Comments (0) | |

Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Can’t we all get along?: Perspective on race

By Ron Natale

Special to The Telegraph

As an undergraduate, my English composition professor helped me with my writing process by advising me to write what I know about. So most of what I pen is based on personal events in my life. I do not present myself as an expert on race relations, cultural biases or bigotry associated with national origin. Through some quirk of life experience I have been paid to provide customized training in these areas and other soft skills.

This perspective dates back to 1986, when I transferred from the Job Corps Center in Phoenix, Ariz., to the center in Jacksonville, Fla. The 1986 Jacksonville bore a strong resemblance to the Macon I have seen for the past three years. A significant migration had occurred from the city to the county and suburbs. The school district was seeking to be declared unified and a new mayor was attempting to close old wounds and re-establish the downtown as a place to live, work and play.

The Job Corps Center was located downtown in the blighted Springfield area and I was the instructional supervisor. A significant amount of my time was spent with the student population that was 83 percent black, 15 percent white and 2 percent other or mixed race.

I had been there perhaps two months when a 16- or 17-year-old black female student was angry with me when her teacher asked me to take her out of the classroom for some guidance. Her response concluded by calling me a “cracker.” Now I lived in Florida for many years, and most of the “crackers” I know use the term as a proud or jocular self-description.

This young lady, however, was using the term in a derogatory manner. I thought about ignoring her and dealing with the issue of her behavior, but my experience told me I had to establish an effective level of communication, or her response to my counseling would be another example of something being done to her rather than the corrective action being a result of her actions.

I began with what should have been open-ended questions, but she responded with grunts, shrugs and one word answers. Eventually her attitude softened and she didn’t seem to perceive me as threatening.

We made some progress that day so she could return to class, and our procedures required a follow up meeting within a week.

During the follow-up meeting, she was more comfortable knowing I had received good reports from her teacher during the interceding period. I did want to know why she used the term “cracker.”

I didn’t want her to feel like I was interrogating her, so I asked her if she minded talking about the comment. She agreed and told me she thought the term was equivalent to calling me a racist or bigot.

So what is the point of this story? When we are isolated in a community, we take on the values of that community. This young person had lived her entire life in an area that was quite limited in positive interracial and multicultural interactions.

We both took something away from that experience. She learned to work in the world we live in and she passed these values on to her children. I learned more about student motivation.

Some who know this story say it was special. But I say taking a few minutes to do the right thing is not special, but should be considered mundane. We can perpetuate the misperceptions or we can use the teachable moment when it presents itself to teach and to learn.

Dr. Ron Natale is a resident of Macon and can be reached at UFgrad@Cox.net.