NAACP hosts race dialogue forum

Flyers with racial slurs were posted all around campus prior to the NAACP Race Dialogue Forum.

The forum, entitled “Where do we go From Here? Chaos or Community,” was held in Hoke Dining Room in the cafeteria on Oct. 19. The event was co-sponsored by the Coverdell Institute, who presented the NAACP with grant money to host this event.

Dr. Beauty Bragg, an English professor, Allia Carter, director of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, and Natalie Gilchrist, president of NAACP, began planning the forum this past summer. The format was open discussion with a student and faculty panel. GC&SU students who were able to ask questions and comment on anything they wished.

“Dr. Bragg, Ms. Carter and I sat down this summer and tried to find individuals and faculty members that we thought would be useful for the subject,” Gilchrist said. “We tried to get individuals from all different races and sexual orientation, so that we could get hands on information on some of the things that panelist have been through and how certain things have changed their lives.”

Some topics of the discussion were stereotypes of ethnic groups, the fear gays and lesbians have of voicing their opinions in class because they don’t want to be labeled as such, and the effects that labels have on people.

“I think it was very helpful and extremely informative,” Carter said. “The students and faculty were able to create resolutions. I’m hopeful that things will change. I believe the admissions team, as well as the faculty, are working hard as a group to diversify (the campus).”

Gilchrist said the dialogue was important for our campus in particular.

“For so long, issues like this have been pushed under the carpet or over-looked. And I felt like after a couple incidents that happened last year on this campus, something needed to be done to let people know that there are still (racial) issues on GC&SU’s campus, and it was time for something to be done about it,” Gilchrist said. “I (also) felt like other people and faculty members felt like there were issues but were not sure on how to talk about the issues without offending anyone. So making it an open dialogue to talk about some issues and come up with ways on how to resolve them made it more comfortable for both faculty and student to come and talk about some of the problems.”

Professor of Government & Sociology James Winchester suggested one solution to the concerns. He suggested that some minority students go into inner-city and diverse schools in Atlanta and other cities and try to recruit some of those students to attend school here.

“The more diversity on campus, the more the dialogue will become an issue,” Carter said. “Right now, there’s not a significant enough number on campus to really make an impact. (The dialogue) needs to continue. I think other areas, departments and organizations, need to pick this up, and (we’ll) get a variation of conversation. It won’t just be about sexual orientation or color.”

Overall, the event was informative and useful to the students who attended.

“I really enjoyed the Race Dialogue Program,” said freshman Karla White. “The topics of race, tolerance and unity were presented in an honest, unbiased way, which created a comfortable environment for anyone who attended the program to relate personal experiences and voice opinions. Programs that discuss these controversial topics and how they’re dealt with on our campus or in our society are extremely important because ignorance is one of the most destructive sicknesses that plague the progression of our nation. Through discussions, we attain the subtle, but very powerful, cure to aid in the healing and preservation the spirit of our democracy: knowledge.”

Many of the attendees and the panelists believe that such a dialogue should be held more often so that individuals can come together and resolve some of the diversity issues on this campus.

Professor of Government and Sociology Sandra Godwin said, “What an inspiring and much, much needed event today.I think it shows a real need for these kinds of discussions.”

The aim of the forum was “to allow the GCSU students and faculty to come together to have a real, relevant dialogue on race relations that effect our attitudes, beliefs, and actions toward others that we are not comfortable around. The dialogue was to allow the panel, as well as the audience, to define the problems of verbal abuse or threats, level of comfort in environment, hate publications or symbols, unwelcome remarks, name calling, social and economic blocks, physical assaults and any other problems that people are uncomfortable talking about openly.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 4 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry