The headline caught our eye.
A story in the Pine Bluff Commercial the other day was about a “Homemakers Club.” Normally, what might follow would be something about quilting or sewing or plants or cooking — the sort of activities one might find oneself doing while hanging out at one’s home. And, goodness, with the covid pandemic, there’s been a lot of hanging out going on.
The disconnect was the headline: “Homemakers talk about racial equity.”
And just as if one might jump into the middle of explaining how to make a perfect egg souffle, there the club members were, up to their apron strings in talking about discrimination and such.
Their program was called: Creating a Common Language for Racial Understanding. And specifically, they talked about how discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person or group; how racial equity is treating people the same regardless of social, economic or cultural differences; about how equity is about fairness and equal access to opportunity.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“It takes social differences and the social structures of inequality into account rather than assuming that everyone begins on a level playing field and through hard work everyone could succeed,” said a short story about the club’s last meeting.
And if all that wasn’t enough to do while having a spot of tea and some scones, the group tackled prejudice, saying that it is a “judgment or opinion that is formed on insufficient grounds before facts are known or in disregard of facts that contradict it. These are learned and can be unlearned.”
Wow, now that was a meeting!
Who knew one could tackle the foundations of many of the world’s ills in one sitting. Discrimination, racial inequity and misunderstanding, and prejudice: These are topics that have confounded societies for centuries, caused great upheaval and greater wars, kept neighbor separated from neighbor and country from country.
And yet, the road to conquering those ills is, as these members understand, to acknowledge that they exist, because society can’t fix what it can’t identify as broken.
Along those society wide lines, we were wondering if the Heart-N-Hands Extension Homemakers Club could be persuaded to take their act on the road, do some presentations to, well, really to everyone they could reach. We could all use a refresher.
We can’t wait for next month’s meeting. Perhaps the group will take on economic and educational disparity, religious intolerance or gender inequality. Or all three! There would appear to be nothing too complex for this fearless group.
And not that they just sit and talk about issues; they also make busy with their hands. As the story pointed out, the members said they had been sewing face masks since the pandemic started.
Well, of course they have. We would expect nothing less.