TALKING PANEL
Discussion explores race, culture with community members
TROY, N.Y. » Officials from School 2 hosted a panel discussion to explore the topics of race and culture with local community members Thursday night in the school’s gymnasium.
School 2 recently partnered with Hillside North Neighborhood Association and Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program to raise awareness of race and strengthen the North Central Troy neighborhoods and the school is also a part of NeighborWorks America, a national organization working to strengthen communities and creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities.
The guest panelists included: Dorcey Applyrs, Albany Common Council; the Rev. Robert Linder, of the Fifth Ave. AME Zion Church in Troy; Tiffany Powell-Lambright, The Sage Colleges; Officer Aaron Collington, Troy Police Department;
Ira Bethea, DASNY; and Louis Coplin, Student Life, HVCC.
Event organizers said the goal of the panel is to look beyond the stigma and discuss race, introduce tolerance and build community to restore the neighborhood.
“We went to a workshop in Columbus on race and we were all blown away by it,” School 2 Assistant Principal Lakime Meadows said to the crowd of more than two dozen community members. “We were thinking, ‘Man what can we do like this in our community’, so we decided that we could host something like this right here in our community.”
The panelists were first asked what sowing tolerance means to each of them and how they see it in their everyday lives.
“Sowing, to me, and tolerance, to me, is patience. Patience is a virtue, but when you’re planting seeds for growth — and there’s grass or food or vegetables or whatever the case may be — and when you’re raising children you have to be patient because they are going to rebel and resist, as is the lawn and the flowers and vegetables in one’s garden,” said Coplin.
Collington said what came to mind for him when he thought of this question was the late Charles King, who was the first African-American detective on the Troy Police
“We went to a workshop in Columbus on race and we were all blown away by it.”
force.
“Detective Charles King, was hired by the Troy Police Department in 1957 and I had conversations with him when I was hired in 1998,” said Collington.
“The things that he passed on to me when I was frustrated — and then your life didn’t really have a beef because he went through a time period in the 1960s and ’70s as a police officer by himself in the city of Troy, kind of made my things look not some important. He told me to be consistent and to be fair.”
“You have to have a willingness to accept what someone else is saying; you may not agree with it, but they at least have a right to say it,” added Linder. “I may not agree with everything, but at least you have the right to say it and what happens after that should open up some conversations and, depending on how willing you are to accept it, will determine which way that conversation is going to go.”
Organizers of the panel discussion said that they intend to host a similar panel discussion again in October.