MANSFIELD, Ohio – The Ohio State University-Mansfield hosted a town hall meeting Thursday evening to show the topic of racial equality still matters while there was also discussion of how we are more unified than we are different.
OSU-M Diversity and Family Engagement Director Renee Thompson said the reason for the talks was because of the shared benefits of racial equality.
“We know that benefit is true educationally, economically, politically and even spiritually,” she said. “There are shared benefits when we start to have these candid discussions.”
The community conversation, in collaboration with North Central State College, Mid-Ohio Conference Center and the local Area Agency on Aging, is also one of the many events planned during the college’s annual Black History Month celebration.
The six featured panelists for the evening included Jodie Perry, president of the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce; Dennis Baker, executive director of the Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program (UMADAOP); Phil DeVol, International Consultant for the aha! Process; Ken Coontz, police chief of the Mansfield Police Department; Brian Garverick, Superintendent of Mansfield City Schools; and Austin McCoy, Ph. D. candidate in History and co-founder of the United Coalition for Racial Justice.
Steven Gavazzi, dean of OSU-M, welcomed the diverse crowd of approximately 50 people along with introducing WMFD anchor/reporter Brigitte Coles as the moderator of the conversation, held at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center.
“My own personal interest in this, first and foremost,” Gavazzi said, “is to help folks in the community understand that we have a willing set of students as well as faculty and staff that are backing those students up to come to the community and ask, ‘What can we do and how can we do something important and different for the community?,’ in this case about race, but as a prelude to having a much bigger conversation about how our campus and community can work together.”
With the first question, “Are issues surrounding race and racial discussions still relevant in our community?”, there was a unanimous “yes” by panelists according to their responses.
McCoy brought up the recent racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, when a white officer killed an unarmed black man and paralleled the historic riots in black neighborhoods during the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
“There were studies done by social scientists who most of them concluded that on the one hand racism was a problem, but on the other hand, so was the lack of jobs,” he said. “When talking about race we should always pay attention to history. It can serve as a guide and can help explain what goes on in our contemporary moment.”
Chief Coontz said there are policies and procedures in place at the police department to try to prevent any racial unrest in the community from their angle. He said he is in close communication with the local ministerial alliance and leaders of the local NAACP chapter.
“The police department can’t handle that alone,” he said. “It’s a multi-faceted approach that takes community leaders and groups to come together and start like this, discussing it and (asking), ‘What are we doing to guard against relations slipping back?’”
Baker mentioned he was a product of Affirmative Action, a now extinct government policy where employers had to hire a certain percentage of minorities. He said the topic of race will always be relevant.
“Most of us grew up as racist,” he said. “You have to almost learn how not to be a racist. Most of us are taught racism from the time we were able to walk.”
He encouraged audience members to start with a simple smile to someone of a different race as a way to be inclusive and break down racial barriers.
Gaverick, who oversees the city school district which has a high poverty rate, said some of the children in urban schools don’t have access to normal resources and view life through a different lens that the staff and faculty must empathize with on a daily basis. He said the school district has provided opportunities of extra-curricular activities and college visits for students.
“What brings people together is economic opportunity,” he said.
The final event of the college’s Black History Month Celebration, the 14th Annual Soul Food Dinner Celebration, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 26 in the Eisenhower Café on OSU-M’s campus. Tickets are $10. Call 419-755-4217 for details.
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