Center4ME raises awareness

African-American culture is celebrated during ‘Deliberate Dialogue’ session

Although the month of February is dedicated to celebrating the achievements of African-Americans in history, it is also used to highlight areas in which progress needs to be made. At Liberty, the Center for Multicultural Enrichment (Center4ME) tries to educate the student body about different cultures.

heritage — Center4ME hosts several events each Black History Month to  remember and honor African-American history.  Photo credit: Hannah Lipscomb

Heritage — Center4ME hosts several events each Black History Month to
remember and honor African-American history. Photo credit: Hannah Lipscomb

Kerensa Huffman, associate director of cultural competency and assessment for Center 4ME, said this event was called a Deliberate Dialogue. The purpose was to inform students about the past, present and future for African-Americans in culture. Derek Polley, CEO of the Lynchburg Titans, spoke to students about today’s African-American community. His goal was to inform students how the culture impacts the African-American community.

“Derek Polley focused on every area of current culture, including education, media, politics and every career, and he really came up with some great information touching on all of those areas,” Huffman said. “He was great at painting a very realistic picture of what African-Americans are going through and getting past Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and looking at African-Americans today. He did a great job of really honing in on where we are, but (also) showed we still have room for improvement.”

Polley first described the economic standings of African-Americans. In 1963, the unemployment rate for African-Americans was 10.9 percent, but today it has increased to 12.6 percent. Polley also said that according to the racial wealth gap, white Americans are worth seven times more than black Americans.

Another topic discussed by Polley was the education of African-Americans. According to Polley, nearly half of African-American students live in low-income areas with dropout rates around 40 to 50 percent. In fact, Polley said that seventy-three percent of all dropouts are African-Americans. He also said the education these children are receiving is subpar to other children’s education.

persevere — Derek Polley used his own story to encourage students to move  forward through difficult times in their lives. Photo provided

Persevere — Derek Polley used his own story to encourage students to move
forward through difficult times in their lives. Photo provided

“If you do the research, it’s a lot worse than people will say,” Polley said.

Polley also encouraged students by telling them that these statistics do not have to remain true. There is still time to change the economic standing and educational opportunities many African-Americans encounter. To prove his point, Polley shared the story of how he was able to change the course of his life and not become a statistic.

Polley grew up in Texas and was the youngest of five children. He said he attended the fourth worst high school in America. At the school he attended, there were often no books for class, and there were no security guards preventing people from being mugged or shot on school grounds.

During his youth, playing basketball became his outlet, which ended up changing his life.

Polley came to Liberty to study physical therapy but eventually changed his major to business. During his time at Liberty, he was challenged by a professor to pursue his dream of being an owner of a professional basketball team. When he was laid off from his job, Polley decided to make his dream a reality.

After receiving financial help from a few sources, Polley eventually worked his way up to the position of owner of the Lynchburg Titans.

“The best thing I ever did was to start,” Polley said. “I took the first step.”

Polley highlighted throughout the night that even though there is much work to be done within America, there is hope.

“After (hearing Polley), we felt empowered, because (we) gained knowledge and actually understood,” Huffman said. “I think we were able to walk out of there with very foundational facts. We know where we are, so let’s move forward.”

FROST is a news reporter.

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