Elk Grove City Council Member Steve Detrick spoke about what King’s legacy means to him.
“The era of King was a transition in history that promoted a better understanding of people,” he said. “He taught us all that no matter what we look like outside, it is what’s inside that counts,” he said.”
Detrick helped start the city’s multicultural committee last year and believes that it is this type of group that will help educate the residents of Elk Grove about the diverse people who live in the city.
He said, “The better you understand someone’s roots, the better you understand the person.”
Complete article in the Elk Grove Citizen
What does the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mean to you?
We have come a long way in terms of racial and gender equality since the prominent African-American civil rights activist was assassinated in 1968.
Yet instances of prejudice and inequality among the different races, genders, cultures, sexual orientations, and religions still prevail in several cities and small towns across the country.
Sometimes these cases of injustice do not stray too far from home.
So what can we do to improve the relations of our diverse nation and in Elk Grove where nonwhite residents now outnumber whites for the first time in Elk Grove community history?
On Jan.16, we will be celebrating what would have been King’s 83rd birthday.
The Citizen recently spoke with members of the community to get their opinions on what King’s legacy means to them, and what we can to do in the continuous effort to abolish prejudice and discrimination.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of prejudice completely,” said Jermaine Hawkins, a father of eight and longtime resident of Elk Grove. “As long as there are people on this earth, there will be ignorant ones who base their education on others from what they’ve learned growing up for by what they see on TV.”
He added, “What we can continue to do as a nation is teach our children that there is good and bad in everyone, but that the good or bad is not based on what color or religion someone is – it is based on the person.”
The African-American father of eight lived in San Francisco until relocating his family to the Elk Grove area in the late 1970s.
He remembers the Civil Rights Movement during the center of the decade as a time of unrest and vigorous change.
“Before the Civil Rights Movement, things were so bad among black people versus whites, women were not being treated equally in the workplace, it was an uncomfortable time to live in America,” he said. “But Dr. King and the movement in general changed all of that.”
Marie Mertz, owner of Todo Un Poco Mexican and Italian Bistro and a member of Elk Grove’s recently formed Multicultural Committee, moved to the community in the 1990s from Jalisco, Mexico.
She sees Elk Grove morphing into a multicultural mecca
“Thanks to King’s work and to the work and sacrifices of all those who followed him, we [in Elk Grove] live in a colorblind society,” she said.
Mertz has never experienced any discrimination since moving to the United States.
After living in Davis for a while, she chose to settle in Elk Grove; a city that she sees as a safe place to live and one with many opportunities.
“I think this is a great community,” she said. “We all need to know our history, but we cannot live in the past.”
She added, “The most important thing is that we focus on what we’re doing now; that we teach the new generation to judge others on their character – not what race they are.”
Elk Grove City Council Member Steve Detrick spoke about what King’s legacy means to him.
“The era of King was a transition in history that promoted a better understanding of people,” he said. “He taught us all that no matter what we look like outside, it is what’s inside that counts,” he said.”
Detrick helped start the city’s multicultural committee last year and believes that it is this type of group that will help educate the residents of Elk Grove about the diverse people who live in the city.
He said, “The better you understand someone’s roots, the better you understand the person.”
Toya Davis, president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Sigma Delta Omega Chapter in Elk Grove, equates King’s legacy with personal responsibility.
“It allows us to look back at how far we’ve come and makes us realize how far we have to go,” she said. “We haven’t yet become a society free of discrimination.”
She added, “I have family who moved to Elk Grove in the 1980s when it was a predominantly white farming community.”
“In the last 30 years it has become one of the most culturally diverse communities in the United States.”
Davis believes that the way to move forward in terms of promoting equality and education among the diverse is to foster more community partnerships with organizations that are focused on the youth.
“It’s not just cliché to say ‘the children are our future,’ they are,” she said. “They are our present as well and we need to make sure that we’re planting seeds of positivity; that we’re putting these children in situations where they can grow.”
Norm DeYoung of Elk Grove is also a member of the city’s multicultural committee and looks forward to taking new steps in helping it foster the community’s cultural growth.
He mentioned the committee’s forthcoming multicultural fair slated to be presented in September.
DeYoung said that the fair will be representing the Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, and African-American communities, as well as the Russian, Sikh, East Indian communities, and more.
“The key is to take steps that we haven’t taken before in exploring cultures that we never have before in this city,” he said.
“We’re beginning to do that now in Elk Grove.”
He added, “Dr. King’s vision reminds us that we all should be created equal and that there are still things we need to achieve.”
