Kent Council will debate whether to create a commission on racism in the city
The motion passed unanimously after student protesters cornered council members on specific anti-racism policies.
By Gina Butkovich
News Lab
Kent City Council is considering a commission to proactively deal with racism and hatred and to help increase diversity within Kent city government.
Council member Tracy Wallach made a motion Wednesday night to put the idea of the new commission into committee for discussion.
“We need to have a plan in place to deal with things when they turn up,” Wallach said. “We can also then have the commission come up with ideas about diversity, because that’s a real thing we’ve been struggling with for years and years and years, how to be more diverse in our city government.”
Following racist messages such as “White Lives Matter” and “Blacks have no home here” being painted on the Rock on Kent State’s campus, students organized a series of protests and delineated multiple demands to the university and the city. Three council members, Gwen Rosenberg, Roger Sidoti and Robin G. Turner attended one of the protests.
While there, student protesters pressed the council members to make specific commitments on addressing racism and police reform in their city.
“I think that there’s a misunderstanding about what had transpired,” Turner said about the protests. “Understand that we had three council people who went there to support the students and let them know that this is a welcoming community. We didn’t go there to discuss public policy, we were totally unprepared for that. The students viewed it somewhat differently. They were very spirited and they reacted to us not having established policies regarding an issue which, quite frankly, we did not have authority to address.”
Ward 1 Council Member Garret Ferrara originally planned to vote against putting the issue into committee for discussion.
“I think this is an issue that is only relevant because of the issues going on right now, and it’s a knee jerk reaction to the public protest and riots that are happening out there,” Ferrara said. “I think we’re just looking to create a bigger problem when we’re already that [welcoming] community. And if there’s an individual instance of discrimination or racism, we’re going to deal with it in the most appropriate way.”
Turner spoke after Ferrara in the meeting, and said that although he agrees with some of Ferrara’s points, he does see a reason to at least discuss the possibility of a new city commission.
“I support the motion, I believe not acknowledging that something exists does not mean it doesn’t exist,” Turner said. “I think we have an opportunity to educate ourselves. I agree with Garrett [Ferrara] on a lot of aspects. I think that we are not the same city as L.A. or St. Paul or Minneapolis. But, there are issues out there that maybe we need to address.”
After listening to the points Turner made, Ferrara voted to put the issue into discussion, though he still does not agree on the need for a committee, and the motion passed unanimously.
“There are fissures that exist,” Turner said. “The issue of what was stated on the rock, while that doesn’t overwhelm me because you can’t change people’s hearts in that regard, you can work to establish a better system that is more inclusive and fair to all citizens of the city of Kent.”
This article was produced through a reporting partnership with the Collaborative News Lab @ Kent State University.
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