The Observation Deck

As a member of the United Methodist East Ohio Conference Committee on Native Americans, I have been involved for many years with Native American considerations in Northeast Ohio.

There are thousands of Native Americans in the Cleveland area. Many came here from the reservations thirty or more years ago, for a better life.

For those unaware, in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, causing Native Americans to be moved west of the Mississippi. Of course, when they got out there, poor land and horrible conditions usually awaited them. They died in droves.

Beyond the obvious mascot controversy, (and by the way, the red feather alone, seems to bother many in the Native community most, because of its similarity to the "blood", or "honor" feather presented to a warrior) Native Americans have experienced a number of difficult cultural issues in the cities.

One bright light for Lakewood a few years back, was when the Lakewood United Methodist Church hosted a Spring/Easter gathering with the American Indian Intertribal Association. This was, to my knowledge, the first sanctioned Native American activity ever held in present-day Lakewood.

There is much that we can learn from our neighbors around us. America is becoming much more multi-racial and multi-culturally aware. Here in Lakewood, we have a great opportunity to learn and interact with each other . For years, I was involved with Lakewood's cultural interchanges down at the Womens' Pavilion each year. Those were great successes regarding bringing people together socially.

Great post Sean! Keep up the good work!

You're already apologizing for your teaching style. Are you saying you should teach White students one way and Black students another? Can you understand how the parent of either color might find this either misguided or condescending? If I move to an all white community I wont have to worry about my children's teachers being worried about their "whiteness"

Let's pull the breaks on this one quick. I am in no way apologizing for my teaching style. Not in any way, shape, or form. I am also not talking about teaching kids one way or another based on race. I AM suggesting that there is an obvious racial achievement gap that needs to be confronted. I'm not worried about my whiteness. Not at all. I am also a firm believer in high standards. This isn't condescending, it's appropriate.

Why the need to constantly push the issue away from any culpability on the part of the majority? Why the need to constantly refer to the responsibilities of the minority? Who has more power in this situation? Do not get me wrong, Dee. Everyone holds a share of the responsibility here. This includes the students. I NEVER said that students bear no responsibility. I think it IS important for you to ask why the thought that we might be alienating students stirs such a strong response. Are we beyond reproach? Can't this be part of the process that I was talking about?

Please do not make the mistake of thinking that I am representing a final solution here. I am asking that we discuss these issues. But it worries me that you are so ready to dismiss the whole thing. Perhaps we should keep things the way they are? I can't do that. There are too many people moving out, too many coded racist comments flying about, and a glaring racial achievement gap that is unconscionable. This is morally unacceptable to me. If it causes discomfort, as it does for me, so be it. I'd rather examine the issue than complain about it.

Sean.

Please understand that my comments come from frustration of (I hate to admit this) more than 40 years of America trying to talk its way out of its racial problems. Where the talks fail to resolve anything (in my view) is that when the "dominant" culture fails to see its efforts reciprocated, the members of that culture tends to circle the wagons and retreat. Which is exactly whats happened in this country. Rather than be beaten up by charges of racism, human nature suggests we will go somewhere where race is not an issue (in this case, the overwhelmingly white suburbs).
We are now more of a segregated community than ever and thats what 40-50 of "dialog" has gotten us.

Why does, as Gladwell suggests, the White community flee when Black population hits 1%? That question needs to be asked and answered HONESTLY every bit as much as the White community asks the Black community "Why dont you like us?"
The answers, I suspect, will have less to do with the old fears of Black men raping White women and more to do with stopping in the middle of the block to talk to your friends and who cares what happens behind you. Or the fact that somehow, there never seem to be any reports of drive by shootings in Bay Village or Strongsville.

I hesitated to even post here because I feared that honesty would be considered racism. What does that say?

I hear you Dee. Thanks for your insight. I've hesitated talking about this subject for awhile myself. That's where the courage comes in. Thanks for having it.

I also share in your frustration. My background as a military brat has afforded me a sometimes ugly insight into racial problems as they displayed themselves in the 20+ places that I've lived. Everywhere I go it's the same deal. I think that it is futile to try to work out this problem on a large, societal scale. But I think that this first step that we are taking might work to build some partnerships at the local level.

I should also admit to taking a look towards greener pastures. Being in public education sometimes skews ones views of the public at large. I'm proud of the work we do at lhs, and I feel supported by our community. I am also a proud resident of Lakewood and think that, for me and mine, staying is preferable to leaving.

