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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/06/1989 AGENDA MAPLEWOOD HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Tuesday, June 6, 1989 7:00 p.m. Maplewood City Hall 1. Approval of Minutes 2. Update of Grievances 3. Old Business * Essay Contest * Educational Articles * 1988 Annual Report * Human Rights Award * Other 4. New Business * Committee Assignments * Training * League Annual Meeting - October 6th & 7th 5. Reports * Joint HRA/HRC Meeting 6. Adjournment MINUTES MAPLEWOOD HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION r., May 2, 1989 7:00 p.m. City Hall PRESENT EXCUSED Sister Claire Lynch Scott Rostron Karla Sand Paul Sand GUESTS Pat Williamson Carol Engel Ken Rossow Gail Blackstone Carolyn Peterson Mike McGuire Gordon Heininger Dawn Vassar 1. MINUTES Motion was made to accept the April 4, 1989 Minutes as presented, seconded and voted in favor. 2. GRIEVANCES No active grievances at this time. 3. OLD BUSINESS A. Racial Discrimination in Schools - Paul Sand reported that Scott Rostron contacted Ken Collins of the Maplewood Police Department about the reported racial disturbances in the schools and Ken Collins felt they were isolated incidents and were under control. The Commission will continue to monitor this situation. B. Essay Contest - Carol reported that she and Sr. Claire are working on this project. They presented a draft copy of a letter to the schools soliciting participation. The reference to using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of the contest will be reviewed. Carol will check with the Roseville Human Rights Commission on its use of the Declaration in the essay contest. C. Educational Articles - Paul submitted copies of an article on fair housing for submission to the Maplewood Review. Members are asked to review the article and if they have any questions or concerns they are to call Paul on 333-5365 within the next week. Otherwise, he will forward it to the Maplewood Review for publication. The next article will be on desegregation. Paul is currently serving on a Task Force on Desegregation for the MN Department of Education and the Minneapolis School District. Minutes May 2, 1989 Page 2 D. 1988 Annual Report - Gail distributed a copy of the draft 1988 Annual Report for comments and changes. The final report will be presented to the City Council on May 22, 1989 by the Chair Pat Williamson. 100 copies will be printed for distribution upon request. E. Human Rights Award - Will continue to use the same form as used in previous years for nominations. Nominations are due by the end of October, so we need to publicize in September. This is a June agenda item. It was suggested that the Commission submit Audrey Hughes as a candidate for the League of MN Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Award. Karla will contact Audrey. F. Training Sessions - At this time it is not possible for Maplewood to host no fault training sessions. G. Martin Luther King Day - Karla reported that members of the League reported that some schools are digressing or changing their procedures for celebrating on this day. Some schools are giving students the day off, but not the teachers; others are giving students off with an excuse from parents. Commission will continue to monitor this event. 4. New Business The four Maplewood citizens who indicated interest in membership on the Commission were invited to attend this meeting. All four attended. Mike and Gail excused themselves from the meeting. The Commission members thanked the guests for their attendance and interest in becoming members of the Commission. Introductions were conducted. Each guest was asked to briefly explain why they wanted to be on the Commission, how they learned of the opening. Then guests were invited to ask questions of the members. After the guests were excused, the members present discussed the applications and selected one person, Dawn Vasser, to become a member of the Board and the others to be invited as Committee members as advisors to the Commission. Chair Pat will submit the Commissions recommendation to the City Councilat the May 22, 1989 meeting. 5. Meeting adjourned at approximately 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Karla V. Sand Secretary Not long ago, I had an opportunity to visit Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Central was one of the first all-white -southern schools to follow the desegregation order set down in Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1954. That first week of school at Central in the fall of 1958 had been filled with ugly hatred and threats of physical violence. In the main hallway of the school one can still see pictures of white parents screaming racial slurs at the nine frightened Black students. Beneath one picture were the words spoken by Elizabeth Eckford: "I tried to see a friendly face and the face of an old woman seemed friendly, but when I looked at her again she spat on me," As I read those words it crossed my mind that rather than sending Federal troops with fixed bayonets to escort the students to enroll at Central, what would've happened if President Eisenhower had appeared and had taken the hands of the students and walked with them through the white gauntlet of hatred? Would the tragic drama still have been repeated in other schools across the nation? Would such a show of moral courage and leadership silenced the angry cries of racial prejudice? Perhaps not. But it still would've been worth a try. Although many people will disagree, I see desegregation as essentially a moral and ethical problem in that "equality as justice" has had a long moral tradition in our society. But unfortunately a morally grounded belief about desegregation_has never moved a community toward accepting human equality. 2 Opponents to metro area desegreation for instance have often advanced the argument that unequal distribution of educational opportunities between urban and suburban schools can be ethically and morally justified. Their argument is that by providing an equal chance for urban students to realize their potential will result in undercutting the chances for suburban students to meet their educational potential. Moreover, since all students are intellectually unequal, the interests and claims of all simply cannot be regarded equally. On the other side, supporters for desegregation argue that the problemiof the inner city -drugs, violence, high drop-out rates, low test scores, lack of classroom discipline, unqualified teachers, and lack of funds- are not products of a natural lottery of life, but are human-made. Accordingly, the supporters see justice as requiring compensation to minorities who are locked into living in massive public housing projects because of their low economic status, and because of the pattern of segregation found in the suburbs. Supporters also note that it has been an irrational fear of white parents that educational standards would be lowered if urban minorities were permitted to enroll in their segregated schools. Ironically what we now have ares suburban parentprotesting the enrollment of Pacific-Asians in their schools because they fear that 3 such students will raise the educational standards so high that their children will no longer be able to compete. Without question, the public debate over metro area desegregation will be bitter and long. Already we have signs of disagreement and mis- understanding erupting between the urban and suburban school boards. Each accuses the other of not being cooperative in forumulating a feasible desegregation plan. To date, there has been little or no compromising on either side. In order to make desegregation voluntary, without a court mandate, there are a number of steps which should be considered in making the transition more peaceful. Suburban schools, for example, need to communicate to the community that desegregation does not lower educational standards. Board members also need to de-escalate their rhetoric and posturing, The clergy too can help by informing their congregations "equality of people before God" is the moral foundation for desegregation. They also need to tell their followers why racial and ethnic prejudice is a moral issue. School administrators also must play a part by providing a teacher exchange program, and by bringing more minority teachers into the suburban schools. Perhaps most important would be to provide students, urban and sub- urban, with the opporunity to breakdown their myths, stereotypes and fears about each other. Such a student exchange program needs to be 4 intense -perhaps a week of living together in a camp site- where students will have an opporunity to learn, not only about themselves, but to learn about students who come from a multi-cultural and ethnic background. It is my view that if trust can be built between the students, the barriers to desegregation, such as fear and prejudice, can be more easily overcome. Paul 0. Sand is a member of the Maplewood Human Relations Commission.