Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition hosts peaceful conversation on racism
Published 4:28 pm Wednesday, June 17, 2020
- Contributed content The poster used for the discussion event.
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A conversation about racism took place online Tuesday night, peacefully.
The Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition hosted the event, with the organization’s director, Jilian Reece, selecting five individuals to speak on their experiences and voice their opinions. McKenna Marr, a 13-year-old in the Youth Coalition, served as moderator.
The speakers:
- Courtney Murphy — a nurse practitioner, mother and wife. She lives in Johnson City.
- Karlyssa Williams — an Elizabethton native, who graduated from King and Milligan Universities. Her husband is in the military, and they have two sons. They reside in Columbia, S.C.
- Gracie Carter — a Washington County native and frequent visitor of Carter County. She frequently works on drug prevention in the area, and is in school to be a forensic psychologist. She is of mixed race.
- Terrence Turner Jr. — a coach with the Witten Huddle. He was born in Alabama, but grew up in Elizabethton. He is married with a five-year-old son.
- Destiney Minnefield — She is from the area, and is studying education at Middle Tennessee State University.
The five spoke on a wide range of topics, such as their own experiences with racism, worries they have for their children in regards to racism, words for ethnicity and even solutions.
Turner and Carter said they experienced racism in aspects like sports. Minnefield said she experienced racism when she was in sixth grade after someone asked her best friend why she was friends with someone who was black. Murphy’s experience was also school related. Williams described being “racially ambiguous,” meaning people would always try to determine her ethnicity, not believing where she was from. She also recalled a time being pulled over in Texas for slightly speeding and being asked to immediately get out of the car.
When the five spoke on their fears for their children, Williams, Murphy and Turner were the three parents to answer.
Williams expressed fear over the perception of her sons.
“I don’t think I’m as fearful right now because my kids are still little and they’re still so cute,” she said. “But what happens when they go from being cute to a threat?”
“At what point are you going to start moving to the other side of the road when you see my cute little boy? At what point are you going to start to clutch your purse a little bit tighter when you see my cute little boy?”
Murphy said she grieves for her son.
“As far as his future goes, I grieve for him,” she said. “I grieve for him the fact that I probably won’t allow him to drive a car alone for his safety and for my sanity. I grieve for him and for myself, like what am I going to do when he goes off to college? Will I be a helicopter parent? Probably.”
Turner said that he is fearful for his son when he is out in public with his mother, who is white. He worries about comments or treatment to his son, and his wife who has not experienced racism as Turner has.
Carter and Minnefield were similar in fears for when they have children.
As the conversation shifted to words for ethnicity, other voices chimed in. A man named David joined in. He explained his military status and pointed out that he began defining himself as a black American rather than an African American during his time overseas. He realized with no cultural connection to Africa, he is American. This followed with the five core speakers who agreed on this concept. The term “African American” isn’t bad, but it is not accurate either for someone who is not from Africa, just as white Americans do not identify their cultural roots in identification, like Irish American.
Other topics in words for ethnicity highlighted slurs looked down upon, and whether “person of color” was favorable. It depended on the speaker.
Ladawn Hudgins joined the conversation, proclaiming herself a “baby boomer.” She elaborated on words depending on the generation, but said the words we know are powerful. She explained teaching meanings of words to her children, often encouraging them to turn someone having racism towards them into a teaching moment for that person. She said she has worked in the school system for decades.
This navigated the conversation into solutions for racism. The consensus began with fixing the problem at home, and also working against it at system levels. Carter pointed out that it is more than saying you aren’t racist, you need to be ANTI racist, and have that open dialogue. Like Carter, Williams said you must be vigilant and call it out when you see it.
On the topic of racism itself, Marr lead the question of a time someone didn’t believe them about racism.
Turner responded in addressing the Elizabethton Star article that came out last week about him speaking in this event. He explained that just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Murphy said it is not exempt in this area, and that to admit is to recover from this.
The conversation eventually turned to the confederate flag and statues. Here, the majority agreed they symbolize negativity, like being erected in the Jim Crow era and serving as an act of terror, likewise it was compared to celebrating Hitler in Germany when the country was divided as America was during the Civil War.
Once the conversation wrapped, open questions from the online meeting’s chat box were discussed. Various individuals like Joe Penza with the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library and Melanie Sellers, a public defender in the area, asked questions about what they could do.
Throughout the dialogue, no fights broke out. No slander was used. Conversations were held; not all were agreed upon. However, the consensus from the chat box showed appreciation for the conversation, which seemed to be received positively.
“There comes a point in everyone’s life where they have to choose what they believe in,” said Turner.
