By Ethan Moore, sports editor.
On Sept. 13, Delta College hosted a public forum to talk about racial equality in the world today. They put together a panel of people from the community who deal with race relations on a consistent basis. This included Charlie Brunner, the 96th District Representative, Charles Schoder, a Civil Rights Specialist for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, Judge Terry Clark of the 74th District court, Terry Pruitt, an Executive Committee member of the NAACP in Saginaw and Joyce Seals, a community activist and a former mayor of Saginaw.
The panel was mediated by John L. Smith, the Treasurer and Vice President of the NAACP in Bay City. He wrote his own questions and was given questions by the Political Science department to use in the forum; he chose to use his own questions.
The panel provided answers and discussion points on questions such as: “How long does it take to solve a problem?” and “Can the racial problems of the nation be fixed?”
“We have to believe that change can come from all of the work we’re doing.” said Pruitt. “What’s the point of anything we’re doing if we don’t even believe?”
Whether or not the quality of questions was on par, people who watched the forum seemed to be satisfied with the content.
“I thought it was really inspirational,” says Marisol Verdun, a Delta student. “They focused a lot on education and how that should be the first step into fixing a lot of our issues.”
There was also a chance for the public to ask the panel questions which led to talking points about disabled people’s rights, the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent shooting at SVSU. The overarching theme of the night was that change can only come from the grassroots.
“We can only create change if we get involved and participate in our communities. You can only create change if you know what’s going on in the world around you, and events like this help to do just that.” says Seals.
