Residents tackle question of how to promote diversity
By BECKY SHAY Of The Gazette Staff
How can Billings residents turn intolerance into acceptance?
About 20 people tackled that and other questions about overcoming racism and prejudice during a community planning workshop Thursday night.
The meeting, hosted by Not In Our Town Billings, resulted in a list of ideas for the group's steering committee to try to put into action.
One of the concepts that came from the meeting was to empower people to speak out.
"If you hear a racist joke, you should feel comfortable saying 'that's not funny' and that people are hurt by it," said steering committee member Patt Leikam.
The suggestions also addressed wider issues, such as fair housing and hosting more community events south of the railroad tracks so people "cross that invisible barrier," she said.
Participants broke into three groups and came up with ways to take their message to the entire community.
Here are some of their ideas:
• Education: Teaching can be done in a number of formats, including more media attention on people with diverse skin colors, religions and cultures. Gwen Kircher said newspaper articles could be hung in business windows, like menorahs were when the first Not In Our Town developed here in 1993.
Businesses could be asked to use their signs and reader boards to post anti-hate messages across town. The group could host a booth at community events of all types, such as athletic events and agricultural expos.
Not In Our Town offers diversity training, but more needs to be done, participants said. They suggested involving the Chamber of Commerce to promote hiring people of diverse backgrounds.
"So we really can enjoy the richness of who we are as humans," Betty Whiting said.
The group should support School District 2 and ask that leaders reorganize the diversity committee there and provide cultural sensitivity training to students.
Schools have major draws that can work as places to share the diversity message. Sports and music, like school bands playing in parades, bring people with all skin colors together and cross all types of cultural barriers, participants said.
• Networking: The more people know one another, the less likely they are to have preconceived notions. The groups said community task force groups are good ways to meet and learn. Representatives of Not In Our Town and task force groups could attend one another's meetings. The task forces are also a good starting place for neighborhoods to invite each other to block parties, they said.
The religious communities - all of them, not just the Christian denominations - could gather regularly in a "common ground" gathering to share information and their faith.
Groups have to work to bridge the gap with ethnic groups. People of color don't go to meetings or other gatherings if they aren't invited, Leikam said.
"It's an instilled fear" that they won't be welcome, she said. "But invite us and we'll be there."
• Branding: Billings is known nationally as the model for Not In Our Town. As the movement to brand Billings moves forward, why not consider either "Not In Our Town" or at least work to incorporate the philosophy of embracing diversity into the brand?
Steering committee member Eran Thompson said the group would like to have Billings host the second Not In Our Town national gathering in spring 2009. The first was held in Bloomington, Ill., in 2006. Thompson and Chuck Tooley, who was mayor when Not In Our Town started in Billings, attended the gathering.
Thompson said that while at the gathering he realized that communities across the nation had picked up the Billings model but that it had slipped here.
"I'm not prepared to give up that brand," Thompson said. "We want to be the shining example for those communities."
Published on Friday, February 01, 2008. Last modified on 2/1/2008 at 8:07 am
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Great idea! People fear what they don't know and the best way to get over it, is to face your fear. You never know, you might become best of friends with someone that you have always feared!
When I read about this group they always seem to come across as whiners and complainers who have close to zero senses of humor. They should lighten up and stop playing the victim. Acceptance of other peoples customs and believes comes from interaction amongst peoples and not from meetings of groups that revel in their alienation.
As a way to bring these groups together, how about promoting and celebrating all the things they have in common instead of emphasizing all the differences? Let everyone see all the ways they are the same and maybe the differences won't be so significant. quit telling us how different we all are and show us how much alike we are with common dreams, goals, ambitions, etc.
Yes, we should develop more tolerance for ethnic groups which practice clitoredectomy, infanticide, polygamy, purdah, socialism, circumcision, etc., to show that we are tolerant of other cultures.
Major ancestry groups reported by Billings residents (US Census Bureau 2000) include:
· German - 27%
· Irish - 12%
· English - 11%
· Norwegian - 10%
· American Indian tribes, specified - 4%
· French (except Basque) - 4%
· Mexican - 3%
· Scottish - 3%
· Swedish - 2%
· Italian - 2%
· Scotch-Irish - 2%
· Dutch - 2%
· Polish - 2%
· Danish - 1%
· Russian - 1%
· Crow - 1%
· Other Hispanic or Latino - 1%
· Welsh - 1%
· French Canadian - 1%
· All other tribes - 1%
· European - 1%
· Czech - 1%
· Finnish - 1%
· Black or African American - 1%
· Cheyenne - 1%
Is Billings really "diverse"? And for all the attention, is intolerance really that big of a problem here? The gay pride event didn't attract any protesters eventhough bigots posted mean comments on this website. I'm not a minority (my ancestors are among the two largest ethnic groups represented here) so maybe I'm naive, but have there been hate-related incidents occuring in Billings that haven't been reported? I've read a lot of news about such crimes in Missoula recently, which seems kinda ironic. Or is "diversity" now just a popular catch-phrase like "going green"?
Not In Our Town Billings meets Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. in the back room of Guadalajara restaurant, 17 N. 29th St. The meeting is open to the public. The group will discuss action steps for Billings developed at a community action workshop. For more information, call 661-5961 or go to the Web site www.freewebs.com/niotbillings.
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