COLUMBUS, Ind. — Mikala Lomax knows how to accurately measure when added racial harmony and equity come to Columbus.
“We’ll know that we’re really getting somewhere when it’s not me saying something when someone says something wrong, but my white peers (speaking up),” Lomax said. “If I have to constantly to be the one to do that — woo, that gets exhausting.”
Lomax offered the insight as the youngest member of an all-Black, four-person panel at Saturday’s Zoom discussion “My Black Experience in Columbus, Indiana” as part of Black History Month. The gathering, like other events during the month, was organized by a group of Black community leaders. By Monday morning, it had been viewed 3,600 times, according to a Facebook on-screen tally.
According to 2019 census figures, Blacks represent 2.4 percent of the Bartholomew County population.
Frank Griffin moderated the panel get-together held in a Bartholomew Consolidated Corp. conference room and broadcast on the Facebook page for NAACP Columbus/Bartholomew representing the local chapter advocating for equality for all. Besides Lomax, panelists were retired teacher and continuing educator Paulette Roberts; Ray Gipson, business owner of Coach’s Cutz; Columbus City Council member Jerone Wood; and business and corporate trainer/facilitator Pat McClendon.
The event included a broad range of topics, from Gipson’s view of the need of the local Black community to be more unified and also more promotional about its resources — the NAACP chapter, the African American Fund, the advocacy of the African American Pastors Alliance, Black-owned businesses — so it can better serve as a support for new Black residents, and those being recruited for jobs locally. Plus, panelists said successful Blacks in a variety of sectors need to be more cognizant of actively helping other Blacks succeed.
On matters of racism, McClendon and others said that white people tell them that are sometimes nervous about speaking about racism, worried they’ll say something wrong.
“They say, ‘I’m afraid of saying something,'” McClendon said.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
