Cultural Diversity: Race in My Community

Written by: Kelly L. Hunter

My name is Kelly Hunter; I am the mother of a beautiful bi-racial son. My son is my light and my life; it is because of him and the rest of the world’s children that I am on a quest to help make positive change in my community and throughout the world. I have discovered that being a White-American living in the United States either works for you or against you depending on whom or what you are fighting for. Racism and discrimination is still as prevalent in almost every community in the United States as it was 200 years ago; so what can we do as a society and members of our communities to change this?
Recently a local African-American police officer was patrolling the streets of Punta Gorda. Punta Gorda is a small town within Charlotte County, Florida where I am a resident. While driving through one of our lower income areas, the officer noticed that there was a noose hanging in a man’s yard. This frightened him so much that he reportedly got out of his car and started taking pictures of the hangman’s noose that hung just in front of an old tattered confederate flag. Much attention was brought to the man with the noose by local news media and other outraged members of our community. When I saw the story on the news late one night, I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. My first thought was “Are you kidding me, is this a joke?” My second thought was “What can I do to raise awareness about racism and help fight against things like this?” Katie Spinner, a local reporter for the Herald Tribune Newspaper, started her story out like this, “Beneath a drab and tattered Confederate flag, a noose drops from a tall wooden poll, just yards from the brilliant blues and yellows of a playground on Scott Street.” (Spinner, K. 2007). Carl Brooks, a local Baptist church pastor, and his congregation decided to take a walk by Michael Whiteaker’s home on Scott Street one Sunday morning after the story was brought to light, in order to view the noose for themselves. Pastor Brooks told Katie Spinner in an interview that “It brings to the surface what I’ve already know – that racism is alive and well.” (Spinner, K. 2007). I would have to agree with Pastor Brooks that racism is still out there and it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon unless we as a community begin standing together and speaking up.
According to Mr. Whiteaker, he does not understand why anyone would find his noose display to be offensive and considers it to be a “harmless joke” and a conversation piece. (Spinner, K. 2007). I personally did not find this to be funny or harmless and quite the contrary, I was extremely offended. After turning off the news on that late October night, I was so upset that I had a great deal of trouble sleeping. The next morning, I decided that I was not going to sit quietly and I was going to raise awareness not only about this incident, but about all hate-crimes and racial injustices. I immediately began making phone calls to all of my friends and family members asking for their opinions on the matter. I was pleased to see that I was not alone.
I decided that the best way to address this unfortunate situation would be to host a unity march in my community. I immediately started making fliers; I ended up printing 300 fliers all together. I went through a lot of ink, paper, and money but I truly felt that this was something that needed to be done. I began contacting as many people that I could find on the Internet who lived in and around the surrounding areas of my community; the response that I received was so positive and inspiring. The following days, I hit the streets on foot to pass out the fliers for this meaningful event. I felt that if I were walking around the community that I would be able to talk to members of my community on a more personal and social level.
The response that I received from members of my community while handing out the fliers was extremely promising; all but one individual vowed to be in attendance. I was also contact by the GREP (Guerilla Republik) from Orlando saying that they would be coming down to show their support for my community; they were also bringing a political Hip-Hop artist and spoken word guru Madd Illz who was willing to perform for free if I could find a venue that would allow us to host a benefit show at their establishment. I was able to convince a local man who owns a cigar bar to allow us to utilize his business for free as well. Things could not have been going any better; this was going to be huge. I contacted every media outlet that I could think of to cover this occasion.
The morning of the unity march was here and I was so excited. A friend of mine called me early that morning to tell me that there was great news; the man with the noose had taken it down. I was thrilled with the news and decided to drive by his home to see for myself; the noose was gone. I thought to myself that this was a wonderful way to start off our unity march. As two of my friends and I headed to the designated meeting point for the march we grew more and more excited. After we arrived we got all of our protest signs out of the trunk; I had made about 20 signs in case people didn’t have their own. An hour went by and the only people to show up were a couple of my close friends, the GREP, and Madd Illz. We could not believe it; the news stations that had covered the story of the noose did not even show up. We decided to go on with our march anyway.
I learned a great deal that day about my town and the people who make up my community. I realized that the media truly only seems to care about stories of negative impact and not those of positive influence and change. Charlotte County is comprised of mostly White-Americans like me from every level of social class. However, there is quite a bit of cultural and ethnic diversity within my community as well. The following graph represents the percentages of the different ethnic groups that make up the population of Charlotte County, Florida.