Pastors lead Sunday discussion on racism and equality

The Rev. W.T. Edmonson, left, looks on as the Rev. John Bennett speaks during a "Dialogue on Racial Justice" at Sunday's Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
The Rev. W.T. Edmonson, left, looks on as the Rev. John Bennett speaks during a "Dialogue on Racial Justice" at Sunday's Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Speaking at a "Dialogue on Racial Justice" on Sunday, the Revs. John Bennett and W.T. Edmonson talked about their experiences with racism and thoughts on equality, while Edmonson urged the community to "be engaged in the conversation."

Bennett is a retired Disciples of Christ minister and Edmonson is with Second Baptist Church and the former local president of the NAACP.

Both were among the 23 people arrested in May for disrupting the Missouri Senate to protest lawmakers' refusal to accept federal money to expand the state's Medicaid program. The two speakers said they wouldn't discuss their role in that protest, since they're facing a Nov. 7 court date.

They spoke to about two dozen people at Sunday's Universalist Unitarian service. In the 50-minute discussion, the two asked each other several questions about racism and equality.

Edmonson said diversity sometimes has a bad name, but it's all about justice and treating everyone fairly.

He said while growing up in Hayti, a town of about 3,000 in the Missouri Bootheel, "you don't have to worry about what people think about you - they will kindly tell you. So that's the feeling I received growing up in Hayti."

He said he never experienced "outright racism on a mass scale," but always had a sense there was a schism. He recalled when he was a boy, there were two taxis in town - one for whites and one for blacks. He said he and his mother once tried tried to get a ride from the "white" taxi without success and had to "wait and wait" to get a ride from the "black" one.

Bennett asked Edmonson to comment on the statement that racism is "prejudice with power."

Edmonson said sometimes people come to the NAACP if they feel like they're not getting justice. Some of those people, he said, want to simply drop off their problem. He tells them: "You have to be involved in the solution."

He said some whites don't like whites and some blacks don't like blacks. But he said "my not liking you because of the color of your skin has no real impact. But if I have the power to impact your life or make your life difficult, then that's a different situation."

He said many whites point to factors like affirmative action, diversity training and wealthy African-Americans like Oprah Winfrey and ask why anything more is needed.

Minorities, meanwhile, believe that as the country diversifies, those in power seek to preserve that power structure by making it harder for minorities to vote.

He said that while the issue of minority voter registration in Ferguson recently made the news, registering people is the easy part.

Many of the minorities in that St. Louis suburb are registered, but don't vote, he said. Too often, he said, people think their vote doesn't matter.

Bennett said the racial climate in his hometown of Flat River, south of St. Louis, was that it was a "sundown community where African-Americans were not accepted after dark."

He said when the local lead company brought Hungarians in to work in the mines for low wages, a mob of white miners forced a group of them on trains to St. Louis. He said a regrettable part of his family history is that his uncle was one of those white miners.

But he said his parents were "inclusive-minded" and taught him to love all people.

He recalled an incident when his mother called a local restaurant owner to let him know she would be bringing a guest to the restaurant, but the owner was hesitant after learning the woman was a "negro."

He quoted his mother as saying: "Sam, we're coming. And you're going to serve us. And you're going to serve us graciously."

"And Sam did, by golly, because of the power of my mother," Bennett said.

Edmonson finished the program by urging people to be engaged in the conversation of equality and racism and be engaged with their neighbors.

"Step outside yourself and engage," he said. "You'll find you have friends that you had no idea you had."