Forum takes on hidden racism

Medford took the first step in addressing a highly publicized report on racial discrimination. Now officials and residents are looking for more action.

''We've been sleepwalking through the racial transformation of the suburbs without adequate civil rights initiatives or community relations programs," said Gary Orfield, director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, which commissioned a study that concluded that racial minorities in Greater Boston don't feel comfortable living here.

Medford became the first community to make a formal response to the report: It organized a public roundtable at City Hall last Wednesday. ''That tells you a lot about Medford," which is at least willing to face some tough issues and get the discussion going, Orfield said.

The city has made some strides in terms of race relations, but it also has some serious problems, said Orfield. ''We all do."

Some residents saw a need to pick up the pace of change. ''I thought this was going to be a forum of answers, but it seems to be a forum of questions," said Mabray Andrews, an African-American who has lived in Medford for more than 50 years. ''What's the course of action from here?"

According to the study, which was released last year by the Civil Rights Project, 80 percent of the African-Americans and half of Hispanics surveyed in October 2004 in Greater Boston said racial discrimination remained a serious problem that could cost members of minority groups jobs and promotions and made them feel unwelcome at stores, sporting events, and restaurants. The study included Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester counties.

At Wednesday night's forum, which featured Orfield and a panel of city leaders, about 100 residents and community leaders came to discuss systemic racism in the city.

''When people hear the word 'race,' everyone wants to shy away," Mayor Michael McGlynn said in a phone interview before the forum. But ''facts are what they are. Let's bring the facts out. If we have shortcomings, let's address them."

Jennifer Yanco, a 15-year resident who spearheaded the event, kicked off the discussion. ''Racism is a topic most of us white people avoid like the plague, and it is a plague, striking most of our communities," she said.

Her goal, she said, was to go from raising and acknowledging these issues to forming groups of people who will work on them.

David Harris, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston and chairman of the Medford Human Rights Commission, said he hoped the discussion wouldn't portray Medford as either ''a racist city or utopia" but rather a city that is willing to engage the entire population in debate and discuss how to make it more comfortable for everyone.

Police Chief Leo Sacco Jr. said he welcomes scrutiny and is willing to consider a convening a civil review board to investigate allegations of racial profiling or improper conduct by police officers. He said his only concern is finding ''the right model that works," adding that Boston has yet to implement a civilian review board, despite repeated calls for one.

He also acknowledged what everyone at the meeting seemed to agree on. While some things may have improved in Medford, he said, ''we have a long way to go."

Though the city has become more racially diverse, all of its city councilors and School Committee members are white, said Elizabeth Ammons, a Medford resident who is a professor of literature and race studies at Tufts University.

Other residents complained that the police, fire, and school staff and other city personnel don't adequately reflect the population, either.

According to the city's Office of Human Diversity, about 15 percent of the 56,000 residents are racial minorities, including about 7 percent who are African-Americans. Of the Police Department's 106 employees, three are black, two are Hispanic, and one is Asian, the office said. Of the Fire Department's 125 firefighters, two are black and one is Asian. Of the city's 100 employees, five are black and two are Asian.

Gwen Blackburn, a retired administrator who served in Medford schools for 32 years, said at the roundtable that she worries about the city's children and ''covert," as opposed to ''overt," discrimination. Minority students complain that they are overlooked, she said, so they shut down and don't bother to study ''because they don't think anybody cares whether they get it or not."

In one of the more dramatic moments of the evening, Tebogo Makhene-Goyau, a mother of two who grew up in South Africa, said, ''I know what racism is" and ''I still experience it."

About four years ago, she said, Medford and Arlington police accused her son of stealing bicycles and threatened to arrest him if it happened again. She said she decided to send her son, then a student at Medford High, back to South Africa ''because I didn't want him to become a statistic of an African-American in jail."

''As a black parent, I felt my child was targeted because he was a black male."

The Rev. Gordon O'Neal of the Shiloh Baptist Church said: ''There needs to be training in terms of ethnic minorities so there can be peace and harmony. Too many officers have short fuses. It's dangerous."

Sacco agreed that more training was desirable, but he added, ''Massachusetts lacks quality training in that area." He and others suggested that sensitivity training would benefit not only the police but the entire community, including school staff and business leaders.

At the evening's conclusion, Yanco said, ''What's most important is we all came together to fairly, frankly address the issues."

But, she said, ''the proof of how successful this kind of event is depends on what comes out of it."