Good stuff, Dee. Thanks for the conversation thus far and I look forward to a time when we can share our views in person.

ps. Go Cavs!!! This IS our year. (ok, so i'm also a glutton for punishment!)

Sean Wheeler wrote:ps. Go Cavs!!! This IS our year. (ok, so i'm also a glutton for punishment!)

Sometimes I wonder why the Cavs aren't called "the roundheads" or at least the Parliamenteers......

An active perception of encroaching thug or lowlife culture often sets up self-fullfilling prophecies. Whether they're blacks, Italians, hilbillies, crackers, Indiana Methheads, etc. It gets expensive waiting around for them to do something technically illegal enough to arrest them and ship them out.

that is why I have been researching dog technology. The OWCZAREK PODHALANSKI and KUVASZ seem well suited to raising the quality of life in cities. For one, they don't look like pitbulls or rottweilers or other dogs marketed as attack dogs. They are large sheep dogs that look friendly enough.

They can be trained to threaten or throttle young adults who use Coarse language too loudly within a few lots of your yard. They can attack people who walk around talking loudly in conversations that go like this: "And I was like...and he/she was like...and I was like". Then pedestrians can congratulate the dogs for doing this. It is good psychology and sociology: Kids at the crossroads will want to fit in, so will behave in a way that makes them acceptable and eventually end up with decent values.

I mean, it should be ok. All we need to do is context-up the law so it is ok to be attacked by a shepherd-type dog, as long as you deserve it and weren't injured too badly. It might work.

I've had the opportunity to travel all over the U.S. for around 15 or 20 years. I've yet to see any community reverse their emotions or feelings about racial or "thug" influx, anywhere where a dominant "race" or culture lived.

This is not to say it has not been accomplished somewhere. If so, then we should find out where, under what circumstances, and learn from them, and how this so far unknown community dealt with these issues. Did they succeed?

We should also form our own efforts drawing on idealism, creativity and apply what we can, and make our own effort to put our own city on the map for the one that others will say "they did it".

These issues are things we need to learn and address. I believe the time for philosophy is past, and now we must learn and do, if that is possible in this society.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

Mark Crnolatas wrote:I've had the opportunity to travel all over the U.S. for around 15 or 20 years. I've yet to see any community reverse their emotions or feelings about racial or "thug" influx, anywhere where a dominant "race" or culture lived.

This is not to say it has not been accomplished somewhere. If so, then we should find out where, under what circumstances, and learn from them, and how this so far unknown community dealt with these issues. Did they succeed?

We should also form our own efforts drawing on idealism, creativity and apply what we can, and make our own effort to put our own city on the map for the one that others will say "they did it".

These issues are things we need to learn and address. I believe the time for philosophy is past, and now we must learn and do, if that is possible in this society.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

To a large extent the problem seems Uniquely American cultural norm. Canadians don't seem to have it so bad. Even in ethnically diverse places. I speculate James Howard Kunstler has explained the socio-economic aspects of it better than I can.

there's little way the United States can reverse itself in socio-economic regards: We're too addicted to the patterns of replacing industrial activity with sprawl and entertainment. Culturally the path to improvement is more clearcut. It helps to see troublemakers or thugs less as a collection of negative stereotypes and more as tragic fashion victims.

Psychologists say IQ easily has a +/- swing of 20 points. The difference is made mostly from infancy through early adolescence. Hip Hop culture probably helps kids with a baseline potential of average intelligence or less (<100) develop more towards an IQ of 80.

Real integration is a haphazard and unintentional process. In places like Brookpark and Berea and Elyria you see a lot of white grandparents raising half-black grandchildren: they seem to talk intelligently enough and behave alright. You see a lot of that in Cleveland too, but the results aren't as consistent.

Sean:

I do want to express some concerns about a heavy-handed and over-generalized application of Singleton’s imposition of “institutionalized racismâ€Â

[quote="Kenneth Warren"] One effect of the imposition of “institutionalized racismâ€Â

Joining this thread late. Sean, thank you for starting us off on such an important topic, and so ably.

Sean, I accept your invitation to hold a regular series of community meetings open to all-comers. Let's figure out a time a place and post here on the Deck. In time, perhaps these discussions can grow.

I'd suggest these conversations focus not just on kids and their behavior, but also adults and our behavior, and adults and our perceptions. My suggestion to you, Sean, was that Lakewood could benefit from a set of "courageous conversations" that paralleled those in Lakewood schools but which focus on the community at large.

Adults are challenged too--both in our own behaviors AND our perceptions. I'd spend a little time addressing the latter.

