Ever wonder why people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds live in separate communities in the U.S.? Or why most of our close friends share our race or ethnicity?
Barbara Sellars and John Rudolph have joined the nationwide effort to encourage a National Day of Racial Healing by hosting a community discussion on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM at the Friends Room of the Henry County Public Library, 123 E. Green St. in Clinton, Missouri. This event is part of an effort by the WK Kellogg Foundation and NBC Universal News Group to promote racial healing. It was established in 2017 to promote racial healing as a critical path for ending racial bias and creating a society in which all children can thrive.
SEPARATION: We might think it’s all personal choice. However, racial separation was part of the American design, with colonization and enslavement setting the stage for centuries to come. The devastating effects of our separation continue today, with many communities of color cut off from access to essentials like jobs, transportation, safe housing, healthcare and good food.
About W.K. Kellogg Foundation: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, the Kellogg Foundation works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
Based in Battle Creek, Michigan, the Kellogg Foundation works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information on the Foundation go to: https://www.wkkf.org
John Rudolph and Barbara Sellars are residents of Clinton, MO and both have extensive personal knowledge of racism and its devastating effects. Both have volunteered to share their knowledge and to serve as a resource to their community.
We can’t heal or create greater racial equity if we don’t know each other. Racial healing involves building trusting relationships that help us work together to address the impact and damage caused by racism. Changing the systems that separate us starts with challenging our individual impulses to separate. On this National Day of Racial Healing – and year round – find a way to connect across racial and ethnic differences with people who share your city, town or organization.
The Clinton community, both young and old, are invited to join them at the Friends Room on Tuesday evening to participate in this discussion.
