Last month, an editorial entitled “Coming to grips with what ‘diversity’ means” appeared in The Herald. This editorial struck me as interesting more for what it didn’t say than for what it said.
The first brief paragraphs referred to the Community Council that Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon established shortly after the cross burning in Arlington and wondered about its status. Then the issue was dropped, and the editorial went off on a philosophical tangent about the meaning of diversity. Well, excuse me, but deep intellectual musings about how to define diversity are not doing anything to solve the racial problems in our community.
In my opinion, it’s time for us to get beyond defining diversity and the outmoded concept of the melting pot. We all know what diversity means and spending any more time debating definitions is just a diversionary tactic to distract us from tackling the serious racial issues facing our communities.
In the past year in Snohomish County, we’ve had two cross burnings, posters about dead Iraqi kids, and Confederate flags displayed in our schools. There have been concerns about racial profiling and racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system and a significant “achievement gap” between the scores of students of color and white students on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. This is just the overt stuff, the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface are the subtle slights, comments and stereotypes that marginalize people of color and other under-represented minorities in our county every day.
In the aftermath of the Arlington cross burning, members of the Arlington community, public officials and others came together to condemn the hate crime, show their support for the Martin family and pledge to work together to address racial issues in the county. Under the leadership of Mayor Margaret Larson, several community meetings to discuss racial issues have been convened in Arlington, with another one scheduled for Saturday. Since April, a Mayor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, established by Mayor Ray Stephanson, has been meeting in Everett.
In May, Executive Reardon jumped on the bandwagon and established a Community Council that would address race relations, as well as other quality of life issues. This is the council that The Herald alluded to in its editorial. What The Herald failed to mention, however, was that Reardon temporarily suspended the council after just three meetings. Despite repeated requests by several council members to reconvene the council or inform council members about what he is planning to do, Reardon has done neither.
The fact of the matter is that dealing with racial issues is hard work. Taking action on these issues will not be easy. Discussions are likely to be emotional and challenging for everyone. But it is precisely because the work is so difficult that we must do it.
For too long, leaders in our community have shied away from dealing with race relations, because there are no easy answers and because the wounds of racism and discrimination are so long-standing and deep. Unless we can come together and discuss these issues, with honesty and respect, but without being afraid to dig deep and get to the core of the matter, the racial problems in our county will never be solved.
We’re all going to need to get out of our comfort zones if we’re going to address the very real issues facing people from diverse cultural backgrounds in our community.
Rather than coming to grips with what diversity means, we need to come to grips with the issue itself.
Barbara Yasui is a community activist who lives in Marysville.
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