ACTION aims to stamp out racism

October 19, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

It’s difficult to find a major societal ill that does not have some level of racism as an underlying component, a longtime minister contends.

“You can’t point to a problem in society in which racism is not a factor,” said the Rev. James “Jim” Ray of Poland, director of the former Protestant Campus Ministries at Youngstown State University.

To that end, the Rev. Mr. Ray, a human-rights and civil-rights activist, is assembling a group called “Enabling Racial Reconciliation in Greater Youngstown,” which will begin with 10 to 15 people of different races and a trained facilitator. The main goal is to bring together a diverse coalition to engage in continual dialogue aimed at tackling and eliminating racism, he noted.

Racial reconciliation also was a main topic that was discussed during ACTION’s convocation meeting Sunday at St. Edward’s Catholic Church, 240 Tod Lane on the North Side.

ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods) is a grass-roots community organization dedicated to uniting neighborhood and faith-based groups, tenant councils, schools and nonprofit organizations to work for social justice via creating safer communities, giving greater voice to young people, supporting immigrants’ rights and improving the quality of education, its mission statement says.

An estimated 150 clergy members and others took part in the two-hour gathering, themed “I Commit to Action.”

Participants broke into groups to discuss additional core issues such as supporting public education and efforts to provide a greater amount of healthful foods, offering better opportunities for those who leave prison and re-enter society, discussing challenges facing the South Avenue corridor and looking at crime and safety concerns.

Facilitating one breakout session was Patrick Kerrigan, executive director of the Oak Hill Collaborative, a 3-year-old small-business incubator on the South Side.

“One problem is that the gap between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated is widening,” Kerrigan said, adding that another challenge is “the digital divide,” which he referred to as disparities in computer skills among students.

Kerrigan and the group expressed concerns about the problem they see as the availability of 3-D printing and other high-tech jobs against a backdrop of students who lack employable and marketable skills.

In addition, it’s important to support fair-hiring campaigns, in part because an estimated 65 percent of those with felonies on their records commit new crimes. That’s largely because too few employment opportunities are available to them, Kerrigan explained.

NEED FOR GROCERIES

Another group brought up the need for more grocery stores and a greater access to healthful foods in the city while praising efforts to grow an increasing number of community gardens.

Other people mentioned what they saw as the importance of obtaining a solid education and using salvageable vacant city homes to temporarily house former inmates while providing them with construction skills.

Also brought up were ways to improve the city school district partly by backing a mentoring program and to have better access to good-paying jobs.

Addressing attendees beforehand was the Rev. B. DeNeice Welch, pastor of Pittsburgh-based Bidwell Street United Presbyterian Church.

During her presentation, “Turned Down for What,” the Rev. Mrs. Welch cited John 5:1-15, which talks about how Jesus Christ, during a Jewish festival in Jerusalem, healed a man beside a swimming pool who had been sick for 38 years. The parable goes on to show how the man was healed after having been instructed to pick up his mat and walk, even though he was admonished for doing so on the Sabbath.

Mrs. Welch used the passage as a metaphor for demonstrating the value of being activists who work toward social betterment, justice and fairness – even in the face of harsh criticism.

Calling the U.S. “a bipolar nation,” Mrs. Welch noted that institutional and structural racism are two major forces that continue to ensure that much power remains in the hands of a few.

They also are behind much police brutality against minorities, lack of educational opportunities for many people of color and the disproportionate number of blacks who are incarcerated, she contended.

“Too much of the system is maintaining illness, not focused on getting well,” Mrs. Welch said, adding that it’s safer to accept the status quo than to work toward fixing what’s inherently wrong.

Making additional remarks were Msgr. Robert J. Siffrin, pastor of St. Edward’s Church; the Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church; and the Rev. Dr. Robin Woodberry of the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.