Community Discussion around Racism in Duluth featuring CJMM, Inc. Co-Chair, Rogier Gregorie.
March 07, 2015
On Tuesday March 3rd an event took place at Denfeld High School that has had and will continue to have an important impact on the entire population of the city of Duluth now and well into the future. Two students using the image of a Black student drew a noose around his neck and captioned the resulting image with the words “Gotta hang em all”. It is our understanding that the image was passed around the students in the classroom and shared digitally by a cell phone application to others, eventually it was posted on Facebook and until taken down as “hate speech” was shared with potentially millions. As far as we now know the teacher was oblivious to the event. The image with the noose around the neck of the young Black man was discovered on Facebook and brought to the attention of the school administration.
There are several layers to this event that embroil not just the participants and the object of their behavior but the entire community of Duluth. That image of a Black man as a threat or a warning to People of Color is clearly not only a sign of our times but an indication that such racist ideals are consciously or unconsciously alive and well in Duluth, a city in which three Black men were hung publicly lynched in 1920.
A simple teenage prank perhaps meant to influence a smaller interest in bullying and intimidation has revealed the undercurrent of racism and fear that can contaminate every life in our community. For whatever the reason, the image of a person of color being hung is a familiar and painful one for every living soul in our community. Perhaps even more frightening is the indifference that still nurtures such attitudes among our young.
This terrible event that some might dismiss as a teenage prank is a wake-up call for each of us and particularly our institutions to squarely address the hidden terror that has poisoned another generation of our children.
This is an opportunity for the schools to take the lead in promoting a humane approach to education that brings us together as equal members of the human family. There are things that can and will be done to address the current situation brought about by these young men. Those processes are engaged and will continue to be observed by the larger community. The equally important work will be for all of us to pay careful attention to promoting a more humane society.
We will invite the students in the class that gave attention to the image of abuse to visit the Clayton Jackson and McGhie Memorial as the preface to a dialogue about the lynching of other human beings. We see this event as an opportunity to encourage the schools to formerly address the need for a racial equity component in the school syllabus.
We also invite the larger community to visit the memorial, a national treasure that reflects the highest aspirations of the city of Duluth and all of Minnesota.