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I
spent several hours speaking one-on-one with NAACP president
Ray Wood, just prior to Ted Nugent’s appearance at The
Blade’s 31st Annual Northwest Ohio Rib-Off. Wood’s
philosophy and vision for the NAACP were among the topics we
discussed.
However, the core of our dialog revolved around the
question: What NAACP response is required to influence
institutional, political and community change in Toledo?
This question was made more relevant in light of the Aug. 9
killing of Michael Brown, a black teenager, by a white
police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. This incident has
fueled nightly protest demonstrations and captured the
attention of a global audience, aided by an activist black
social media who provided details germane to the black
experience, a perspective often overlooked or misinterpreted
by mainstream media.
The following is part one of our conversation:
Perryman:
It has been eight months now that you’ve taken over
leadership of the Toledo NAACP. So have you gotten your feet
wet?
Wood:
I think they’re wet. They were kinda’ wet a little bit
earlier, but as far as being the point person, I’m that and
I’m okay. I actually have a good board and other people
active in committees and as any good leader would do, I try
to engage them. And I do like the fact that the community is
trying to give this board the benefit of the doubt in trying
to engage the NAACP in things that we hadn’t been
previously.
Perryman:
Such as?
Wood:
Gang violence is a real big issue. And, as you know, we are
involved in the minority recruitment of firefighters and
police officers. But whether it is collaboration with groups
like Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, or the Toledo
Community Coalition or any of that, I think that the NAACP
really does have to have a presence. All of these things
directly relate to our community and to who we are, but this
is one organization that you can’t afford to spread yourself
too thin. So that’s the wetting of the feet process. It is
to try to make sure -- and then the other thing that’s super
important is to try to engage African-American churches. I
also believe in the spiritual piece, so I believe that
that’s where our movement and our coming together has to
never leave away from
Perryman:
Has your organization had a strategic planning session yet?
Wood:
We have had a retreat, where we just kind of sat down and
determined where we wanted to focus. We had several issues.
One issue, and I don’t know if it’s going to go away, is the
gang violence and the black-on-black crime and how our young
men are winding up either dead or in prison. That was an
area that we really wanted to try to concentrate on. And
that’s what I meant to say about this whole thing with the
Nugent guy. He’s going to be gone. He will come and go.
He’s recently been to other cities in Ohio. Do you know what
we did? Nugent was in Columbus the 24th of July.
He’s going to be in Cincinnati the day before he comes here,
and I reached out to those local NAACP chapters just so we
can kind of collaborate on something together. I didn’t hear
a response from either one of them. I personally called
both of the presidents and left messages. And, not that what
we do here in this community is going to revolve around what
someone else does, but, you try to get as much input and as
much support as you can. But when that didn’t happen, we
kept going forward.
So in our strategic planning, because Ted Nugent wasn’t on
our map, it was a part of that planning process. What was on
our map was that they’re building jails for kids based upon
third grade reading scores. We wanted to be involved with
the educational piece with Dr. Romules Durant and the Toledo
Board of Education, so we have begun to reach out and try to
have collaborations any way that we can, and particularly in
the African-American schools. So we wanted to make sure that
education was a part of our focus. We wanted to make sure
that the gang violence was a part of our focus. And just
like the Nugent thing popped up, the EOPA (Pathways) thing
came up and so many people are losing their jobs because of
the transfer of Head Start, so we’ve been in discussions
with Dr. [Cecelia] Adams and the Board and other
organizations to help try to find employment for those
individuals that have lost their jobs and opportunities.
So, it’s not like we haven’t been focusing. And obviously,
we also want to make sure we set a goal for 500 NAACP
memberships. A major reason is because we get numerous
requests from the community, not just for our involvement,
but if we can support something financially, we do that as
well. We are also working on a march to commemorate the 50th
year anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in order to
engage our community by unifying and working together.
Ultimately, however, we can march until we don’t have any
more feet and we can talk until we are blue in the face, but
people want to see action. They want to see change. They
want to see us involved. But we’ve got to be willing to do
what it takes.
Perryman:
Let’s stay with the chapter’s focus. You made the statement
that Nugent will be here and then he’ll be gone, and we will
still have kids in the streets. So, I guess I heard you say
that we can kind of wipe that Rib-Off experience away or
flick it off, basically.
Wood:
I really wouldn’t want to flick that off. I just want to
put it in perspective. You know, that’s a big deal that The
Blade and other sponsors have thought that it was okay to
have someone with that inappropriate conversation and that
mindset to come here and be in this community in light of
being called a compassionate city and in light of these
racism forums that they’ve been having. Now, I don’t accept
anything that Ted -- I think he’s a true racist. I mean,
and a lot of other things as well, because you know, he says
anything that comes out of his mouth. The bad thing about
that is that we have so many people, and he’s not the only
one. You’ve got a lot of people with that type of
inappropriate behavior and what some people, the first thing
they’ll say -- ‘you know, he sits on the board of the NRA
and he’s a gun-totin’ guy, and blah, blah, blah.’ It ain’t
about Second Amendment rights and it’s not about freedom of
speech, First Amendment rights. It’s about his
inappropriate conversation and disrespect of all people, and
it’s about moral issues where you wouldn’t expect -- Listen,
now like I said, he’s been all over. He’s still getting
engagements. Unfortunately people all around this country
are still having this guy come in light of what they know
about who he is.
Perryman:
Well, that speaks to my point, which is, that fighting
Nugent support here in Toledo does not contradict your point
of focus, which is the gun violence that is rampant in our
community. Number one, if this man is the celebrated figure
that he is and he’s pro-gun and all of this, that makes --
and that kind of vile language inspires people to…
Wood:
People with guns to do crazy stuff.
Perryman:
That leads to the death of unarmed black young people like
Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis or a Renisha McBride in Detroit
and other children who are shot at and killed by citizens or
the police at extraordinary rates compared to others. And,
in most instances, those individuals who kill us are not
held accountable by the criminal justice system.
Wood:
Absolutely.
Perryman:
Not only that, but when that violent stuff is celebrated in
the media, it has a direct effect on our young black men.
They think guns are natural. They don’t think shooting
people is that big a deal, because they see it celebrated
and pushed in the media and they see the Toledo Blade
providing financial backing of it. So by proxy, as some
might see it, The Blade is supporting shooting African
Americans and gun violence. There is a direct connection and
correlation with how blacks are demonized in the media and
the level of violence they experience. So this does not
contradict your focus on young people.
Wood:
No. Not at all. And I agree with everything you said,
because, I mean, it is all interrelated. The point I was
making was that, Ted Nugent is not going to be my focal
point, because once he leaves, we are still going to have to
deal with the education in this community. The housing,
whether it’s blight or because of the lead poisoning and how
it adversely affects our community and our people will still
be with us. Eighty percent of the lead poisoning deaths are
African Americans. And we’ve got property owners and people
that are unaware.
Perryman:
And the educational problems and these kids who are shooting
each other are all connected.
Wood:
I agree with you.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |
