Trucker is held in hit of cyclist
WENT TO WORK. Check. Had dinner and drinks. Check. Met a black person. Check.
That’s how the day went for a group of white people in suburban Atlanta Thursday who went to a networking event called Come Meet a Black Person.
Over chili and beer with light jazz playing in the background, a diverse mix of urban professionals did what they could to try to to bridge the racial divide.
They talked. They ate cornbread. They drank wine. And they talked.
In a setting not unlike speed dating, participants were forced outside their comfort zones, discussing issues like politics, family, crime and hair.
“I’m trying something different,” said Cheryle Moses, founder of a group called Urban Mediamakers, who organized the event.
“We have been attacking this issue the same way forever. So try something new.”
The mixer is a variation on her annual anniversary party for Urban Mediamaker, a group of content creators.
Moses said she was planning it last week when she stumbled upon a 2013 report by the Public Religion Research Institute in her emails. The study found 75% of white Americans don’t have friends who aren’t white. It also revealed 91% of white people’s friends are white. And 65% of black people do not have friends who are white, the report noted.
“My first thought was a bit of shock,” she told The News. “But as a black person we know that anyway: Most white people don’t have black friends.”
Though the concept sounds like a “Saturday Night Live” skit waiting to happen, most of the participants were open-minded, even D.J. Brown, 26, who despite being a product of mixed-race parents, came in with his doubts.
“I was definitely skeptical,” Brown said. “Who knows how this could have turned out.”
Even with a police car parked across the street, the event went off without a hitch.
“When I heard that they were going to open a dialogue between black and white I thought I would show up,” said Mark Anthony, an African-American.
“Maybe I can say something about how I grew up. I grew up in New York, West Virginia, Indiana, Detroit and then I moved to the South and saw the differences in the South.”
Anthony said the session forced him to see his shortcomings.
“A lot of times it is not prejudice,” Anthony said. “It is the circles I run in that I don’t have the opportunities to meet white people.”
Niall Mathieson, a white man from England, said his church tipped him to the $15 event.
“I am already passionate about integration,” he said. “It was a no-brainer to be here ... it’s a fantastic concept. I’m thinking on where it can go from here.”
With racial tensions and divisiveness so high in the U.S., Moses believes personal conversations could pave the way to a little more understanding. “It’s cool to march and protest if that’s your thing,” she said. “But I need to get you one-on-one.”
The attention around Come Meet a Black Person has helped get more recognition of her organization than ever before.
“I could not have orchestrated this if I wanted to,” she told The News. “I’ve been sending out press releases for 17 years.” COPS HAVE busted a dump truck driver who ran over a nurse as she rode her bike on the Lower East Side, police said Thursday.
Juan Cosme, 45, was behind the wheel of a Dump Masters 10-wheeler when he hit the 50-year-old woman at Stanton and Ridge Sts. at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, cops said.
Medics rushed her to Bellevue Hospital with serious injuries. Police sources said the woman may lose one of her legs.
Investigators believe the nurse may have been going the wrong way down Ridge St., which is a one-way street, based on where she was struck, sources said.
Cosme stayed at the scene and was charged with driving with a suspended license.