Defeating stereotypes focus on Thursday speaker event

Dec. 4--Defeating stereotypes is the focus of The Beloved Community Speaker Series session Thursday at the Norman Public Library East, 3051 Alameda St.

A panel of Norman residents representing Hispanic Americans, Jewish Americans, younger generations and residents with disabilities will begin the free event at 6:30 p.m. Panel speakers are Nelson Dent, representative for the community with disabilities; Sara Mata, representative for the Hispanic community; Misha Klein, representative for the Jewish community and Clark Melton, Norman High School student representing younger generations in the community.

Dent said he's looking forward to Thursday because it will be an interesting dialogue that hasn't happened in Norman in a long time. He wants to hear what other people have to say, what their stereotypes are and how people with disabilities fit into Norman and elsewhere.

Norman is a special and inclusive place to live, and it's not perfect because no community is, Dent said, adding opportunities like this say a lot. This will be Dent's first time as a panelist, and he said he's hopeful people will get another point of view from these discussions.

"There are people here in Norman that do have disabilities and they go to the mall, they go to football games, they go to the theaters, they go to dinner and they are very involved in Norman," Dent said. "Some people see them, some people don't and it's important that all people of Norman at least recognize them and be aware."

Mayor Breea Clark has been releasing short biographies on Facebook for each panelist in anticipation of the event. Clark said she's excited to hear from these different groups and what life in Norman is like for them and where the city can improve.

"I'm hoping that Norman residents will come and listen, because it's so hard to understand someone else's perspective and what they are experiencing when it's just not your own personal experience," Clark said. "We all have our own challenges, but it's important to hear the challenges of others especially as we work towards trying to build a truly inclusive community."

This will be the first of three events in this year's speaker series. The speaker series had four events last year, and aim to engage residents in discussions about inclusivity and diversity.

The speaker series is not just a city initiative, but it's shared by many important community partners, Clark said. The series is a partnership between the City of Norman, Norman'sHuman Rights Commission, The Xenia Institute of Social Justice, Norman Public Schools, OU Office of University Community and The Pioneer Library System.

Residents will be able to participate in discussions through raising hands or writing questions down anonymously, Clark said. Norman resident Andy Rieger will serve as the moderator at these events, and will field the hand-written anonymous questions.

The goal of these panels is to create opportunities to ask questions, learn and defeat personal stereotypes that people may have been raised with, Clark said. Part of defeating stereotypes is having these types of conversations with people from many backgrounds, she said.

"I think groups need to speak for themselves," Clark said. "We can't sit here and presume to know what the problems are and how to fix them until we talk to people who are actually experiencing them."

Last year's speaker series was very successful in having important conversations about inclusivity in the community, Clark said. The representatives that were chosen for this series were chosen for a variety of reasons, she said.

Clark said representatives with different abilities were chosen because of the city's work on updating its ADA plan, due to national issues the Hispanic community was chosen, after an anti-semitic graffiti incident last year the Jewish community was chosen and due to rising stereotypes for Generation Z the younger generations were chosen.

Registration is not required for these free speaker events, but it is encouraged to receive updates. Tickets can be purchased online or at the library branch.

For residents who are unable to make it to the speaker event, Clark said the event might be streamed live to Facebook on the event page. These conversations are important to the community for building relationships and defeating stereotypes, so Clark said an additional live feed would be helpful.

The other two speakers events are Feb. 6 on community resources at Norman Public Library West, and April 2 on mental health at Norman Public Library Central.

Katie Standlee

366-3544

Follow me @katiestandlee

kstandlee@normantranscript.com

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