Saturday, May 27, 2000
Tucson, Arizona &
Program to
combat racism in Tucson
By SUSAN CARROLL Citizen
Staff Writer The YWCA
has enlisted big names
in Tucson to help launch a new program
that aims to combat racism.
The “It Time to Talk” commu- nity
advisory panel met for the first
time yesterday, with a mem- bership
list that reads like
the Who’s Who of
Tucson, including auto dealer
Jim Click, County Attorney
Barbara LaWall and developer
Don Diamond. The program mirrors a
Seattle project, which
primarily uses luncheons
and dinner parties to encourage
people to talk about their
personal experiences with racism.
The group plans to host its
first luncheon
here in September.
“I do believe that
Tucson is ripe for ‘It’s
Time to Talk’,” said University
of Arizona President Peter
Likins. “This is a remark- able
community. We get along very
well and we are a diverse
community. But we can
get better.” Members of
the advisory council are
encouraged to invite people
to dinner parties,
where a trained
facilitator will
help partici- pants
open up and talk
about preju- dice,
said Janet Marcotte,
Executive Director of the
YWCA. The
project, which
also includes
public luncheons with prominent
speakers, is designed to
spread through Tucson via
small gatherings and by hosting
dinners at churches and commu- nity
centers, she said. “I think what people
generally learn at gatherings
like these is that no
matter what their status in life,
people generally feel the
pain of racism,” Marcotte said. “I’m
really confident we’ll reach
all spectrums of the com- munity.”
Herman McKinney, the creator
of the program and
Director of the
Urban Enterprise
Center for the
Greater Seattle Chamber
of Com- merce,
started “It’s Time
to Talk” there in the wake
of the O.J. Simpson
verdict. The program,
he said, has attracted
more than 5,000 people
to
forums with speakers. “The
purpose of the program is to
expand racial
understanding through personal
dialogue with members of
other races, realizing that
even in the most liberal
cities, there’s
subtle racism hiding beneath
the surface,” McKinney said. LIKINS
