Racism Debate Via Skype

Soledad O’Brien gave a speech from New York via Skype for the Evening to Promote Racial Justice Wednesday about how experiences from her childhood and career made her more aware of racism in America and the power one individual can have in making change.

Force winds in New York and snow in Chicago prevented O’Brien from being in Milwaukee.  Via Skype, she spoke to a crowd of close to 400 people about how experiences in her life impacted how she views race relations.

O’Brien’s mother is an Afro-Cuban and her father is from Australia.  Seeing the struggles and discrimination her parents faced as an interracial couple, O’Brien became aware of the strength that is needed to stand up for what you believe in.

O’Brien mentioned that when she first started looking for a job, she faced discrimination on the basis of her name and her ethnicity.  Throughout her talk, she stressed the importance of the power of the individual and the need for people to think differently about possible solutions to problems like racism.

Her experience covering stories like the earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina also had a significant impact on her beliefs of self sufficiency, persistence and doing what you can to help, no matter how small.

The event took place at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and also included the presentation of three awards from the YWCA who sponsored the event.

The Eliminating Racism Award went to Bob Peterson, a fifth grade teacher at La Escuela Fratney.  Peterson is also a founder of the magazine Rethinking Schools which promotes the need for more social and racial justice in school curriculum.

The Civil Rights Movement, meeting Fannie Lou Hamer and living a year and a half in Egypt greatly influenced his views on race relations in America.

His career as a teacher also played a role in his fight against racism.

“I see every day the impact of racism,” Peterson said Wednesday.

“Many of my students go schools that are under resourced.  If they were to live three miles north and not live in the city of Milwaukee the public dollars that would follow them would be larger.”

The Empowering Women Award went to the Cathedral Center, a homeless shelter in Milwaukee.  The Cathedral Center offers emergency housing and case management to those in need of shelter.

The Bright Futures Award went to Donnesha O’Bee, a high school junior at Oak Creek High School.  O’Bee volunteers for the AIDS Research Foundation and hopes to go to college down south and major in family law.The YWCA started hosting this event six years ago.  Each year it takes place at the Marcus Center but the guest speaker is always different, as are the award recipients.  Past years guest speakers included Tim Wise, Donna Brazile, Louis Gossett Jr., Angela Davis, and Naomi Tutu (Desmond Tutu’s daughter).

The YWCA began a new workshop within the last year called Unlearning Racism: Tools for Action.  It is a six part series that meets for 4 hours a couple times a month. It is open to the public and aims to educate people about the impact of racism and the history of racism in America.  It costs $50 for the first session and $250 for the entire series.  The 2011 workshops start in March.

What if ? Instead of What is…

O’Brien’s parents started dating in the late 1950s in Baltimore, Maryland.  They faced discrimination in places like restaurants where they wouldn’t be served.  When they decided to get married they had to drive to Washington, D.C. because interracial marriage was illegal in Maryland. Even their friends advised against getting married and having children.  However, they didn’t listen.

“They weren’t going to frame their lives by other people’s noise.  Just because someone says it’s so doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. I decide if it’s so,” O’Brien said Wednesday.

She said it was motivational having someone around her say, instead of what is, strive for what if. “We should aim to turn what is on its head,” O’Brien said, “My parents embodied that.”

When O’Brien was in high school her mother allowed her to drive the car as long as O’Brien picked her up from work.  Her mother worked as a teacher in Long Island, New York. O’Brien recalls one day picking up her mom and seeing an African American boy in the hallway being talked to by the principal, the vice principal, and the dean.

“It was obvious the kid didn’t belong because the school as 99 percent white,” O’Brien said.

Her mom stopped when she saw this and the principal told her that he had everything under control, implying that she could be on her way.  Her mother then said, “I think I’m just going to stand here.”

“Then, everyone got awkward,” said O’Brien.  The principal then told the boy not to run in the hallway and let the boy leave.

“That was power,” said O’Brien, “[My mom] telegraphing ‘I’m a witness’ to the boy and telegraphing ‘I’m a witness to what you do’ to the principal, that was very powerful to me and made a big impression.”

The Starfish Story

When O’Brien was in Haiti covering the earthquake, she asked those who were helping why they were doing so.  Why, when there were so many children without homes and families, did they think they could make a difference?  Many answered by asking O’Brien if she had ever heard the starfish story.

O’Brien then shared the story with the audience:

A boy was walking along the beach and saw it was covered with beached starfish.  So he started picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean.

As he was doing this an old man came up to him and asked, “Why are you doing this? There’s no way you can possibly save them all.  It doesn’t matter.”

The boy picks up another starfish, looks at the man and says, “It mattered to this one,” as he throws it into the ocean.

“We’re the people who are supposed to grab the starfish,” O’Brien said Wednesday.

She stressed that this story reflected how we should approach issues like racism.  We should do our little part and find our little corner of the world that we want to work on and work on it.

She also emphasized the fact that we have to rely on ourselves to make change.  When she was covering Hurricane Katrina, she ran into an ambulance driver who said, “no one is coming for you.”

“No one is coming to rescue you, us, we have to rescue ourselves.  Change has to come from those who are most invested in seeing change,” O’Brien said.

One audience member, Jane Pirsig, said this year’s talk was less political than last year’s and focused more on the idea of one person making a difference.

“I think given the political environment that’s a really important message to give,” Pirsig said.