Gregory Freeman: Groups Join Forces In Effort To Bridge The Racial Divide. P-D 10/31/2000

Headline: GROUPS JOIN FORCES IN EFFORT TO BRIDGE THE RACIAL DIVIDE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tues. Oct. 31, 2000
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

City's separate societies
  A new effort to reduce bias and discrimination in St. Louis gets under way Wednesday -- and not a day too soon.
   St. Louis is a great place in many ways.
   Where it isn't so great is when it comes to the issue of race. There, we have problems. Many of the problems here are due to our racial polarization, especially between blacks and whites.
   While there have been improvements over the years, many of our communities, many of our activities, many of our lives tend to be almost exclusively black or white. Diverse neighborhoods aren't very common. Events tend to be either largely black or largely white. We don't regularly mingle with one another unless we have to.
   Native St. Louisans are often oblivious to this problem. Many of us are just used to it, just as we're used to St. Louis and St. Louis County being two separate entities (that's not at all common, folks).
   But people who have moved here from other places often feel the polarization immediately.

The result, however, has been a "brain drain" from St. Louis. Ours is not a city where black professionals feel they can progress.
   Never did that become as obvious to me as when I received a recent e-mail from a black man who used to live here. He's now an executive in Detroit, but he reads my column on the Net.
   In the e-mail he sent, he explained that he had participated in a retreat in Florida recently. A dozen of those participating were African-Americans who were either from or had lived in St. Louis. All were successful, each making at least six figures.
   "One of the ironies that was mentioned was that all of us had ties to St. Louis, but none of us still lived there, " he wrote. "Unfortunately, the familiar refrain was that we all liked the cost of living, the theater, the sports and the Midwestern feel of St. Louis, but there weren't many opportunities for African-Americans there."
   He went on to explain that all had reached invisible ceilings in their jobs here: the idea that blacks were allowed to go just so far in a company. Rather than continue to toil with no realistic chance of advancement, these folks left St. Louis and prospered.
   All of this is the result of the polarization, bias and discrimination that still exist in St. Louis.

But tomorrow, a press conference will be held announcing a regional effort to reduce bias and discrimination here. Called the Diversity Awareness Partnership, its organizers hope to educate St. Louisans to "make a difference by accepting everyone else's."
The event is being sponsored by the St. Louis Rams, the Rams Foundation, St. Louis 2004 and a group of about 15 partners that include the Anti-Defamation League, Metropolis St. Louis, the Cooperating School Districts, FOCUS St. Louis, the United Way, the National Conference for Community and Justice, 100 Black Men of Metropolitan St. Louis, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Four components of the campaign will be:

A diversity Web site, www.makeadifferencestlouis.org maintained by EDS, a computer services firm. It will go online Wednesday and will offer information about various organizations doing diversity work.
A telephone hot line where callers can get information about groups promoting diversity. Hot line counselors will also provide advice for dealing with diversity issues in everyday situations. That starts Monday.
School pilots. The partnership is piloting "Don't Laugh At Me, " a diversity training program for students.
A public awareness campaign challenging St. Louisans to look at their own ability to accept individual differences.

Biases are hard to eliminate. Many of them are based on long-ago experiences. Still, if this effort has even a little success, it could go a long way to reducing the polarization that St. Louis, unfortunately, is famous for.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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