
WASHINGTON - White flight? In a reversal, America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/09/suburbs-losing-young-whit_n_569226.html
As the Founder of a For-Profit Organization that provides Family Literacy ESL Services, I would like to say that there are residents within Detroit who enjoy good race relations, though our City is nortoriously segregated.
Because I have had the privilege of being trained in a special ministeriial work, I learned to communicate effectively with strangers at their homes for over 35 years. About 10 years ago, however, I was encouraged to learn a foreign language (Spanish) so as to assist in contacting persons in Southwest Detroit with an interest in our work.
This was an unexpectedly outstanding experience! With few exceptions, I was always warmly and genuinely accepted, though my use of the language left very much to be desired. This also helped me to appreciate how much of a barrier language and culture can be. Focusing on the issues and concerns that we shared as humans, of course, helped me to "bridge the gap".
I continued in this work even though some unforeseen caregiving and economic issues made it difficult to pursue it on a full-time basis. At the same time, in my professional life, I was presented with an opportunity to coach a young Iraqi Muslim wife and mother (Bushra) in English so that she could pass the verbal portion of the US Citizenship Exam. Though I had obtained a tutor (a young bilingual Lebanese woman)for lessons in conversational Arabic for several months, Bushra and I struggled with conversation. Her husband (who was bilingual) would leave the house with her baby daughter and I would have to tutor her without a translator. To this day, this family had always treated me with such kindness. When they invited me for the first time to eat with them in the evening, I sat on the floor with them. "Before you were a teacher, but now you are a friend", her husband told me. Bushra enjoyed her sessions so much that she invited a friend, a young Syrian wife and mother on them. Both women became citizens the next year and Bushra and her husband have since recommended me as a US Citizenship Exam Coach for some of their friends.
I said all of this to say that, if we as individuals (I am an African-American) try to get to know others by learning their languages, doing research on their culture,showing human kindness and ACCEPTING THEM, we will be able to dissolve some of our own reservations - or prejudices - and thus attain, at the very least, a satisfying working relationship.
Wednesday, October 28th at the Charles H Wright Museum
Did you realize that there are only six primary character patterns for all minority characters in mainstream movies? You Mean, There's RACE in My Movie? defines these six archetypes and examines HOW and WHY these patterns continue to marginalize minorities in the movie industry.
Picking up where esteemed film historian Donald Bogle left off (i.e., Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks), this text expands the analysis beyond African-Americans to all minorities depicted by Hollywood. This text focuses exclusively on contemporary examples (e.g., post-1990) to effectively connect historical media trends to the content and imagery with which the modern audience is most familiar.
This event is free and open to the public.
-Museum of African American History
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 7pm
Pioneer Middle School
46081 Ann Arbor Rd
Plymouth MI 48170
Moderators are Chuck Stokes (WXYZ) & Rich Homberg (Detroit Public Television)
RSVP to tparker@miroundtable.org or 313.870.1500
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