Race board learns less than hoped

By Claudia Hibbert-BeDan
The Metropolitan

The spokeswoman for the Presidentâs Initiative on Race said the board stopped in Denver to understand what the city learned about stereotypes after a self-proclaimed skinhead murdered a west African immigrant and paralyzed the woman who came to his defense downtown last year.

But board members didnât learn as much as theyâd hoped.

ãWe wanted to hear more from the community on how they moved beyond some of the issues associated with stereotypes and that kind of pain,ä said Lydia Sermons, the Initiativeâs spokeswoman, in an interview March 25 with The Metropolitan.

ãBut there were, as you know, incidents that occurred that did not allow us the full opportunity we were hoping for to hear from the broad spectrum of people.ä

The seven-member panel, which includes three whites, two blacks, one Asian and one Hispanic, has been traveling around the nation to engage the public in a conversation on race relations.

Denver was the seventh stop for the Initiativeâs advisory board, and it was supposed to address stereotypes and their effect on race relations in America. But several people were critical of the forumâs topic and format, which, they said, dedicated more time to the Initiativeâs panelists than it did for the public to speak about personal experiences.

ãWe have some folks in there that are really trying supposedly to create a change for us without the proper representation,ä said protester Patricia Running Bear. ãThere is no representation of Native Americans.ä
 

Members of the Native American community and their supporters took over the Initiativeâs first Denver meeting, a community dialogue about stereotypes March 23 at the Tivoli Turnhalle.

They returned the next day to protest outside the Tivoli, condemning the boardâs chairman John Hope Franklin for not pushing for an American Indian to be on the advisory board. Laura Harris, a member of the Comanche nation, is only a consultant to the board.

Sermons, however, defended the boardâs composition and said the board has talked to the president about Native American issues.

ãItâs up to every ethnic community to make sure, as the community did here, that their voices are being heard and to educate other people on their cultures,ä she said. ãI believe that if Iâve been discriminated against as an African American and someone else has been discriminated against because of their race, is that not the basis of the same thing?ä

No, said Steve Newcomb, a Lenape/Shawnee and director of the Indigenous Law Institute in South Dakota. Franklin didnât want to talk about the issues specific to Native Americans, he said.
 

ãWeâve been told that John Hope Franklin wanted this to be a black-white dialogue, and he thought that appointing an Indian would be distracting to the dialogue,ä Newcomb said at the protest rally March 24.

ãPeople were offended that we took on John Hope Franklin (at the community dialogue) in front of African Americans,ä he said. ãBut we wouldnât stand for an Indian being up there oppressing black people.ä
 

Franklin denied the accusation, calling it a ãdiabolical misrepresentation of my position.ä

The board ãwas not intended to represent the racial composition of the United States,ä said Judith Winston, the Initiativeâs executive director, at the groupâs first meeting. But the crowdâs roar drowned her out before she could explain why.
 

Sermons later explained that it would have been impossible to represent the nationâs total population.
 

ãWhen the president selected the board, the intent was not to pick people just because of their racial background,ä she said. ãAs you know, thereâs more than five ethnic groups. It would have been an incredibly large board.ä