Juneteenth in Sewickley Fosters Discussion on Race and Racism

Betty Asche Douglas was born colored according to her birth certificate. 

But by the time she began school, she had become a Negro. When she came out of college, she was considered black and was later became African-American.

Douglas, who led a panel discussion at Sewickley's annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday said she could recall her father's saying that was often repeated time and again:

“There’s only one race and that’s the human race, and I am a part of it,” she said.

A six-person panel of educators and community leaders participated in a two-hour discussion, where viewpoints sometimes clashed on the cultural, biological and historical complexities of race.

Panelist Phil McCaffrey, educator and CEO of McCaffrey Tutoring, who formerly taught at Quaker Valley, said he believes that many organizations no longer care about skin color, but rather the color green as it relates to profit. He said racism could end if people show their value, and he agreed with Douglas’s father, that there is only one race.

“Because if you cut every single person in this room, what color do you bleed? Red,” he said. 

But panelist Terri Bradford, president of the Daniel B. Matthews Historical Society, said even if a person of color brings value, they aren’t always perceived as valuable because there is an automatic assumption. She pointed out that Pittsburgh's black unemployment rate is at 19 percent, the highest of any major city in the country. 

“You say go to college, do these things, but I still can’t get that job…I still have this wall up that says ‘you’re just not qualified.’ I think that is hindering a lot of people of color,” she said. “We don’t value them because we don’t hire them.”

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers landed at Galveston, TX with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free, according to Juneteenth.com.

More than a century later, audience members with panelists offered up solutions Saturday to ending racial issues in America, with some suggesting better opportunities, stronger bonds, the family, and education were key.

Ashley Kelly Stuart, Sewickley Community Center Food Pantry Garden and Pittsburgh Food Bank, said she believes that access to food and opportunity will ultimately break the cycle of poverty.

Doug Florey, director of the Laughlin Children’s Center in Sewickley, said he sees poverty as the issue, and said it’s important to make sure children, particularly children of color, take advantage of every academic and social opportunity.

“It’s our obligation as adults to make sure that our children have a better opportunity,” Florey added

Other panelists included Aaron Washington, a former US Airways employee and community activist, and panelist Bob McInerney, associate professor of psychology, Point Park University. 

McInerney, who teaches social constructionism, said his class allows his students to access the topic of racism, along with gender and other categories of human existence in a more cutting-edge way.  

“The first thing for all of us is to look into our souls," McInerney said. "What is going on with all of us."