Calling Mankato Home diversity event packed

I was very happy to see the standing room only crowd at The Free Press/Minnesota Public Radio event on diversity at Minnesota State University Tuesday night.

The crowd was at least 300 in my estimation, and many community leaders showed up as well as a good cross-section of the diverse community. It was standing room only.

It was a continuation of Free Press efforts to shed light on the issue of diversity in our community. One by one, Sudanese, Somali, and others from the diverse community and ordinary Caucasian citizens stood up and talked about what Calling Mankato Home means to them, and just how welcoming we are as a community to people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and sexual orientations.

There were many positive stories, but also some stories of discrimination and disrespect. A Mankato high school young lady had her hijab ripped from her head and teased about it when she was at school one day. A longtime Native American talked of how the adoption agencies described him as someone no one would want.

But on balance there were many positive stories. It was good hearing from AmeriPride Production Manager Tom Blaido talk about all the people of color his company has hired as a proactive effort. Others like Abdi Sabrie couldn't say enough good about how welcoming a place Mankato has become.

I was asked to sum up the evening and suggest things I've learned or taken from the conversation.

Here's what I came up with:

I hear a lot of hope in the voices of refugees and immigrants who spoke. They want to stay in Mankato and will do so, if they can find employment.

The community needs to be proactive in "opening our circles." I heard this from the schools, from the university people and the newspaper. Many in the diverse community will not come forward to participate in our community if they do not know the door is open.

Mankato can be not exactly welcoming but "not mean" to diverse people. That's not good enough. We have to do better at welcoming. We have to do better than "not being mean."

We can understand diverse people if we just listen to them a bit. Where they come from, things are different. A visit by police in the Sudan or Somalia may mean you're never heard from again. It's reasonable to expect they will have trepidation in dealing with police in America then.

We have to be proactive about developing a culture that is accepting of diverse people. We can't turn on a switch. It has to be ingrained in our mindset.

The term "Home" is a universal concept. If we want people to "Call Mankato Home" we have to help them find things that are homelike -- good friends, accepting people, comfort in social settings, employment that can sustain a family.

I heard from a lot of community leaders that this conversation turned out great, and we received thanks for hosting it. It is simply the kind of thing The Free Press wants to be associated with. It's our brand. Community leadership, civil discussion of the issues.

Lul Ahmed, a Somali woman who is part of The Free Press advisory board, said she didn't hear anything really new at the meeting, but she was glad that many more people were in on the message.

MSU professor Tony Filipovitch said there may not be a lot new, but it was important we were finally maybe having the discussion "with each other," thereby raising the overall community awareness.

It will provide another springboard for continuing Free Press coverage on the diverse community. You can participate in that coverage by giving us your feedback. Hopefully it will raise awareness that we can really grow this place to be even better than it is.