Phoenix Community Members Discuss the Intersection of Race and Religion

(Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton joins leaders in a town hall meeting to discuss the intersection of race and religion in the community. Photo Credit: Nicole Gimpl)

By: Nicole Gimpl
Cronkite Special to AZLatinos.com

Phoenicians gathered for a town hall meeting at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Phoenix Tuesday night to discuss the many issues surrounding racism in the community.

“We are gathered here in this historic Arizona town hall at the intersections of race and religion.” Pastor Warren Stewart Sr. said. “[Those are to] one, confess collectively of this nation’s sin of systemic racism. Two, to repent of our nation’s sin of racism. And three, and probably most importantly, take action as a local community to begin to cure us from this terrible, terminal sin.”

Speakers in the panel were primarily community leaders, including Revs. Erin Tamayo – Director of Arizona Faith Network and Warren Stewart, Jr. – Remnant South Phoenix; as well as Peoria Commander Bruce Walls. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton was also present at the town hall meeting. This group represented city government, police, the African American community and religious leaders.

Other members of the community scheduled to be there included members of the Latino community, but were unable to attend at the last minute. The group assembled to discuss how Phoenix could improve race relations in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“What can we do to really resolve all problems and move forward into the right direction,” Stanton said.

This question was the core of the discussion Tuesday night as each panelist took turns speaking about how racism has affected them personally, how it is affecting the community and how religion can help bring about the conversation about the systemic racism in America.

“Systemic racism is so strong in our society. I’m not sure how aware [we, as] white people are,” Tamayo said. “The first thing we need to do is admit we have a problem. Many times I hear people saying ‘yes, but I didn’t enslave anyone, I wasn’t alive during Jim Crow.’ We all have a role in this.

Great emphasis was placed on getting people of all races, religions and backgrounds up to the table to really discuss how to change what Stewart Sr. called “this nation’s malignant cancer that has metastasized throughout every level of our society since July 4, 1776.”

“Once we realize and admit that we have this systemic racism problem we can all come up to the table with our sleeves rolled up,” said co-publisher of the Arizona Informant and Rep., Cloves Campbell Jr.

Police brutality was another issue raised in the discussion, as a member of the police force was present on the panel. In light of recent shootings of unarmed black men close to home, Walls recommended that the community participate in their local police force because the police force represents the community.

“I’m here to pass along to you that it’s not the police and the community, it’s the police and the community together,” Walls said. “And that’s the only way to end systemic racism.”

Overall, the panel indicated that the discussion was a good place to start in the fight against systemic racism, and that the progress couldn’t end in that church Tuesday night. It needs to continue in our everyday conversations, continue in diversifying the church, in getting people of all races and religions in a discussion to work to resolve this issue.

“When our Saturday nights become more diverse, our Sunday mornings will be too,” Stewart Jr. said about the lack of diversity in the church. “We need collaboration with reparations.”

Improvements are in the works. Stanton mentioned the large number of new officers coming to the City of Phoenix police force, adding that those officers will have body cams. He also mentioned a point brought up by Walls that the police force needs to represent the community in which they work.

“The number one thing that we could probably do as we hire 400 new officers is to make sure that those officers look like Phoenix that we have that diversity represented by the City of Phoenix on our police force,” Stanton said.

In the next few weeks, Campbell and Stuart Jr. will be meeting with Gov. Doug Ducey’s staff to discuss these issues. “We have some problems and we need to talk about them,” Campbell said. “We need to have open dialogue about what’s going on today.”