Local diversity group hopes book, race relations study gets folks talking
By: Melissa Blanton

When Paul Guy was looking for a book for members of the Beyond Differences book club, he decided he needed one that could help start a conversation between blacks and whites.

Nothing accusatory, just a book that would tell a personal story and offer some practical advice.

He scourged the pages of 33 books before he found one that fit the bill – “It’s the Little Things,” written by New York Times journalist Lena Williams.

For Guy, Williams’ no-nonsense and humorous approach to the topic of racial divisions was a perfect fit for what his organization is trying to accomplish in Greenville.

Books like the one by Williams, who spoke at Furman and at a luncheon in Greenville this week, offer a starting point and can help ease the transition from a racist mentality to diverse thinking.

“We truly believe to combat racism, we have to have dialogue,” said Guy.

Williams’ book began as an article for the New York Times titled “The Little Things: Looks, stares, offhand remarks and other everyday occurrences that can ruin a black person’s day.”

Out of the 1997 piece came a series of meetings between blacks and whites who shared their views of just where the other was coming from.

The book talks about what Williams calls “the hair thing,” the “N” word, affirmative action and the race card.

Guy, along with several local nonprofits, recently completed a community survey, Race Matters. The results showed that 59 percent of those who responded to the survey said they had been discriminated against. And overall, African-Americans believed racial tensions were higher than what’s perceived by whites.

That disparity is something that needs to change, said Guy.

That’s where he believes the series of workshops, seminars, and guest speakers can help. Beyond Differences aims its message at middle management and below, said Guy, a segment of the population that tends to be overlooked by large-scale efforts to address race relations.

Guy said it’s up to both sides to come up with commonalities and begin the discussion there.

One of Greenville’s greatest needs when it comes to race relations is the need to have conversations, said Guy.

By starting the conversations now, before controversy – like the Fountain Inn jail death, said Guy – when situations do occur, the relationships are already in place.

“You change it one by one,” said Guy. “It’s going to come from one-on-one relationships.”