I'm door-knocking in many Lakewood neighborhoods, and I hear a lot of anxiety about un-neighborly behavior (noise, trash, parties, intimidating behavior, alcohol and substance abuse, inadequate home up-keep, sometimes crime and domestic violence). It's often expressed in the coded language Sean cites. "Section 8", "renters", and "becoming Cleveland" are common phrases.

Some of this is race-related, but I suspect not all, since problem behaviors are engaged in by white, Latino, Middle Eastern, and African-American residents. (However, I don't know what I don't know--I accept Sean's invitation to *ask* people what they mean by their coded language.)

Here's the kicker: the anxiety I hear becomes frustration and anger if residents feel they are alone with the problem, that there is no solution, and that neighbor-to-neighbor conversations can't work. That's when I tend to hear the hands thrown up in frustration and "coded language" rolled out.

Mark asks, what can be done?

Initiating a dialogue on race--and on good neighborly-behavior, and safety, and related issues--could be the first step in turning perceptions around. Could we invite the police to join in on these community conversations? How about a person from Housing and another from Youth Services? From some church groups with social outreach? From the Observer (Jim has already agreed to participate)? All of a sudden we're not alone with the problem, and there's hope, and an appropriate place for us to channel our energies.

To address Ken's concern re: "chaos-making": A combined carrot-and-stick approach may be called for: on behavior, there is no bending, but full enforcement--conduct does not cross certain lines (the stick of police power and community expectation). On getting "buy-in" from residents for a good-neighbor code of conduct (see Sean's comment on the lack of motivation by alienated students), we'll have to use other tools (carrots): welcoming residents (old-fashioned "welcome wagon"?), regular neighborhood discussions, community resource guides, friendly engagement so people have something to say "yes" to. We likely need both tools to get results.

Sorry for the delayed resonse, but I'd like to address some things that Ken Warren posted. Since I don't yet know how to do the fancy quoting box thing, I'll just use the old fashioned method.

"I do want to express some concerns about a heavy-handed and over-generalized application of Singleton’s imposition of “institutionalized racismâ€Â

Fascinating discussion. I for one, can attest to racism being present. I guess I never saw it before the West End issue. I was campaigning on the south west side of the city and ran into a man who told me how religious he was but how we had to get rid of the people in the apartments. He was concerned that there were people there whose first language wasn't English - so of course we had to remove them from the city. Blew me away. He was the worst - but I heard those types of comments more than once.

My son shared with me a book that he had just read. Class Matters by New York Times author Bill Keller.
http://www.amazon.com/Class-Matters-New-York-Times/dp/0805080554

The New York Times did a whole series on this and it may be an interesting topic for the Lakewood Library as well.

He contents and I seriously concur that today class is more important than race. They cite example after example where race or nationality has much less to do with success in our country than the class into which you are born. We used to be the country where if you worked hard, you could get ahead. But not so much any more.

While as I stated there is racism. I also hear the same types of slurs about "Bird Town" and other areas of Lakewood where less affluent white people live. You hear these slurs about Section 8. You hear these slurs about apartment dwellers. I actually hear many more slurs about the less affluent than I do about blacks or other nationalities.

Sean:

The problem in our midst is not institutional racism; the problem is bad parents and bad neighbors.

That bad parents and bad neighbors may be African-American is not something any courageous conversation can change.

The dialectical action is the procreative one, between mother and father, and the elemental social relations that follow along functional and dysfunctional paths.

The central issues confronting Lakewood are the effects of social breakdown and weakening social control.

For the underclass, whether black or white, the institutions of family, marriage and parenthood have broken down to the detriment of a child’s well being.

A child’s well being is the point of highest value in the concrete sense of social interdependencies available to us in the Lakewood life-stream.

Any behavior damaging a child’s well being must be subjected to moral pressure.

In my work at the library, when punks curse within earshot of children, I always focus on the child’s well being. I may simply say: “Don’t damage that child’s innocence,â€Â

I ran into Mr.Wheeler during my free period today while running a few errands in school. He was eager to respond to all of the people involved in this post.

For those that don't have the pleasure of knowing who Mr.Wheeler is, he's a kind, thoughtful and reflective individual that is an asset to Lakewood High School's English Dept. He teachers freshmen, and does a great job at setting a work ethic into kids, he challenges them to work, to think, to grow and achieve.

Let me jump into this conversation. When talking to Mr.Wheeler for a brief moment today, I asked "how many responses have you received?" and he said "oh, about 25 or so"

that surprised me. Since we're talking about racism. Oh no, the "R" word.

