Reader's view: It’s time to get out of our white cocoon

So often when I have attended an event in Duluth, especially one that focuses on social issues, the complaint is made, “We are only preaching to the choir.” Well, the Un-Fair Campaign has gone way beyond the choir, beyond the choir’s audience and into the whole community!

The messages of the campaign — that racial disparities in our community are unfair, that those disparities are invisible to many of us, and that those disparities hurt us all — are important and need to be heard. The public launch of the campaign certainly has broken the silence, and now is the time for us all to get involved in finding solutions.

Because we live in northern Minnesota and our population is 90 percent white, it’s easy to live in a cocoon of whiteness. We can easily surround ourselves with family, friends and co-workers who look like us. We can easily go to events and activities that are familiar. And we can easily have conversations that reinforce our own way of thinking. This campaign is asking us to step out of our comfort zones and begin seeing and knowing the world through others’ eyes and experiences. Then we can begin to dismantle those disparities.

There’s a poster that says, “You can fly, but that cocoon has to go.” Let’s take flight and create together a community that is bigger, better, and fair for all.

Lyn Clark Pegg

Duluth

Tags: readers view, unfair campaign, opinion, editorials, community