FORUM
* . ' '
j White photographer floored by discrimination I
Nigel Alston
Motivational
I Moments
?
"Tolerance, fundamentally,
; is a personal decision - a belief
? that every other person on
. earth is a treasure."
-Southern Poverty
?'? Law Center
It's not often a friend asks
! for a personal endorsement -
! especially when it comes to
; race.
And when it happens, it
means that someone has been
> doing some serious soul-search
I ing.
"Help. I need your endorse
ment, if I deserve it," he wrote.
My friend was seeking
\ understanding about black and
' white prejudices and about
\ trusting people who are difler
; ent.
I could tell by the tone of
' his request that he was doing
'? some serious soul-searching.
The intensity of the message
was as forceful as water flowing
out of a fire hydrant at full
blast.
A black family came to him
after seeing his work on display
at a bridal show. They were "an
outstanding black family," he
said, "very lovely and obvious
? ly educated."
They liked his work and the
quality enough to visit his stu
dio to discuss their daughter's
upcoming wedding.
It was what the mother did
n't see in the studio that caused
her antenna to rise - the race of
the photographer.
"Her most important issue
with me was that she didn't see
any black brides on my walls,"
he said explaining the situation.
She wanted to. know how
many weddings he had done for
black brides.
"A handful," he responded.
The questions continued to
come.
"Do you have any black
friends in the area?" they asked.
They even wanted to know if
he had photographed any wed
dings at a particular black
church.
The answer, "no."
He had too much to over
come. No black photographs of
beaming black brides on the
wall, no experience with black
weddings and for this couple,
he had not taken pictures in a
prominent black church.
"I have never felt so helpless
and victimized, especially when
I know that if only these people
knew me," he continued.
He offered this explanation
to the woman: During his years
in the business, he found that
many blacks prefer to take their
business to black photogra
phers.
He wasn't prepared for what
happened next. The couple
requested the name of a good
black photographer.
He was accommodating and
gave them the name of a black
friend who is also in the busi
ness.
"I couldn't believe it," he
said. "I feel I lost good business
because I am white and can't
believe anyone doesn't recog
nize the fact that I see everyone
as having red blood and green
money."
He was hurt. It disturbed
him that he could lose a sale
solely on the basis of race.
He wrote me because he said
he trusted my opinion.
"You know, the thing that
bothered me wasn't the fact this
family wasn't comfortable with
a white photographer, it was
that they relied on their bias
toward whites in general rather
than judging me personally."
What bothered him that one
time was something that was an
everyday occurrence for most
black folks. He was floored to
be a victim of discrimination.
He wanted to know how
people could get past skin
color, ethnicity or religious dif
ferences.
"How could this obviously
intelligent black family not rec
ognize my personality?" he
asked. "Why did they judge me
by the sins of race past?"
Answers to that question
required me to dig a little deep
er and look into the issues that
divide us.
There are prejudices and
stereotypes inside each of us.
It's baggage we don't want to
admit to carrying, but it's easy
to see when we're impacted by
it.
Digging deeper means get
ting beyond the surface to real
ly uncover the issues that need
to be resolved.
We don't always want to do
what we are uncomfortable
doing.
"It is not fair nor smart for
whites or blacks to judge by
skin color," he said.
"Did I make a mistake r
telling her about black folks
preferring black photogra
phers? Did that sound like I
didn't really want her busi
ness?"
We still have a long way to
go in the area of race relations,
and incidents like this illustrate
what some of us have been
faced with for a lifetime all
because of skin color.
A white friend remarked
recently that she hopes one day
that people will see each other
as people.
"We will love them or do
business with them because we
recognize and value their gifts
and don't see the 'differences'
whatever they may be," she
said.
According to "Ten Ways To
Fight Hate," a community
response guide published by the
Southern Poverty Law Center,
we all grow up with prejudices.
It takes effort to see them as
clearly as others do. We each
have the power to change our
attitude to overcome our igno
rance and fears, and to influ
ence our children, our peers
and our community.
It's tough work to dig deep
er. That's why so few do.
Nigel Alston is an executive
with Integon Insurance and can
be reached at PO Box 722,
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102 or
e-mailed at
nalston23 7@aol. com
NAACP lawsuit has merit
Rev. Carlton
| Eversley
Guest
I Columnist
This is the fourth in a series of
' articles on the work of the4
NAACP Education Caucus this
year. We have met every first
1 Tuesday of every month since
January precisely at 8 p.m. at
Dellabrook Church and have
been serious about organizing
the entire black Forsyth County
population in matters of public
education. The African Ameri
' can church has been central to
this effort because, for better or
worse, it is still the only wholly
' black-owned institution in our
community. Moreover, at its best,
full-time African American cler
gy leadership can be totally
accountable to our community
without being yanked on a chain
by white power elites.
