We must do more to address racial injustice

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier ^ | 11/9/15 | Jim Wohlpart

[campg]

Last Thursday night, more than 100 community members gathered at the Waterloo Center for the Arts for a panel discussion of Racial Justice. The forum engaged the philosophy behind the Black Lives Matter movement and discussed the system of racial injustice here in the Cedar Valley and in the nation. Panel members included the Reverend Abraham Funchess, the Reverend Belinda Creighton-Smith, the Reverend Mary E. Robinson, Public Defender Aaron Hawbaker, and Chief Dan Trelka.

As panelists eloquently explained, the Black Lives Matter movement is about reasserting the inherent dignity and respect of a group of people who have been diminished and degraded by our culture and society. One audience member noted that when some counter the Black Lives Matter movement with the statement that “All Lives Matter” we erase the racial injustice that Black people experience and lose the opportunity to engage one of the most enduring problems that confronts us as a nation, the problem, as W.E.B. DuBois put it over one hundred years ago, of the color line. The forum was ably moderated by Al Hays, President of the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalist Board of Trustees.

The problem of the color line – the systemic degradation and segregation of Black people in the United States – seems intractable. Forums like this have been held periodically, yet nothing really seems to change. What are the leverage points that influence a system? How can the work of race relations and racial justice be expanded to engage a broader community? How can those who live lives of privilege and power acknowledge complicity in and indeed responsibility for a system that diminishes others? These were some of the questions that were raised and debated at this important forum – a forum that served as the beginning of a dialogue that must continue for change to take hold.

At the same time as the forum was happening in Waterloo, students on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa were sharing their own experiences of discrimination and disempowerment. Students expressed their hurt, their fears, and their frustration at a system that, for them, silences their voices and disallows any type of meaningful change. As an academic administrator at the university, I have had the opportunity to get to know some of these students. When I hear about their struggles I am filled with a deep and abiding sadness; I am reminded of my own complicity in our systems and my responsibility to engage these important issues.

Ultimately an institution of higher education must create and then nurture a culture that makes certain that all voices are heard and that all problems—including issues of racial injustice—are surfaced and engaged. Clearly, the administration needs to work harder to make certain that such a culture exists and all students feel embraced. In some sense, our efforts have been cosmetic, not systemic, and so we are the ones, ultimately, who must take responsibility for this continued failure and provide leadership to create a campus that embraces diverse individuals, perspectives, and ways of being in the world.

Can the University and the broader Cedar Valley community do better? Do we have the will to make deep lasting changes that embrace differences in ways that enrich all of our lives? These are questions that must be asked, and asked again, so that we know, forthrightly and honestly, what we value, what we envision for our future, and why our individual and collective work matters. And then we must act to break free of the patterns of injustice that stifle the full potential of our communities.

[VanShuyten]

Anyone who’s ever been to Waterloo/Cedar Falls knows exactly what and where the problems are.

[JimRed]

Yes, we must do more to address racial injustice. We must stop providing the conditions which permit over 70% of black children to be born to a single parent, whose only interest in the child is frequently the amount of monthly stipend the child generates.

[PapaBear3625]

Whatever we give them, it will never be enough to make them happy.

Therefore, we might as well give them NOTHING.

[madprof98]

Students expressed their hurt, their fears, and their frustration at a system that, for them, silences their voices and disallows any type of meaningful change.

Perhaps if they would shut up and study something useful, they might find "meaningful change" in their pockets.

[redgolum]

Booker T Washington is no longer considered black.

Had that conversation once. Made me realize just what is going on.

[Yosemitest]

Did you tell that CRAZY LIBERAL that he was no longer considered a "Liberal", but he's now an escaped LUNATIC ?

[Graybeard58]

thanks to Congress he has a Blank Cheque

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Which he can promptly take to the banque.

[envisio]

blah blah blah... ya’ll need to get a new shtick.
Racial injustice is imaginary in your head.
Get a job a go to work like everyone else.

[butlerweave]

do they mean the racial injustice that showed up with Obama and Holder ? Is Holder still at it behind the scenes ?

[tillacum]

Good Grief!!! They were emancipated over 100 years ago. Then the Irish were put upon, then the Germans, then the
American originals. Name a group in America and you can bet at sometime they were put upon. But the politicians and the money grubber Als and Jessies keep putting down their own race by keeping them in the ghettos and telling them how they are still slaves. BULL!!
Before LBJ established the Great Society in 1965, the Blacks were nothing more than average American citizens. After the Great Society was implemented, everything went down hill for some of them.

[hal ogen]

The current “racial injustice” is by the noncaucasians toward caucasians.

[campg]

Right, My ancestor were Amish. Those bigotted Catholics persecuted and killed us. When will we get justice? We just elected a black POTUS twice.

[Jim Noble]

This is from Cedar Falls??? IOWA?????

[Walrus]

Aw, hell, NorthMountain, everyone KNOWS Booker T. Washington was an Uncle Tom

[Walrus]

Aw, hell, NorthMountain, everyone KNOWS Booker T. Washington was an Uncle Tom

[Walrus]

Maybe it’s time for us to set up our own “sanctuary cities” ...or states, even.

