Denying a need for progress

Published 11:50 am Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Editor:

One of the primary rhetorical tactics of those who oppose progress is to deny that there is a need for progress at all. Thus, when Prince Edward closed its schools to black children, white supremacists asserted that integration was unnecessary because segregation wasn’t a problem. 

We see this same argument — a dismissal of our current need for progress by denying that one exists — in Steve Stewart’s column “Back in the spotlight” (Wednesday, Sept. 30). According to Stewart, there is no need to address the current problems that Kristen Green raises in her book “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County,” because there are no current problems.

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His letter implies that anyone who acknowledges that the poverty in our region is connected to the mistakes of the past — and that racism still exists — is being a bad sport and raining on Farmville’s parade.

Stewart is right about one thing: This is Farmville’s chance to shine. We do that not by denying the connection between poverty and racism, evident in Farmville as in many towns across our nation, but by acknowledging it. This acknowledgement could take very concrete forms and begin to build the trust that would allow us to truly move forward. For example, we could remove the statue of the Confederate soldier that stands watch just across from Longwood’s campus — a sure sign that we haven’t left our racist past behind.

We could hold community meetings that connect the dots between the problems in our current school system and the choices of the past.

We could also use the national attention the vice-presidential debate will bring to become a meeting place — one of several around the country — for forums about the next wave of the civil rights movement. 


Elizabeth Hall Magill

Farmville