These elites, including School
* Board Chairman Donny Lam
- .beth, Superintendent Donald
Martin and School Attorney
Douglas Punger, have variously
sought to ignore, minimize or
dismiss our efforts as being off
base. When the NAACP says we
want high expectations for all
students, equitable discipline,
proportionate black hiring, Afro
centric curriculum and racial/cul
tural sensitivity training, the edu
- cational elites pretend these are
accomplished facts. When we say
we will simultaneously sue this
district for resegregating and
organize as many African Ameri
1 cans as possible to embrace and
2
support the virtually all-black
schools in our neighborhoods,
they say they agree with the lat
ter, but the former is crazy!
Our position is, if our lawsuit
is "crazy," why does the School
Board have a $10,000 retainer to
the Hogan, Hartson law firm of
Washington, D.C., and why are
they apparently prepared to
spend another' $250,000 to
$330,000 of our taxpayer dollars
to defend a lawsuit that we
haven't filed? The NAACP does
not believe this School Board
and this superintendent will do
right by our all-black schools
without the coercive power of a
lawsuit; nor will they show any
real interest in desegregating all
of this county's schools without a
lawsuit. We believe underlying all
of this is a steadfast devaluing of
the black community's parents,
administrators, teachers, stu
dents, pastors, business persons,
etc.
Unfortunately, there appears
to be a certain attitudinal and
philosophical affiliation between
the educational elites and the
more openly rabidly racist white
supremacist elements in Forsyth
County. On May 25 I received the
following letter, which I will
quote from and edit extensively:
Dear Rev. Eversley:
I attended my daughter's
graduation from high school last
week. Never before in my 44
years of living have I realized
what savages your race truly is.
Before the graduation exercises
began, one of the school admin
istrators asked the audience to
hold any and all applause until
after all the graduates had
received their diplomas. Well,
you guessed it. The n s could
not hold back. The n??s in
the audience reverted back to
their days of living in the jungle
and swinging through the trees.
Every time a n??*s name was
announced the yelling, hollering
and jive-a?ing began. Total dis
respect. Total savagery. You want
to come to our schools. You
protest all. of the time. You say
that you are our equal. Well 'B?
-?T. You can take the n r
out of the jungle but you can't
take the jungle out of the n r
We just wish that you would ,
build your own schools. Then
you could swing through the
vines and yell and holler and jive
a-s all day long. In reality, you
n s haven't yet evolved into
civilized human beings. Total dis
respect. But what else would you
expect from something that is
still akin to a chimpanzee.
Andrew J. , 4 ??
Note, as always, Andrew J. is
another coward from the white
community lacking an ounce of
manhood it might take to sign his
full name. Perhaps he and Mark
and Sharon C'. from Kernersville
27284, who I quoted from anoth
er hate letter in an earlier col
umn, are fearful of an actual
public debate on race and educa
tion. This would be a battle of
wits in which we'd be armed to
the teeth and they'd be utterly
defenseless. Normally, I shield
my family from the stream of
hate mail I've received since mov
ing to Winston-Salem in 1982.
However, when I got Mark
and Sharon's letter on May 11,
my 14-year-old son was in my
office with me. It included some
personal attacks on my intelli- '
gence. My son had just seen me
earn my doctorate on May 8 as
the highest honor graduate in a
class of 207. He wanted me to
find a way to debate and disagree
with Mark and Sharon. I assured
him that smart people don't
lower themselves to caring one
little bit what idiotic morons like
Mark. Sharon (or Andrew) think
about them.
What's much more important
is what the School Board, super
intendent and school attorney
think of us because they have
something to say about our chil
dren's educational destiny. Early
on in this redistricting resegrega
tion process, there was,a public
hearing on the so-called magnet
theme zone choice plan at North
Forsyth High School. A white
parent made thinly-veiled racist
comments comparing (white)
children at Whitaker or Jefferson
to black children at Paisley. He
said, "These people don't care
about education and their par
ents don't care about education.".
Highly ranked administrators
(white) and white School board
members, not one rose to say,
"We won't tolerate racist com
ments, thinly-veiled or not, in
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
Schools." Silence is assent. Our
educational "leaders" say they
won't tolerate racism but they
don't confront it as it occurs
every day in Winston
Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
I'll write more later.
The Rev. Carlton Eversley is
pastor of Dellahrook Presbterian
Church
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