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Community Conversations start about race in Jonesboro

A community conversation on race relations took place yesterday in Jonesboro.  It was part of the legacy of celebrating the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.  That celebration continues today.  During yesterday’s conversation, Assistant professor of Journalism at Arkansas State University, Dr. Gabriel Tait, read a passage from Dr. King:

Tait was part of a panel discussion that took place about race.  He says in order to bring more equality to all people, conversations about race must take place:

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Gabriel Tait.  Iris Stevens is a retired teacher and is coordinator of the Northeast Arkansas Tea Party.  She says it is important to let children ask tough questions:

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A lot of questions that took place yesterday were directed at Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliot.  Rick Elliot says he has been chief for almost a year and a half and has been trying to reach out to all races in the community.  He says he has seen a lot of response to a community policing class that consists of 12 weeks of classes to address why police do what they do.  Elliot tells why he understands how some members of the community feel discrimination. 

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In answering a question as to why more minorities are not on the police force, he says media coverage about policing plays a part:

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He says he wants to recruit more minorities on the police force and asked for the community’s support in encouraging minorities to join the force.  Elliot says a lack of support within a minority’s own race can lead to potential applicants either not applying, or not staying on the job very long.  He gave an example about a minority officer going on a local radio station to talk about being on the police force:

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Other discussions on race relations from audience members included getting more minorities to the polls, the dangers of stereotypes, and more education efforts through the community.  Organizers tells KASU news they hope this is the start of the discussion and that more conversations will be held in the future. 

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.