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David Parker: Awareness of our past helps us see modern problems

(Jose Luis Magana | AP photo) In a Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, photo, Tomiko Shine holds up a picture of Tamir Rice during a protest in Washington, D.C. An arbitrator correctly decided that the white Cleveland police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice should have been fired by the city for lying his on job application, a county judge in Cleveland ruled. Cuyahoga County Judge Joseph Russo upheld the 2017 firing of Timothy Loehmann in a ruling Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. Loehmann was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the death of Tamir in November 2014 as he played with a pellet gun outside a Cleveland recreation center.

I am excited about the current social climate as it relates to an overdue exploration of America’s racial past and its impact on life in 2020. Increased accurate awareness of the nation’s past can have such a positive impact on societal relationships.

This fall, and for the past six years, I have taught an inclusive dialogue course at the University of Utah. The main focus of this course is to teach the skills and disposition to engage in dialogue in a civil manner with individuals and groups that may not see the world the same way. The intent of dialogue is to share opinions and build relationships between people, as opposed to tearing down the other person.

In the Aug. 16 Salt Lake Tribune there was a commentary written by Levi Hilton. Mr. Hilton expressed his beliefs that it is a logical fallacy that disparity equals discrimination. His letter offers me an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with Mr. Hilton.

Mr. Hilton stated that Blacks commit more violent crimes than whites; therefore, that is the reason for the higher number of Blacks killed by police.

I invite Mr. Hilton to think of five families who are now without a member of their family. The families of Tamir Rice, age 12; Jordan Edwards, age 15; Mike Brown, age 18; Sean Monterrosa, age 22; and Oscar Grant III, age 22. Each of these young Black men have been killed by the police. Each of these Black young men were in your age group (or younger) when they were killed. Each of these Black young men were not in the act of a violent crime.

There is a stereotype expressed by Mr. Hilton that Black children are unsuccessful in school and life because of absentee fathers in the family structure. However, the success for children in school and beyond has been linked to access to resources more so than family structure.

Lack of access to resources is an outcome of intentional decisions made in the 1930s called redlining. Redlining was the practice of outlining areas with sizable Black populations in red ink on maps as a warning to mortgage lenders, effectively isolating Black people in areas that would suffer lower levels of investment than their white counterparts.

Redlining resulted in intentional ongoing disparities in services available to Black and white communities across the United States, including here in Utah. Bill Peperone, assistant director of community development for Provo states, “in Provo, the majority of low-income residents tend to live in South Provo. In Salt Lake City, Interstate 15 seems to be the dividing line between low-income residents and the rest.”

One can state that redlining is now illegal here and throughout the country, and that would be true. However, a more accurate description would be the one presented by Brigham Young University professor and Provo City Planning Commission member Jamin Rowan who stated “zoning practices eventually morphed into a tool to further racial and economic segregation.”

The impact of this segregation in 2020 is food deserts, lower property values, more rental properties with irresponsible landlords, limited-to-no public transit and limited access to quality health care. In other words, as stated by Jensen, the people are “segregated in these communities without opportunity.”

Mr. Hilton states, “To be clear, I am not suggesting that racism does not exist. And I’m not questioning the good intentions of people who fall for the logical fallacy that disparity equals discrimination. Even educated people can use fallacious reasoning.”

The disparities that he spoke of in his writing were intentionally created and continued in one form or another as an outcome of systemic racism.

The current social climate presents exciting challenges and opportunities. It is a time to begin a true healing, which I believe can best happen when the majority population accepts the challenge to acquire knowledge and awareness of issues that have led to present day disparities that have not been clearly explained or taught.

David Parker

David Parker earned his doctorate in educational leadership from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Penn. He teaches inclusive dialogue skills at the University of Utah, he consults with law enforcement and businesses on implicit bias and communication and is the author of the 32 book series “The BEST ME I Can Be,” published by Scholastic.