Panelists in a virtual town hall meeting discussed ways to create a better environment for black people in Southwest Mississippi.
“These recent events have sparked a lot of protests and emotions, but the fact is that it’s not something that is just happening,” said Rep Daryl Porter Jr., D-Summit, who led the panel discussion. “This is something that has been happening, unfortunately, for a very long time.
“I speak for a lot of people here in our community … when I say that we are all heartbroken. We are all disturbed and disgusted by the attacks that we see plaguing the black community.”
McComb Branch NAACP president Mamie Kettle, Summit police officer Antonette Quinn, Magnolia Mayor Anthony Witherspoon and the Rev. Todd Foster of The Well also took part.
Kettle said there is a powerful struggle in the African- American community that comes from both external and internal forces.
“It seems like we can’t get on one accord,” she said. “There are people uniting, but on the overall, how can we strategically work together to build and to unite our African-American community?
“Before we can ask the whites and the others, we as a black race have to start working together.”
Kettle said the goal should be to get more black leadership and to hold them accountable once they are elected.
Quinn said that while there is a need for more unity in the black community, she feels the bigger issue is perceptions from other races.
“I think the bigger issue right now is other races outside of our own race and how we are compared to our brothers and sisters in another race,” Quinn said. “You cannot fix a problem until you realize that there is a problem.”
Foster, the only white person on the panel, said he has a different experience than the other panelists.
“It is foolish of me to sit here and even begin to try to understand what the rest of my panel feels,” he said. “This is a big problem because the white community in many ways wants it to go away. “
Foster said that the white community and the religious community need to stand with the black community, adding that everyone is the same to God.
“I am heartbroken,” he said. “There has to be major changes systematically across the board or this will continue so I am not going to begin to be able to understand what y’all go through as black people, but you know what I can do? I can have empathy and I can have compassion and I can fall on the side of what is right.”
Witherspoon said that the issue the black community is facing now has been the same since the creation of the colonies.
“One of the things that is so important that what is happening today is the same thing that has been happening for nearly 400 years in America,” he said. “One of the greatest plagues we are experiencing in America is racism, and we have yet to find a vaccine for it for 400 years.”
He accused President Donald Trump of creating division.
“Leadership plays a very important role, and also public policy plays a very important role,” he said.
Witherspoon named George Floyd, the black Minneapolis man who was killed while in police custody, along with other victims, including Michael Brown, Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor, calling each “honorable.”
“They have pulled the veil from the ugly thought in America that, as Pastor Todd said, we have to address,” he said. “This is something that has been building.”
Witherspoon said he wanted to discuss solutions, noting that people are tired and scared to death. He said he is happy that his son is growing up in Magnolia because he feels it is safer there for him.
“I would be scared if he was in a large city out to college right now,” he said.
Witherspoon also bounced off of Kettle’s point about holding leaders accountable. He said that because most large Mississippi cities have a black mayor and board now, they should be accountable if there is police brutality when and where it happens.
“This is where we have to turn to our white brothers and sisters because they have a supermajority in the Legislature,” he said. “The ball is in your court. We have been putting forth legislation in a positive way. Why can’t we get this done?”
Quinn said she is in a unique position as a black female police officer. She said that she knows not all officers are responsible for the brutality they have seen to the black community, but cops like herself need to speak up when they see it and stop it from happening.
“If we don’t do something we will be boxed in with the rest of them, and I can’t blame the community for feeling that way,” she said.
Porter asked Foster what some of the steps he is taking in his ministry to aware of the issues the black community faces.
“I really feel like in my own heart to break down walls, to build bridges … but then I am feeling like I need to do more,” he said.
Kettle talked about spreading awareness and working behind the scenes to make change in the community.
“Everything that the NAACP does you are not going to see in the media because a lot of our work is behind the scenes, and I always try to make sure that I have a good relationship with every elected official in Pike County,” she said.
Porter asked Quinn about community policing, and she said it’s every officer's job to protect and serve the community. She said officers need to remember to treat people the way they want to be treated and that they are not above the law.
Kettle agreed.
“There is not a black man on earth that does not fear a police officer, whether they tell you or not,” she said. “That is something that is going to have to be talked about in every discussion from now on.”
Kettle cited situations where she has seen her white colleagues remain quiet about racism, but she said that has to stop.
“If you can’t stand at the front line and push the issue to stop police brutality, I don’t need you anywhere near me telling me you are with the black community, but yet you are scared to speak up.”
