Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to Kyra’s article in last week’s Wellington Advertiser about racism in our community (Being black in Wellington means regularly confronting racism, June 11).
First, I would like to thank her for sharing her thoughts to us to help us as a society begin to see, if some of us were unaware or choose not to be aware of racism in our society. Without her reaching out, I wouldn’t have been moved to respond.
I will admit that racism can be hard to see in a society that has been perhaps unaware of a problem until it has been brought to our attention through the Black Lives Matter movement.
Change can and has happened in our community. Those of us, who have been in our community for a very long time, may remember a time when religion of different churches never interacted with one another. Even during weekdays, children of various religions were told not to interact with one another. I view this as racism within our community that excluded any other race but white folks.
I can’t honestly say when it happened, but today our various religious groups have been able to come together in times of need. In my opinion, if religious groups have been able to come together, while respecting each other’s religious beliefs, I can’t see a reason why people of various colours and race can’t speak up to help us understand your concerns and express your experiences with us to help us as a community to be more inclusive to other races in order for you to become more actively engaged in our community in multiple ways and to help you feel more included in our community.
Please note, I feel racism is in all races and it may take more than the Black Lives Matter movement to eradicate racism from around the world.
However, making a change to start eradicating racism, I feel starts with the Black Lives Matter movement that has spread across various countries around the world.
I also feel bullying and racism are interconnected, even though they are two different things entirely. For this reason, eradicating racism may take several years or maybe never if there are people who are unwilling to change their views of another race(s).
Susan Longe,
Fergus