officers and residents throughout the metro-east.
“You have to get out there,” Dye said.
He praised the Illinois State Police residential youth camps as a way officers can interact with teens.
Wil Padgett, a junior at Belleville East High School said the Belleville school resource officer program provides a great way for teenagers to develop a positive relationship with police officers.
Jennings said police departments sometimes have officers running from “call to call to call” and don’t have time to talk to children and their families.
“Police officers are going to have to really find time,” Jennings said. “We cannot afford not to make time for community policing these days. We have to find time to engage our community because it benefits us all.
“It increases our officers’ safety, it increases information we get from the community when different things are happening, so it is our goal.”
Eckert said the Belleville Police Department will host a Shop with a Cop program this month as a way to reach out to children and show them that “police officers are their friends.”
Elected officials need to closely monitor the actions of police officers, Eckert said.
“We’re not going to tolerate bad cops and we’re going to stand up for the cops that do their job and we’re going to stand behind them,” he said.
“We got to make sure all people are treated equally and fairly, including the police,” Eckert said. “I think that there are far more good police officers than there are bad ones and the government officials need to stand strong with their good police officers but also shouldn’t hide the bad ones under a bushel. They should deal with it.”