Not unlike the Colorado of “Atlas Shrugged”.

[campg]

Jim, Waterloo, but your close.

[campg]

Thanks for some profound information. Carson, West, Williams and Sowell are Bookers Disciples. Victimhood is a money maker and until we remedy that we are going to see more University Chaos. Sad when you have a Community Agitator as POTUS

[Yosemitest]

Sad when you have a Community Agitator ILLEGAL ALIEN and MUSLIM TERRORIST as POTUS !

[Yosemitest]

Free Republic has covered this issue before.

"Barack Hussein Obama's father was only 12.5% African Negro and 87.5% Arab."

Read this:

"Warren G. Harding was the first President of the United States to have direct negro ancestry.

Thanks to Harding's glorious trailblazing in 1920, the current pretender to the same title, Barak Hussein Obama Jr., is eighty-eight years too late.
Genealogical evidence has revealed that the impostering "first black president" Barak Hussein Obama is
6.5% Negro and 48% Arabic,
the remainder 45% Caucasian.

Why 'imposter' ?
Because Obama is simply not the nation's first Negro President, the simple fact is that he is not Negro.
Barak Hussein is several times more Arabic by genetic percentages."

This disgusting Curse on our Nation named Barack Hussein Obama II, aka Barry Soetoro, has a real birth certificate, with his right footprint on it.
All you have to do is look for it.

The Arab-Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama II, (a.k.a. Barry Soetoro), ( the one guilty of TREASON ! ) has NO legitimate Social Security Number.
His father was NOT an immigrant to the United States.
Barack Obama Sr. was a "Transient Alien" because he did NOT intend on residing in the United States permanently.
Barack Obama Sr. was a dual citizen of Great Britain and Kenya, and NEVER a United States Citizen.

Read British National Archives Show Son Born To Obama Sr. In 1961 In Kenya!

His mother could NOT impart U.S. citizen to her son, Barack Obama II,
because she did NOT meet the legal requirements to do so,
at the time her son was born IN the Coast Provincial General Hospital, MOMBASA, KENYA at 7:21 pm on August 4, 1961.
Democrats knew this and tried to eliminate the "Natural Born Citizen" requirement at least 8 times BEFORE Obama won his election in 2008.

Obama is NOT a United States Citizen, and is NOT a LEGAL IMMIGRANT.
He has no VISA allowing him into this country.
Barack Hussein Obama II IS ILLEGAL !
He should be IMPEACHED IMMEDIATELY, tried for TREASON, SENTENCED to death,
and then have his body deported back to Kenya.

Here are some articles to assist in defining "WHO" and "WHAT" Obama IS.

Obama, the African Colonial, June 25, 2009

PRAVDA SAYS 'AMERICAN DESCENT INTO MARXISM HAPPENING WITH BREATHTAKING SPEED'!

Here's the mind of Fascist Obama, from another poster LomanBill.
"Yuri Bezmenov on demoralization" Interview with Yuri Bezmenov (ex-KGB) by Edward Griffin - 1984

Hitler / Obama Comparisons: Is Barack Obama Like Adolf Hitler or The Nazis?

But I disagree.

"Black"

No.
CORRECTION: Barack Obama, the first black Arab-American -Kenyan pResident of the United States.



Try these:

http://www.cf-cia.org/obama_lineage.htm (Barack Hussein Obama - Arab-American, only 6.25% African)

http://www.arcadeathome.com/archive.phtml?2008-03 (Barack Hussein Obama - Arab-American, only 6.25% African)

http://africanpress.me/2008/10/03/barack-hussein-obama-will-be-if-elected-the-first-arab-american-president-not-black-american/ (Barack Hussein Obama will be, if elected, the first Arab-American President Not black American,by African Press International on October 3, 2008)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2942131/posts (Not exactly correct, Barry! 39 truths about "Obama" [Read Item number 6] )

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/137419 (Obama's Family Tree.)

Read Why did Youtube pull this video about Barack Obama?
and watch BREAKING NEWS! - Is Barack Obama Really A Saudi / Muslim "Plant" in the White House?.


Not "Incompetent" .
They want you to THINK that.
They're accomplishing everything they want to accomplish by breaking the law themselves.
They ARE EVIL !

He's a BIBLICAL CURSE !

Remember:
Don't let anyone deceive you in any way,
for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs
and the man of LAWLESSNESS is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?
And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
For the secret power of LAWLESSNESS is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
And then the LAWLESS ONE will be revealed,
whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth
and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
The coming of the LAWLESS ONE will be in accordance with the work of Satan
displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
and IN EVERY SORT OF EVIL THAT DECEIVES those who are perishing.
They perish because THEY REFUSED to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a POWERFUL DELUSION
so that THEY WILL BELIEVE THE LIE
and so that ALL will be condemned who have NOT BELIEVED the truth
but have DELIGHTED in wickedness.

Let us remember ...

"You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept Communism outright.
But we will keep feeding you small doses of socialism
until you finally wake up and realize you already have communism.
We won’t have to fight you;
we’ll so weaken your economy
that you will fall like over ripe fruit into our hands. "


Nikita Khruschev, Former Soviet Premier