OUT & ABOUT: Only The Brave Talk About Race

BY DENISE CLAY/ A stimulating intellectual entertainment took place last week. It showed that Todd Bernstein, the president of Global Citizen, the body that put together the Martin Luther King Day of Service, is a brave man. And he has a lot more confidence in Philadelphians than I do.

You have to, in order to put together a discussion on race and then add free beer to it.

And that’s what Bernstein did last week when Global Citizen held its fourth Beer Summit at the Reading Terminal Market. The summit, which is modeled after a discussion that President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden had with Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley, became necessary when Crowley arrested Gates at his home and, well, the intellectual crap hit the fan.

Armed with beer from the Philadelphia Brewing Co. and snacks, the space in front of the Rick Nichols Room at the Reading Terminal Market was transformed into a place where folks could talk about the one thing no one seems to want to talk about these days. Even though the current Most Powerful Man In The World is Black.

Some folks thought this whole “let’s put a Black Dude in the White House” thing would make all of America’s racial issues go away. Hey, we can’t be racist; a Black guy’s our President….

But according to Columbia University Professor and Philadelphia Daily News columnist Marc Lamont Hill, more than 400 years of racial issues aren’t going to go away with one election. In fact, between the Birthers, the Tea Party, and some of the other folks that have sprung up to remind us that we’re not nearly as post-racial as some of us want to believe, we get that message all day, every day.

So while we might want to get away from race as a topic, we can’t just yet, Hill said. “We live in a country where even mentioning race can get you in trouble,” he said. “If we can’t even talk about it, we have a problem. I don’t even want to live in post-racial society. There’s nothing racist about identifying race. I want us to have a post-racist society, not a post-racial society.”

Throughout the evening, people shared their stories and questions about a possible post-racist society. Black-on-Black crime came up. The part that white supremacy plays in Black-on-Black crime came up. Being authentic when dealing with communities and issues of race came up. And it was all pretty interesting.

You’re probably wondering why I’m not going to get into much more about the Beer Summit right now. Well, it’s because I’m saving it for something. Starting Aug. 27, I’m going to be in Tampa, Fla. and Charlotte, N.C. covering the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. In addition to bringing you all of the craziness that goes on at these things, I’ll also try to get some answers to the two questions this summit left me with: Can we be post-racist? And what part have politics and media played in our current situation regarding race? It should be interesting.

Let me finish with a tip on something to do for the weekend. Jazz on the Avenue and the Columbia Avenue Old School Reunion is happening this weekend at Broad Street & Cecil B. Moore Avenue in North Philadelphia. Hosted by WDAS-FM Radio Personality Patty Jackson and TuRae of the Soul Comedy Café, performers giving you the best in jazz, Latin music and reggae will be on hand. Admission is free and DJ Space Bug will be on hand to provide the soundtrack for the Old School reunion. For more information, call (215) 763-8868.

This event is sponsored by Beech Community Services with help from Clay Studio, Wagner Institute of Science, Smith Memorial Playground and Play House, Fleisher Arts Memorial, Avenue of the Arts, Inc., Project Home and the Women’s Christian Alliance.

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