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City hosts race dialogue

Charlottesville committee, UCARE discuss stereotyping, racism problems

The Dialogue on Race Steering Committee and the University and Community Action for Racial Equity (UCARE) hosted an event Saturday afternoon to discuss race-based issues and incidents in Charlottesville.

The Dialogue on Race is a City committee which promotes on-going discussions about race, ethnicity, racism and diversity to identify solutions for any community problems, according to the committee's website.

Saturday's event was designed to further these goals by creating "a space for discussion on these topics that challenge how we communicate with each other as a community," according to the website. Event organizer Charlene Green said the recent murder of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, in part, made the two groups decide to host an event addressing the problems inherent in stereotyping individuals according to their race or ethnicity.

Regina Pencile, project manager for UCARE, said the recent Martin incident not only inspired the event, but also provided people in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area with an opportunity "to express their grievances" and discuss the larger implications of racism.

"The community needed the same opportunity to address how they felt about what happened with [Martin] or how they feel about just stereotyping in general," Pencile said.

The discussion began with short introductions from everyone in the room followed by personal stories about stereotyping.

Charlottesville Vice Mayor Kristin Szakos, who is also a member of the City of Promise Steering Committee, said she attended the event largely because of her black children and the racial problems she felt they had faced growing up in the United States.

"There's things in the air in Charlottesville and the [United States] ... that we have to take responsibility for, so I have been working with the City of Promise to try to reform the schools," Szakos said.

Dorenda Johnson, a member of the City's Human Rights Task Force, said she worries her two teenage sons, who are black males, would be the ones who would feel the effects of a future characterized by unfair stereotypes.

"I'm hearing too often from kids who go [to the Henry Avenue School] that they aren't even doing anything ... and we wonder why there's an achievement gap," Johnson said. "You talk about how somebody's dressed, and you stereotype them or somebody's sexuality, and you stereotype them, whatever the case is, the big, big issue at Charlottesville high schools is kids being stereotyped by race."

Attendees considered whether they should establish a committee or a task force to fight racism, but Pencile said many similar groups already exist which are currently looking for new members.

"There are so many groups that are all trying to do well in the community that we don't always get the chance to talk to each other, so even having something like this is a great opportunity for folks to get together," Pencile said.

After the success of Saturday's event, Green said the organizations will likely host another meeting within the coming weeks.

"I learned more things about my local community in Charlottesville that I wasn't aware of," Pencile said. "I think as long as people can go away with feeling that there are other people that you can come to or you can share your feelings with that it was a success"

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