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Larry L. Rose

Larry Rose, Corpus Christi Caller-Times editor, writes an occasional column. He can be reached at rosel@caller.com.

Sunday, November 14, 1999

Community looks at itself on tough issue

Will we reprint the series, "Neighbors: Worlds Apart?’’ I was asked. I didn’t know what to say. Through the first six days of the eight-day series, we’ve dominated the front page and ran two or three open pages of material inside the A section. That’s normal for a major project.
  But over that time, we’ve run only 10 staff-written stories. The public has been a huge contributor to this series. That’s special. Of the hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and other ways we’ve obtained information, we’ve had space to run comments from more than 200 people, through Saturday. Additionally, The Caller-Times Poll has given the community a picture of itself on a number of diversity topics.
  This is not how the project was conceived a year ago. Between then and now, we’ve had community panels discuss the topic; we’ve gone to gatherings and obtained information; we’ve used written surveys. We have started and stopped the series a number of times. We just didn’t feel that we had more than a polite and politically correct examination of diversity and its issues in Corpus Christi.
  Recent incidents of name-calling and of injecting race into public issues convinced us that we had to do the series head-on, however difficult it would be. Someone had to get the community talking about the need to improve relations. If we could facilitate a discussion and move this along, then we hoped the public focus and discussion could return to other important issues. Racist rhetoric inflames and obscures real issues; it blocks problem-solving and it inhibits the community’s harmonious growth.
  We discarded much of our earlier work and asked the public to play a large role in this project. The public responded, overwhelmingly.
  Most negative responses to the series came with the initial shock of the headline on the first day with the headline, "Shame on us," accompanied by racial epithets from the news. People who in their e-mails decried the use of "the race card" employed the "you just want to sell newspapers card" for why we were printing the series. However, for people who think they can sell a product that trumpets "Shame on us," we could use your talent in our circulation department.
  A number of "Sound Off" responses were emotional, more so than others. We had obviously struck a chord, allowing people to vent and express themselves in a way for the community to see and discuss.
  Particularly compelling were comments from military spouses who had trouble getting or holding jobs here. Is that significant enough to play out in future base-closure rounds?
  Is it harassment in the workplace when people speak Spanish and laugh at someone who doesn’t understand what was said about them?
  What are the diversity hot buttons? Are businesses and organizations doing all they can to help us cope?
  The discussion has given people an opportunity to participate and to be heard. Some have chosen to avoid it, others to dig in their heels, and some to be mean-spirited or obstructionist. This shows that getting some people to respect and maintain the self-esteem of others won’t be easy. This is a topic that even leaders have shied away from.
  Professor José E. Limón of the University of Texas said this week’s public conversations on diversity place Corpus Christi at the forefront of such dialogue in Texas.
  The big question is: Can the community maintain this leadership position and use the dialogue to its advantage?

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