Do the Nine Counties Need
A Race Relations Center?
Recently, The News Sentinel carried stories about an African American family that found what appeared to be a cross in their back yard in Stonebrook subdivision.
Their next-door neighbor told a reporter that the family’s presence was lowering property values in the neighborhood, even though the family lived in the subdivision before the white neighbor moved in.
According to the story, the white neighbor also used racial slurs against the black man in front of a Knox County deputy investigating the cross incident.
A coalition of community and civil rights groups denounced the incident. The white neighbor later apologized, but the African American family said they are is considering leaving the neighborhood.
Dewey Roberts, head of the NAACP here, said the incident shows that we haven’t come as far in 2003 in terms of racial progress as we might think.
So, would our region benefit from a race relations center to help educate people about the benefits of diversity and about the need to live and work in harmony?
Absolutely.
That’s why the Nine Counties. One Vision. Human Relations/Diversity Task Force led by Theotis Robinson Jr. and Larry Martin has been working with Knoxville’s Project Change for the past several months to set up the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee.
The organization will “provide undoing racism education, research, training, and advocacy to government, businesses, schools, justice systems, media organizations, associations and individuals throughout the region.”
An interim board for the center has been set up, and the organization is moving forward.
Project Change will bring a seven-year history of successful work in undoing racism and will help lead the collaborative effort toward implementing the strategy.
The citizens who offered ideas to Nine Counties. One Vision. felt that human relations were important.
The goal developed after the public input sessions was: “Create and promote a just and caring region with respect and appreciation for differences in order to provide equal opportunities for all citizens.”
The Race Relations Center of East Tennessee will live up to that goal and hopefully there will be fewer stories like the one about Stonebrook after the center’s work begins to spread through the region.