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SOUTHFIELD — On Jan. 22, the Southfield Public Library, 26300 Evergreen Road, will kick off the series “Conversations on Race” with three segments of guided conversations to build awareness and a skillset for talking about race and racism.
Irene Lietz, the executive director of Conversations on Race, explained that the series was first held in February 2020 after she and Louis Forsyth, who is the reverend of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Detroit, connected at a different group that met to discuss racial issues.
“We had met at another group at one point, and that group dissolved, in part because they struggled to talk about race, and it’s a hard thing,” Lietz said. “So he and I were trying to do things on our own, and we decided to have a church picnic.”
According to Lietz, the churches planned a “unity picnic.”
She explained that the picnic brought together her Catholic congregation and Forsyth’s Baptist congregation.
Forsyth, who has taught at Pleasant Grove for 22 years, joked, “You have a Catholic and Baptist come together, and so that’s very unique in and of itself.”
The unity picnics became a hit, and they hosted multiple events before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Lietz shared that she and Forsyth wanted to do more to focus on educating others on race and creating a safe place for everyone to discuss racial issues happening in the country.
When Lietz was teaching at the University of Detroit Mercy on a temporary contract in early 2020, she connected with some librarians, and they decided to collaborate to bring the first “Conversations on Race” event to life.
“We designed it, in part, from things I had learned as part of a workshop, sort of a seminar kind-of-thing at University of Michigan’s Intergroup resources, and then also I had done my Ph.D. work related to teaching writing and race, and written a book about it. And so I’ve been talking about race for a long time, and Louis and I decided we just needed to do this, that that’s what needed to happen,” Lietz said.
She added that community interest in the series increased in the spring of 2020 after George Floyd’s death.
After the series took off, a member of the group connected with local libraries in The Library Network to bring the series to libraries in Genesee, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Wayne counties.
Paul Stunkel, who is the treasurer of the board of directors of Conversations on Race, shared that the series has been transformational for him, especially as a white person who grew up in a rural area.
“I grew up in central Illinois on a small farm, and the only time I encountered persons of color would be when I would go to (the) Chicago area to visit my grandparents, so it wasn’t like a constant,” Stunkel said. “When it slips out of the visual, then you don’t even think about it.”
Stunkel said that now, even looking at the words in the Constitution, it is a reminder of bias.
Aside from being a safe place for people to ask questions and learn from one another, Stunkel believes that there are conversations that should take place “so that the Declaration of Independence would in fact be telling the truth about us that all people are created equal.”
Lietz shared challenges that can come from having candid conversations about race.
“Louis is an African American man. His church is all African American, and my church was largely white, so when we came together, we knew there were things that would come up that we needed to anticipate and help people learn how to negotiate because, as I said, these other groups tend to fall apart because they don’t want to talk about race,” she said. “It’s too taboo in our society, even after all these years.”
Growing up on the northwest side of Detroit in the 1970s, Forsyth shared that he had a lot of white, Jewish neighbors, and one day, it transitioned to a Black neighborhood.
“I never saw moving trucks, never knew what happened to my friends, but you saw that kind of transition happens very slowly and (intentionally),” Forsyth said.
He emphasized the importance of people of color sharing their perspectives.
“One thing that I think is very powerful is our stories, and that’s really been the whole emphasis behind conversations, always, because having the conversation with somebody, being able to sit down, and just being able to listen to somebody’s story can be very impactful,” Forsyth said. “And that for me, I think, is very transformative.”
Lietz emphasized that these conversations are going to be uncomfortable, and some might not know how to proceed, but the group will work through it together.
She added that those interested in continuing the conversation are welcome to attend their monthly meetings, which are held at 6 p.m. every third Monday of the month via Zoom or in person at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, located at 13651 Dequindre St. in Detroit.
As a Southfield resident himself, Forsyth recalled visiting Southfield decades ago to go on dates with his now wife at the Northland Theatre.
“We could go to the movies in Southfield, but we couldn’t live in Southfield,” he said. “But Southfield now has become such a rich, diverse community, and I love the fact that we have people from diverse religions, ethnicities and backgrounds, and it is one of the most diverse communities in Michigan. I just love that we can be neighbors to each other and just enjoy that rich diversity that we bring in. So that’s why I’m so excited to bring this series to Southfield, and I’m hoping that many people will show up for the library series,” Forsyth said.
The series is set to include the three-part documentary series, “Race: The Power of an Illusion” on Jan. 22, Jan. 29 and Feb. 5.
For more information on the series at the Southfield Public Library, register at southfieldlibrary.org.
To learn more about Conversations on Race, visit conversationsonrace.org or via Facebook at facebook.com/ConversationsonRace.
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