{"id":90590,"date":"2020-01-19T17:38:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T00:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/at-listening-session-attendees-say-racism-is-rampant-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2020-01-19T17:38:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T00:38:48","slug":"at-listening-session-attendees-say-racism-is-rampant-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/at-listening-session-attendees-say-racism-is-rampant-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"At listening session, attendees say racism is rampant in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"More
More than a dozen people attended a community listening session Thursday, where people shared stories of discrimination and racism experienced in Durango. The Durango Community Relations Commission hosted the meeting in an attempt to learn how to best take action to curb bigotry in the community.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It\u2019s not easy to live in Durango \u2013 but for people of color, it\u2019s frightening.<\/p>\n

That was the message shared Thursday by community members who met to discuss racism in Durango with the Community Relations Commission, which hosted the listening session to learn about personal experiences with discrimination in the community<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some said they feel afraid to go downtown for a drink. Others hesitate to apply for jobs for fear of discrimination from customers and employers. Students drop out of high school to escape racism. Families leave the area for lack of acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a room full of hurt,\u201d said Lexie Stetson-Lee, a member of the commission.<\/p>\n

More than a dozen people attended the listening session, and for an hour, shared stories about how racism in Durango has changed how they identify and act. No city councilors attended Thursday\u2019s meeting, the first of four listening sessions planned this year.<\/p>\n

Community members gave personal examples of institutionalized racism in Durango, including the totem man sculpture on Ninth Street just west of Main Avenue, a lack of inclusiveness at the Durango Welcome Center and a shortage of law enforcement who empathize or identify with people of color.<\/p>\n

Participants spoke of friends who have left the community because they feel unsafe or unwelcome. Some said they won\u2019t go out in Durango without a group. People of color have trouble renting in Durango, some said, and others have had trouble accessing support services and resources.<\/p>\n

Kalina Cross, a sophomore at Fort Lewis College, said she has seen people make an effort to welcome people of color on campus, but she hasn\u2019t seen much work done in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like they\u2019re not interested and don\u2019t want to have to face these problems,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople in power need to listen and put this stuff to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any city attempt at solving the deep-rooted issues of racism in Durango would help, said Lisa Brown, who served as a student liaison to the Community Relations Commission before she graduated from FLC in 2019. A parade to celebrate inclusiveness could help \u2013 diversity training for government employees and officials is a good place to start, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we continue with the same mindset or do we decolonize ourselves?\u201d Brown said. \u201cThere\u2019s no one to blame, there\u2019s only opportunity to do better and think outside the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of people in Durango need to do more to inform themselves of the challenges people of color in the community face, Stetson-Lee said.<\/p>\n

None of the stories shared Thursday are new or unique in Durango, said Tirzah Camacho, another member of the Community Relations Commission, but the experiences often go unaddressed. Starting a conversation and engaging people is a good first step, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s power in numbers and creating a safe space for people affected by discrimination,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cThe value (of the listening session) is feeling heard and hopefully gaining power.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

stories of fear, pain with the city\u2019s Community Relations Commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4912,507,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-90590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-discrimination","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90590"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=90590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}