It sometimes seems odd to greet someone with a “Happy Martin Luther King Day” greeting, doesn’t it? The seriousness of the topic of equality and justice, and the recency of Dr. King’s life and death (Were they really hosing kids in Alabama and segregating people all over this country when I was in elementary school? It seems absurd.) and the challenge of his teachings, make it different than your typical holiday.

I wish that today we could celebrate the great progress West Virginia has made in the area of not just tolerating people of different backgrounds and races, but of embracing them. Let’s face it, we still have a long way to go. The latest from the world of sports:

• The experience of Calvin Magee, the African-American offensive coordinator under Rich Rodriquez, is making news nationally on ESPN after an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday. This after it was revealed our new football coach, Bill Stewart, has an ugly racial incident in his background…Everyone deserves a second chance, and the African-American football players at WVU seem to be fully behind Stewart, but combined with the Magee story WVU’s athletic department (one of our rare shining success stories known around the country) is not looking like a group dedicated to building an inclusive program that embraces minorities. Think other coaches aren’t using these articles against WVU in the recruiting process?
• Randy Moss’ experience growing up in Rand, WV, is well-documented. Moss is a controversial character for many reasons, but living under the racial harassment freshly documented in The Boston Globe’s Sunday paper would certainly seem to impact a person’s perspective on life. 

As we mentioned in an earlier post about the Megan Williams torture episode, what is frustrating is how reactive we are to these kinds of stories. There will be many who read the Calvin Magee story and dismiss it in a huff: “Well, if he hadn’t have followed that traitor Rodriquez….” Or “Randy Moss is a criminal, he’s not worthy of respect.”

But c’mon. As they say in AA, the first step is admitting we have a problem. And we have a problem not because the outside media want to pick on West Virginia, but because they are finding too many ongoing incidents to report. We have to aggressively take action to build a truly inclusive, creative community in our state. Why?

1. It’s the morally right thing to do – Dr. King and many others established this in our country long ago.
2. It hurts our self-image – To hate, or just look down upon, others damages our own humanity and sense of worth. 
3. It hurts out external image – We’re quite aware of our image problems outside the state, not much needs said about this.
4. It hurts our ability to grow economically – In a country that is increasingly diverse and increasingly respectful and supportive of diversity, every article like the ones above makes it more difficult to recruit talented workers who are in minority groups – as well as non-minorities (ie, white) who want to live and work in a tolerant, diverse community. And it certainly doesn’t do much to attract start-up companies to locate here, many of which are run by non-white investors and executives.

On this Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2008, we call on our leaders and ourselves to prioritize equality, justice and diversity as key initiatives to address in this new year. Let’s make this a year where we became proactive, not reactive. Here are just a few ideas to consider:

• Encourage your city or town to embrace the Inclusive Communities initiative from the National League of Cities.
• Develop a credible, comprehensive statement of diversity for your organization. Here is a good example from Jackson Kelly, a major law firm based in WV.
• Recruit and hire minority candidates. Yes, it may be a tough sell to encourage a minority candidate from outside (or even inside) the state to take a position here, but you may be surprised if sincere efforts are made.
• Volunteer to lead diversity programs in your local school. K-12 educators have done a much better job embedding black history and other non-dominant cultures into the curriculum, but there is still a lot of mind-opening that can be done in the early years…Especially in WV counties that have very few, if any, minority families.

We’d love to hear your feedback and ideas on this topic.