Poll: Negative Discussion of Race Hurting Greenwood

It only took about three weeks for our skilled team of statisticians to process the results of our most recent non-scientific poll that asked how you felt about the negative undertone of race-related discussions in and around town.

We asked the question, "Is the current debate about race relations in Greenwood helping or hurting us as a community?"

A total of 28 votes were cast over the course of a week and a whopping 89% of you said that the negative discussions were actually hurting race relations in Greenwood. Surprise, surprise. In contrast, another 7% of the voters thought that the discussion, no matter how negative, was actually a good thing, thus helping race relations in Greenwood. The remaining 4% of you didn't have a clue one way or the other.

This poll was a referendum on the treatment that the Greenwood Commonwealth has given to race-sensitive issues in their news coverage of late and on the back-and-forth struggle for power that is taking place within the walls of City Hall. In a previous editorial on The Delta Dirt, I made the following observation:
"Greenwood is trying its best to move forward with regard to race relations. In order for Greenwood, or any town with an equivalent history of racial tensions, to move forward as a community, it will have to not only face its past, but also confront its current problems in an open discussion between the two sides. An issue as big as this is not one that can be swept under the rug in hopes that it will be forgotten."

My hope is that we can all take a step back from all that has happened in recent months and see the silver lining in all of this. The issue of race is still on the table. In fact, it has been on the table for the entirety of Greenwood's history. But it is now the year 2008 and we as a people are now at a crossroads.

We can choose to stay on our current path of self-destruction by saying and thinking the words and thoughts that will continue to keep us in our current state of racial decay. Or we can take the high road and examine our faults, air our dirty laundry, talk about our current conditions, and make an honest attempt to move on from the old ways of doing things.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

From "The Road Not Taken," by Robert Frost.

Comments

dtuiadmin said…
Well stated. You can't get very far without talking honestly. However, the discussion must be facilitated by competent moderators to make certain that people get the most out of it.
Billy Vaughn DTUI Diversity
7:35 PM
Thomas Gregory said…
A comment! I took a course in dispute resolution, so I know the benefits of moderation. There have been some efforts to facilitate talks about race relations in Greenwood, but they seem to have been focused on the politically involved, and not on the regular citizens. It's not necessarily the people in power that harbor the resentment. It's the normal citizens, in particular the morons who regularly comment on the Greenwood Commonwealth, that need to empathize. Thanks for your input, though. Well said.
12:36 AM
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