Lankford says ‘uncomfortable moments’ must be broached on road to racial healing
WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago, U.S. Sen. James Lankford received a photo of a friend, who is white, having Sunday supper with a black family.
The friend wasn’t just touching base. He was showing Lankford that he had responded to the senator’s challenge for Americans to invite someone of another race over for a Sunday meal and a conversation.
Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., issued the call in July as violence escalated between blacks and police.
Lankford recently discouraged a pastor from trying to arrange dinners. He wants people to do it themselves.
“I’d rather have people have that uncomfortable moment of thinking, ‘I don’t know who I would invite,’” Lankford said in an interview.
“If we could get people to have that uncomfortable moment, I think we’re taking a good step to realize, ‘I don’t have relationships like that’ and ask the question: Why?”
As a member of the U.S. House, Lankford met regularly with people in minority communities in the Oklahoma City area. After being elected to the Senate, he took a keen interest in north Tulsa and, in May, gave a speech on the Senate floor about the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
“When I first heard him talk about the riot, I told him that it really touched me to have him talk about it,’’ said Lester Shaw, executive director of the Tulsa community organization A Pocket Full of Hope.
Lankford, a former Southern Baptist youth camp director, has invited African-American kids from Washington, D.C. to his office for pizza. And, in August, he visited the historic Anacostia neighborhood here to talk to African-Americans about their challenges.
In his Capitol Hill office two weeks ago, Lankford discussed his efforts to bridge the racial divide. He answered additional questions last week after Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, who is white, shot and killed Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man; the interview last week was before Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Some questions and answers have been edited for brevity. just a moment in late May or early June — one hundred years since the race riot — what has been our progress?
It’s a fair question. So I do spend a lot time with multiple members of all parts of the community asking that question: Where are we and how are we going to answer that in 2021?
Here’s what I get from some (black) leaders — not all, but some: You oppose the president on whatever policy it might be. Is it because he’s black?
And I can honestly say to them, No it’s not. Here’s why I disagree with his policy and how it works for everyone.
The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, is a prime example. I’ve had people say, “You’re arguing about price. We’re finally getting access. We have people that had never been insured who are insured and you’re trying to take that away. It’s a good thing for us and you’re trying to remove that. Is it because the president’s black and the insurance is going to black people?” That has absolutely nothing to do with it. But here’s the benefit of it: We could not have that conversation if I wasn’t there to have that conversation and if they didn’t trust me enough to ask the question. So to me, that’s a positive thing … To be in a place where there’s not just suspicion and we never speak but to sit down in the same room and say, “Let’s look at each other and talk about it.”
And you get to a point where you’re able to ask hard questions and deal with that.
You don’t do it shaking hands at a big meeting. You don’t do it around media and cameras.
I don’t know. I can’t read a heart on that. But I can say, “This is why I think the policy is a wrong direction.” that. I don’t think that there is. But here’s the challenge: There are people in the community who clearly see it. And as I talk to some people in the African-American community, they feel a difference in when they’re pulled over, how often they’re pulled over and how often they’re asked for ID … They feel it, they understand it.
I have a friend in the African-American community (in Oklahoma City) and I asked him, “Is there a sense that you have five good encounters with a police officer and one bad encounter and that feeds the stereotype?”
His response to me was, “I’m 40-plus years old, I’ve never had one good encounter with a police officer.”
Now that’s jarring to me because I’ve had a lot of good encounters with police officers where I’ve had the opportunity to interact with some great people. He hasn’t had that reinforcement. You can’t ignore that.
You can be pro-police officer and be incredibly supportive of who they are but still acknowledge there’s occasionally a bad apple in the group.
And you also deal with the realities of a police officer realizing that the homicide rate is higher in some of these neighborhoods. And they’re more on their guard and more attentive and that causes a reaction.
I grieve for police officers who are seeing police officers being assassinated while they’re doing their job.
But I also grieve for black males who face a higher incarceration rate that maybe they’re just getting questioned more often. And that’s a cycle that will only stop with more conversation, and it’s not conversation among elected officials, it’s people.
I’ve made several calls there. My staff has been engaged. We’re just trying to stay connected to the community to hear what they think, feel, hear — what information they’re getting and not getting. These are not just constituents; these are friends, and many of them are connected directly with that family.
I would tell you I’ve had conversations with some who are very pleased with the response of the Tulsa Police Department, the police chief, Chief (Chuck) Jordan, the immediate transparency, the immediate call for federal engagement to look at civil rights top to bottom.
They’re all grieving with the families. We all are. All of us have seen the video, and it’s shocking and it’s painful.
That’s Tulsa’s call. I think it’s the right call because it gives everyone the assurance that there’s a second set of eyes, whether it’s the federal government or another entity.
I would rather say what I feel, rather than what I see, quite frankly. We’re all seeing the helicopter perspective or the dashcam perspective …
What I feel is grief. What I feel is a sense of confusion. I look at the situation and it doesn’t make sense to me.
The whole story will come out, so I hate to second guess anybody at this point.
As I’ve encouraged everyone to do, as everyone in north Tulsa has encouraged everyone to do: Let’s get all the facts out. And as the chief of police said, let’s let justice go where it needs to go.