SFCG on Race

Congressional Conversations on Race

New Orleans - April 4 - 5, 2012

Left to right - Brett Bonin, New Orleans Parish School Board; Congressman Cedric Richmond; Calvin Mackie, Entrepreneur and Managing Partner of Channel ZerO Group, an educational consulting company

Search for Common Ground and the Faith & Politics Institute have just co-hosted the third in a national series of Congressional Conversations on Race (CCR), in New Orleans. Representative Cedric Richmond (D-LA), serving as Honorary Co-Host, opened the 2-day event and participated in a panel discussion with local community leaders from key sectors including business, education, housing, public safety, religious, and civil rights groups to identify opportunities to guide progressive action towards racial equity and healing.

CCR approaches race relations in a way that goes beyond discussing the obstacles of traditional topics of discrimination, inequitable access to education and employment, and criminal justice. CCR provides space for solution-oriented conversations about these and other challenges only after exploring the race-related history that has impacted the participants' community, and the country. Many of the issues facing New Orleans are inextricably linked to relations between the races; the conflicts around the post-Katrina collapse of the socioeconomic, demographic, infrastructure, business, and social systems as well as one of the highest per capita murder rates in the nation reflect historic racial tension in New Orleans. The event was developed to create a space for the Congressman to convene a diverse group of his key constituents, including the mayor of New Orleans, city council members, judges, business leaders, law enforcement officials, school board members, clergy, and non-profit sector leaders to engage in open, honest, and solution-oriented conversation about race-related challenges in his District.

Rep. Richmond explained, "I think it helps to have this conversation right now because we don't want to have the push back and a Trayvon Martin event here in New Orleans. I think people need to be able to trust in the system, trusting that race will not play a role, and having faith that fairness and justice is truly colorblind. But I'm not sure that people have that feeling at all." Chief among concerns is the black community's mistrust of the New Orleans Police Department, Richmond said. "What I'm hearing in most African American circles is that they don't think that some of the leadership of the city is in tuned to what some of the minority community needs and desires and how to make it a good place," he said. Other concerns include the repeated failure of community groups to win permission to start charter schools, and what is seen as lackluster government efforts to promote minority businesses and ensure their participation in contracts. "Just a kid getting a summer job decreases the chances of him dropping out of high school by 50 percent. And if you can just increase the grade level in the city by one year, you reduce the murder rate by 30 percent," Richmond said. "That's the conversation that no one is having, and no one is talking about the fact… that's why getting more minority businesses involved in city procurement, government contracts... why it's so important. Those are the kind of conversations I think the council and the leadership in the city can definitely benefit from."

Speaking at the event Rep. Richmond said, "We've lost a sense of grace and mercy. We need programs that reintegrate and heal. How do we help people come home and be successful?" He went on to challenge the leaders in the room by saying, "[They] need to have uncomfortable conversations with their constituents, and they have the responsibility not to inflame the passions of the public. Leaders should fight in private, and advocate solutions in public."

Participants in the New Orleans Conversation on Race expressed their hopes and vision for New Orleans:

• Race needs to be in the conversations around everything we do.

• Instead of trying to protect young people from race, educate them about it. Provide tools to deal with it. Institutionalize education about race in schools.

• The city would provide opportunities to excel. People would have access to leaders. This will lead to building trust.

• By the time things get back to leaders, we're in reactionary mode. We don't have THIS conversation enough to have better conversations in the public realm.

• We have racial tensions we still haven't dealt with. We need conversations like this to discuss what the issues are.

• Race needs to be included in the conversations around everything we do.

Previous CCRs were held in Oakland, CA (Rep. Barbara Lee) and in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (Rep. G.K. Butterfield)

Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) opens the recent Congressional Conversation on Race in New Orleans