Community members discuss African-American experience, encourage communication during panel Monday night

Living while black is exhausting. It’s also about struggle, triumph and resilience.

Those were some of the messages delivered Monday night by five black panelists from Southeast Missouri State University and the community.

The “Living While Black #Unity” panel discussion was held at the Cape Girardeau Public Library as part of the university’s Black History Month celebration.

Tamara Zellars Buck, an associate professor in the Mass Media Department, participated in the discussion, along with Sean Spinks, retention coordinator for academic support services at Southeast; local NAACP president Pat McBride; Gateway Church pastor Ben Porter; and Southeast student Devin Rhone.

Buck said, “The black experience is exhausting.”

In this photo illustration, Tamara Zellars Buck, left, and Devin Rhone, right, pose for a portrait Monday before the Living While Black panel discussion at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.KASSI JACKSON

Ever since she was in elementary school, Buck said she has been “aware of my blackness.”

Buck added, “People are always watching you.” She said as a black woman, others either view her as a mentor or are waiting for her to make a mistake. “People are waiting on me to fail.”

As a tenured faculty member, Buck said she now champions faculty and staff diversity, encouraging the university to hire minority applicants.

She said she also is working with others to help improve Cape Girardeau’s south-side neighborhood.

Rhone said being black is a “never-ending battle.”

In this photo illustration, Ben Porter, left, and Pat McBride, right, pose for a portrait Monday before the Living While Black panel discussion at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.KASSI JACKSON

For some blacks, the future is paved with prison. Rhone said he is not going down that path and seeks to steer clear of violence.

McBride talked of successes in her life as a black American.

She said it was an “exciting” time for her as the first black to be a cashier at a particular grocery store in Georgia.

McBride said throughout her career, first as a vocational counselor and later as a staff member in the Missouri Department of Economic Development in Jefferson City, she has been aided by black and white co-workers alike.

Spinks said his black experience is one of “resilience.”

Growing up, he said, people told him, “You are not good enough. You are not smart enough.”

Spinks said education provided him a path to success.

“To me,” he said, “it starts with education.”

He added he tries to serve as a role model for other black men.

Porter grew up in Cape Girardeau and attended Southeast before dropping out. He later earned a college degree in another state.

He later returned to Cape Girardeau to found a church, which meets in a former federal courtroom in the Broadway Federal Building.

Moderator Shonta Smith, associate professor of elementary, early and special education at Southeast, told the crowd of about 30 people that on any given day, “a black brother can be pulled over” by police because he is black.

But Smith said people can “survive and thrive” if they work together.

Smith engaged the multi-racial audience in various group activities designed to foster better communication.

She said everyone needs to acknowledge each other’s experiences before steps can be taken to address societal problems.

Too often, she said, “we want to keep quiet. We want to close our eyes.”

Smith told the audience, “We are a divided community. We are all struggling.”

She said everyone needs to work together.

“We have to find a way to make it work,” she said. “We have to rub elbows with one another.”

Several members of the audience suggested Cape Girardeau needs to have more community discussions like Monday’s event.

Smith said, “if we don’t take any action, nothing is going to change.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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