Race talk: Become an antiracist

“If you look around the table, right now, tonight, the majority is white,” Anna Grant stated bluntly during a special event organized by WITZ to discuss racial injustice Monday evening.

Grant, a representative from One–Dubois County, was invited to take part in the talk that included Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner, Jasper Mayor Dean Vonderheide, Dubois County Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter, ALASI representative Eber Menjivar and Jodi Richardson, a clinical social worker from Memorial Hospital’s behavioral health unit.

With the death of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and Ahmed Arbery — all blacks killed by police or involving a former police officer acting as a vigilante in the Arbery death — in recent months, a drive for change across the country in regards to systemic racism has fueled peaceful protests as well as violent rioting.

The radio station pulled the group together to start a discussion on race in Dubois County and will continue with follow-up interviews in the coming days.

Monday evening, Grant was pointing out the obvious in the room of mainly white men during the discussion as it was aired live on Facebook and the radio stations operated by WITZ.

In his opening remarks, Mayor Dean Vonderheide acknowledged the recently created mural near the Jasper Train Depot/River Centre featured the word “Welcome” in 19 languages. Those 19 languages represent the diversity in the Jasper school system.

For Grant, who teaches social studies and English at Jasper Middle School, the diversity is on full display in her classroom.

“If you walk into my classroom on a daily basis you’re going to see beautiful shining, bright faces with all different colors and creeds” she continued. “And it’s amazing. That’s the America that I read about growing up down here.”

After the meeting, Grant admitted that students are dealing with racism in our schools and they come to her with those issues regularly after they realize where she stands.

Eber Menjivar, a Latino whose parents immigrated from El Salvador, was the only minority represented on the table although WITZ stated they did invite a Black representative to attend and they declined.

Menjivar moved to the area when he was in 5th grade and graduated from Jasper High School. He lives in Jasper and works at Jasper Electronics. He is involved in several organizations and has attended the Dubois County Leadership Academy. He’s been seen recently assisting with Spanish translations for the Covid-19 information being put out to Dubois County residents.

When asked if he had ever experienced racism in Dubois County, Menjivar answered without hesitation.

Two weeks ago Menjivar and his best friends went boating. While they were waiting to get going, a pontoon boat pulled alongside them. “He looks at us and our friends and he says, ‘hey, taco Tuesday,'” Menjivar said about one of the occupants of the other boat.

He said he didn’t know how to respond.

“That kind of racism still exists,” Menjivar said. “It isn’t the first idea of racism we think of but it is those little [sic] small comments that can really irritate someone and break them down to the core.”

Moderator David Shepherd asked how that moment made him feel.

“It’s devastating. It really breaks you down,” Menjivar responded. “What have I done to you? You don’t know me; you don’t know if I am a good person; you don’t know if I am a bad person; you don’t know where I come from; you don’t know my history just because you saw my skin color; my hair.”

What makes it socially acceptable to call someone a name based on what you think is their favorite food, he wondered out loud.

“I guess I never realized how prevalent it is,” Sheriff Kleinhelter said. “Maybe that sort of racism is more prevalent than I ever realized. I don’t know.”

Kleinhelter then countered with what he insinuated was racism against local officers. He described an event involving three deputies that occurred recently at a local restaurant. “They were accused of being racist and basically told to leave that restaurant,” he said.

He admitted he is learning and then took a moment to tell Menjivar he was sorry that the boat incident had occurred. “Maybe we are feeling a little bit of the same thing just because of the uniform,” he added.

He said it was heartbreaking as a police officer to be lumped into a group with the officer that murdered George Floyd.

Grant said she didn’t feel it was the right place to disagree with the sheriff during the hosted event but afterward, she stated that police aren’t experiencing racism. “Racism is not whenever you’re being called out. Right now, all law enforcement is being called out,” she explained. “As a teacher, I get called out all the time. We get summers off, we’re lazy, whatever it might be. But that’s not discrimination, that’s just being called out for a profession. Your race, you don’t get to wipe that off at night.”

A commenter on the Facebook Live video also corrected the sheriff explaining, “‘The police’ is not a race. Anger towards the police is not racism. It a false equivalence to even try to make that point'”

Kleinhelter pointed out that in our small community, the officers are a visible part of the community who strive to keep everyone safe regardless of who they are or where they come from.

“They’re community driven people,” he said about the local law enforcement officers adding they live here, eat here and go to church here.

Mayor Denny Spinner took some time to explain that he felt he had to look at himself to begin the process of racial reconciliation. He said it was important to take the necessary steps to understand the things Blacks and other people of color are experiencing.

“I’ve got to get right with me first before I can get right as the mayor,” he said. “I need to understand things that I’ve never comprehended before.”

He pointed out that early in his first term as mayor, he worked with groups pushing for inclusiveness. He explained real change only occurred when the voices of those minorities in our community were amplified and allowed to be heard.

“I think this conversation is a start,” he said. “If we can rise to the occasion now and set an example…I think it’s going to be an opportunity for us with the values we hold deep in our hearts to be a community that is welcoming.”

Vonderheide agreed adding that the national spotlight on these racial issues is a great opportunity to shine the light on them in our own communities.

Menjivar and Grant agreed that recognizing racism and calling it out was an important step. They called for people to become antiracist. A stance that requires residents to point out racist microaggressions as well as direct comments like the one Menjivar experienced recently.

“Don’t ask yourself, ‘Am I racist?’ because you’ll probably look in the mirror and say, ‘No, I’m not racist,'” he said. “But are you antiracist?”

He asked residents to consider pointing out those kinds of comments and thoughts with simple corrections to begin to overcome the systemic racism that permeates communities.

Menjivar added that he loved the United States of America.

“Are you for equality for everyone,” he said. “Yes, every life matters. We’re not saying it doesn’t, but right now a certain life is being killed, literally.”

Here is the full event.