We won’t pretend that long-standing racial divisions are easily healed, either in Clark County or elsewhere. But a couple local controversies reflect this nation’s difficulty in holding meaningful discussions and making those discussions productive. We hope both instances provide opportunities to incrementally advance understanding and reconciliation in our community.
In one, tension emerged in the Clark County offices over an article that appeared at Vox.com as a first-person column under the headline “The whiteness of anti-lockdown protests.” Published April 25, it discussed the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color, and that anti-lockdown protests throughout the nation (events have been held in Vancouver and Olympia) have attracted crowds that are almost exclusively white.
The article was shared with members of the county’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which seems appropriate given the committee’s mission. It then was forwarded to numerous other county employees.
That led to controversy. Several employees responded with emails about the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion; others complained. County Human Resources Director Mande Lawrence wrote to staffers, “I apologize to each of you for receiving this article on your work email.”
Indeed, sending an opinion column to employees is inappropriate in the workplace. We would say the same about a column from, say, conservative website Breitbart or liberal website Mother Jones.
Yet, while the county offices are not the appropriate landscape for scattering an opinion column, there is a time and place for necessary discussions about race without resorting to incendiary tropes. One is the county’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Working toward a county government that effectively serves its constituents requires listening and consideration of different backgrounds and viewpoints.
Meanwhile, an incident this week further reflected society’s difficulty with discussions about race. Mark Stoker, at the time a board member for Vancouver Public Schools, drew attention for an offensive, racially charged comment on his personal Twitter page. Responding to cars being burned in downtown Seattle — a result of protests against police brutality — Stoker tweeted, “Two words. Fire hoses!”
The comment evoked images of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, when authorities often would turn high-pressure hoses on black demonstrators. Those images remain powerful symbols of the oppression faced by African Americans who were seeking basic human rights, and they endure as reminders of a time of strife in our nation. The use of fire hoses on protesters is emblematic of authorities wielding power against the powerless.
Stoker’s comment drew immediate backlash, including from at least two other members of the school board. By Monday, he had resigned from the board, writing that his continued service would be “too big a distraction.”
Taken in the proper context, either incident can advance important discussions in our community.
Rather than being dismissed as propaganda, the Vox article should be viewed as one perspective on how COVID-19 is affecting America. Rather than recommend an oppressive response to protesters, we should remember the sins of America’s past without wishing to repeat them.
Such restraint will not solve issues of race in Clark County or anywhere else. But it might help us move toward a better understanding of this nation’s divisions.
