{"id":1328,"date":"2016-12-01T20:31:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T20:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2016-12-01T20:33:38","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T20:33:38","slug":"starting-the-conversation-on-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/?p=1328","title":{"rendered":"Starting the conversation on inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Peters\u00a0<\/strong>
\nmap006@marietta.edu<\/p>\n

\"Panelists<\/a>
Panelists prepare for the discussion. Photo by Matt Peters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students, faculty and local residents gathered on Monday Nov. 21, in Marietta College\u2019s McDonough auditorium, to discuss the issues of racial and religious discrimination. Dean of students, Lisa Philips, moderated a panel of six professionals that included local clergy, law enforcement and public administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to note that our goal today is not to solve the problem, because the problem that exists is certainly not a problem that gets solved in a matter of two hours,\u201d Phillips explained.<\/p>\n

Panelists addressed concerns voiced by students who have experienced discrimination based on their religious or ethnic identity. Several panelists reflected on their own experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the incidents occur just because of ignorance, not any kind of intent,\u201d said Shoshanna Brooker, who serves as Magistrate for the Washington County common pleas court. \u201cIn this community I personally have seen racism both overtly and [inadvertently].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Community<\/a>
Community members listen to the conversation. Photo by Matt Peters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Marietta College\u2019s campus is relatively diverse, the city of Marietta\u2019s population is over 96 percent white. The largest minority, African Americans, make up only 1.3 percent of Marietta\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand race to be something that is more biological, but it\u2019s also socially constructed,\u201d explained Reverend Kathryn Hawbaker of the First Unitarian Universalist Church. \u201cRace, like many things, is a social construct that becomes something that we take as a given rather than something that should be fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelists also addressed the fears expressed by Muslim students, following the election of Donald Trump. Since the election many colleges have experienced more protests and violence directed at the Islamic community.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Marietta College students listen to the Community Conversation. Photo\u00a0provided by Matt Peters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat I see in our culture is that we\u2019re always connecting with the people that are in our own religious tradition. We have a harder time connecting with people who aren\u2019t like us,\u201d Hawbaker said. \u201cAnd so, a lot of religion unfortunately instead of bringing us together, is about separating us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the panelists stressed the importance of finding a \u201ccommon ground\u201d when talking about issues of race and religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re trying to mend fences or solve problems, and we think we\u2019re creating inclusion, at the same time we are talking about nothing but differences,\u201d said Marietta College Chief of Police, Jim Weaver. \u201cIf we can get to a point where we see people as people \u2013 as Americans, as human beings \u2013 we could be so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel also included Sgt. Roy Kampmeier of the Marietta Police Department,\u00a0 Felix Burrows, a retired Presbyterian minister, and Lisa Polk, a counselor at Marietta High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just see each other as human beings that God made,\u201d Burrows said, \u201cmeet on some level where the ninety-nine point nine percent is the same, we can show this to be a wonderful place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Peters\u00a0 map006@marietta.edu Students, faculty and local residents gathered on Monday Nov. 21, in Marietta College\u2019s McDonough auditorium, to discuss the issues of racial and religious discrimination. Dean of students, Lisa Philips, moderated a panel of six professionals that included local clergy, law enforcement and public administrators. \u201cIt\u2019s important to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,15,4,3],"tags":[633,634,357,119],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-community","category-features","category-news","tag-community-forum","tag-conversation","tag-discussion","tag-diversity",""],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.marcolian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1793.jpg?fit=2549%2C1416&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}