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| Unav Opal Wade opened a floodgate of emotion when she told a national television audience that Alameda was the most racist city she had ever lived in, prompting a sensitive Saturday afternoon forum about race and how the city deals with it. Sponsored by the Alameda Multi-Cultural Community Center and the College of Alameda, the forum featured six panelists from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who discussed how they felt racism in Alameda affected them. "I do know racism still exists and we have felt it as a family . . . this coldness and exclusion," said community activist Rebecca Holder, who is of American Indian descent. Called An Individual Problem Yet panel member Hector Corrales, a professor at the College of Alameda, said the people of Alameda are living in "Disney;and" compared to the bigotry and racism people around the world face in their home countries. Corrales grew up in East Los Angeles, the son of a day laborer and a seamstress. He has lived in Alameda for several years, but said the racism he faces is not woven into the city or the college, but exists instead on an individual level. "My experience with racism in the College of Alameda is almost nill," he said. "Have I experienced racism at the College of Alameda? You bet. it's been in individuals, and I ahve experienced that everywhere. The forum was then open to audience members, some of whom shared their own battles with discrimination just for being different. Wade's daughter Margena Wade told audience of nearly 60 residents about how her family was threatened by neighbors when she grew up in the 1960s. She said her siblings were assaulted and taunted in Alameda schools nearly every day. Her mother, who now lives in Texas, appeared on a panel for a PBS television documentary called "America in Black and White: Jasper, Texas." |
| The show was about the racially motivated murder of James Byrd, Jr. and how Jasper was forever changed by the crime. Life in the projects Wade's experiences were not much different from those lifetime-Alameda residents and panel member Vickie Smith experienced in the city. She grew up in one of the poorest sections of the city, the Estuary projects, which have now been torn down. She said she was so segregated from the rest of Alameda community, she never even ventured into town until she was an adolescent. Oakland was considered her home base. "We were segregated in the city with the project and in the housing itself," she said. The poorest Caucasian families were housed in one section, the Asians in the other, African Americans in still another section. Several people who spoke said they remember when members of the Klu Klux Klan marched through the city. Members of the Alameda City Council were split on the notion that racism is alive and well in the city. Councilmember Al De Witt said he believes Wade's statement that Alameda is one of the most racist cities in America is incorrect. Vice Mayor Tony Daysog said racism existed in the city in the decades following the 1950s has not disappeared. he said a tragedy like the murder in Jasper can happen on the Island. "We need to be realistic," he said. "It can happen here if we are silent about what happens in this community." Both the panelists and the community said the city needs racial parity within schools, neighborhoods, and personal relationships. |
| Alameda Forum Examines Racism (Oakland Tribune, March 9, 2003) |
| By Laura Casey, Staffwriter |
| It can happen here if we are silent about what happens in this community Vice Mayor Tony Daysog |
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