Cheryl Clayton, Board Member
As a retired high school mathematics teacher for many years in several locations in Arkansas, Florida, Texas and Illinois, I have been aware of the many variables that effect the educational preparation of our young people. The wide disparities among economic and employment opportunities available for different populations create tremendous disadvantages, especially for people of color in our communities.
The major goal that I have chosen to work toward during this third phase of my life is to find ways to encourage people of the African-American community and people steeped in white privilege to get to know one another as individuals. Building relationships across racial lines is, I believe, the best way, if not the only way, of shattering the barriers we have erected along artificial lines. Designating any group as somehow not as worthy as another group is simply a false choice, a choice rooted in slavery and one with devastating effects on all of us.
The major goal that I have chosen to work toward during this third phase of my life is to find ways to encourage people of the African-American community and people steeped in white privilege to get to know one another as individuals. Building relationships across racial lines is, I believe, the best way, if not the only way, of shattering the barriers we have erected along artificial lines. Designating any group as somehow not as worthy as another group is simply a false choice, a choice rooted in slavery and one with devastating effects on all of us.
