Conversations on Race (Part 3)

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This week’s show is the third in our race series. After our first two shows in this series, we had community gatherings where people connected and opened their hearts in moving ways. At one, Tristan Evans, a senior at the College of Charleston, spoke passionately about how she's been affected by this issue and concluded, "I've been to a lot of race dialogues. My question is what happens after the dialogue?"
And that's our question, too. This week, Steve Skardon talks about interracial dialogues the Palmetto Project has organized and says, "White folks go home to a white world, and black folks are still black. They deal with this every day."
Awareness is a great first step. With people in the conservative media saying there is no racism left in America, with a white mayor in SC saying Sen. Obama is only smart because his mama was white, with black faces still missing from many seats of business, academic, and political power, a simple awareness that the problem remains is an important beginning. But what comes next?
Email, Blackberries, cell phones . . . because of all these, we are technically barraged with information, contacts, requests for responses. Yet the blizzard of technical snow has the effect of isolating us rather than creating connections. The mythical cocoon of the modern household, created by pizza and a rented movie, sets us apart in our individual worlds. How do we connect, gather, have conversation, create change?
On this show, Rev. Dr. Bennie Colclough, John Simpkins, and Steve Skardon are three men with very different perspectives and great stories to tell, and they bring thoughtful deliberation to this issue.
Rev. Colclough is the AME pastor we interviewed on our show on Amendment One and the institutional discrimination against gays and lesbians. Prof. Simpkins is the Director of Diversity Initiatives at the Charleston School of Law. Skardon runs the Palmetto Project, which has worked for years in the Palmetto State to create racial harmony and build stronger communities.

We hope this series will spark a dialogue across SC. Here’s how you can get involved:
Answer 3 questions we asked in our interviews. Send us an email, and we’ll share your answers on the website. If you’d like to be interviewed for our ongoing series, send us your phone number.

1. What is your most painful memory of race?

2. What messages did you get from your parents about race relations?

3. What messages about race do you hope to convey to the next generation?

Click here to view answers from other people affected by racism.