Racism is everywhere you go. it's not white against black, black against white. It's Irish against English, Jews against Arabs, in my case Croatians, Bosnians, Serbians and Albanians. It's world-wide and it's fueled by the media and entertainment industry.

In order to address a problem like racism, I think you would have to find the root of the problem. You trace where it was first recorded, why, and how it evolved into a world wide plague. You compare and contrast, learn more about it and figure out what we as individuals can do that hasn't been done so far.

Look at the middle east. They probably stopped counting the peace treaties between Palestine and Israel. Just because the mortar's stop flying doesn't mean that centuries of teachings is cleansed out of their bloodstream.

It seems like we, on a universal scale, take three steps forward on equality and then two steps back when the Don Imus' publicly open their yaps.

I think now more than ever people are exposed to belief that this world is a rough world and you have to do anything to save yourself from others. The good in others isn't shown enough.

We as a community can hold these meetings and discuss matters and three things can happen. Nothing can change, or it can backfire, or it can make us the first community to address the issue of racism and do something to build bridges between generations, races, and ethnicities.

As a foreigner in the city of Lakewood, hearing about how schools and places around town value our community's diversity makes me chuckle. I invite anyone to sit in the ISS (in school suspension) room for two hours on any given day and you'll see first hand what our community is coming to. For me, ISS or wednesday school is the worst form of punishment there is because of the diversity in the room. Institutions only fuel the bad blood between races and ethnicities because it becomes competition and a question of pride.

If I didn't take photos for the Lakewood Observer, I'd be just another foreign kid among the masses. To some, I'm just another foreigner no matter what I do. Do I like being labeled as a poor eastern european immigrant that has no value to this community and only came here for a passport so I can get the rest of my family here to take some more jobs away, no. But I continue to strive for what I believe in no matter who gets in my way. That's the way most people are in the world today, just some examples.. "you can be racist towards me, but it's not going to stop ME from what I'M wanting to achieve." "My Neighbor doesn't have the influence on my life for me to worry about if they like my pants high or low, or my type of music." ME, ME, ME, I, I I. You label me, I label you. that sort of thing.

The bottom line is that you can't choose the color of the skin you're given, or where your ancestors come from, or which part of the city you live in. People don't realize that sometimes you're stuck with what you have, and if that makes you different from others then so be it. Whether I like Rock or Hip Hop, wear my pants up to my belly button or my knees, what effect does it have on me as a moral, educated, and civilized individual?

As a person who witnesses racism every day on a regular basis, there is a lot to talk about. If you ask any student that's in any school district how racism plays a role in their education you will be suprised. It's a growing thing, and it bothers me.

I can only do my part and not judge, not blame, not label and insult. Pointing fingers at the "thugs" for making racism worse is the wrong thing to do. Take a look in the mirror folks, you're whites sitting in front of computers with roofs over your heads. your ancestors weren't ever property sold to farmers that work them to death. You haven't been attacked by kanines and sprayed with icy cold water while fighting for your freedoms to vote and sit in the same room as a white man. You were never told where you could sit on the bus, or at the theater, or at a show because of your ancestors gift to you. Centuries of repression, anger and racism are a part of America's history and it's our job to break those chains.

Sitting here and calling on thugs isn't going to do us any good. Screaming "get out of my city you thugs!" out of your windows isn't going to help either because you're only adding more fuel to the fire.

Whites do things that African Americans don't like, so from what I've read in these posts, that makes us thugs too.

My government teacher always reminds us that we live in a era of "well it's not my fault, because they..."

Dee Martinez: Again do the students share NO responsibility for getting the work done and learning?

Well...... I don't get my work done because I have a girlfriend and I work two nights a week and spend my time photographing the baseball team. It's not my fault I'm so busy!

Mr.Wheeler.. this

"I think it has alot to do with students who do not want to participate in a system in which they are not valued."

couldn't have hit the nail on the head more directly.

I am a minority at LHS and have many friends that are foreign too. We get chased al the time to do more and more standardized tests to test our english speaking skills so that the school gets more funding. As I'm speaking to you as a new US citizen, I don't see why I'm still labeled as a ESL student when I'm graduating with three extra enlgish classes than recommended for graduating and attending a 4 year university in the fall. I had enough english credits at the conclusion of my sophomore year (as recommended by the state of ohio). There are a ton of cases of minorities excelling, better than the US born kids, in US schools, and still being chained, labeled and punished for being foreign.

they're making the minority feel like the minority. it's demoralizing to me, and I only have 8 days left of it.