By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Vanessa Dinkel was pelted with rocks as a chid, bullied relentlessly becuase she was bi-racial.
Raeanna Peacock was given what she thought was a gift basket containing pictures of fried chicken, jelly and a noose by girls who she thought were her friends.
Charles Law's daughter was called the n-word by a spectator during a Russell basketball game.
Although speakers during a Juneteenth Celebration Friday in Hays spoke of painful instances of racism, they also urged a multi-racial audience to move forward with understanding and unity.
Law during his short speech to the audience asked everyone to stand up and look at their neighbor.
"Say, neighbor, I love you," he said and the audience repeated in a chorus of raised voices.
"No matter what your skin color is, I love you," he said and the crowd repeated.
"We need people to stand up," he said. "After the George Floyd thing, why now? I will tell you why. The world is tired of it. All races are tired of it."
He continued, "Some people are scared to stand up, some people are afraid of what their friends will think."
Law pointed to a friend at the back of the crowd.
"That man right there was against black people 10 years ago, strongly," Law said, "but that was the first man who came and hit me on Facebook when I was going to go through with the protest in Russell, Kan. If he can change, anyone can change."
Law said trying to explain racism to a crying child is tough and it hurts.
However, he said the youth of today can make a difference.
"That is the reason we are going the break the chain," he said.
Danzel Major, a grad student at FHSU, talked about recent racist posts that had been circulating from one local resident on Facebook.
"It was interesting. That guy was doubling down on him saying 'jungle bunny' only until his business was being threatened," Major said. 'Eventually he told everyone that it was the way it was being taken that was a mistake. I don't about y'all, but if I hear the term 'jungle bunny,' in a sentence, there is only way I can take that."
Dinkel, who has lived most of her life in Hays, said, as a biracial women, part of breaking the chain of racism for her was learning to love herself despite being exposed to racism.
"It's been rough when you don't know your place because you're either too white, or you say something and they say you're too black," Dinkel said.
"You don't know who you are. You feel like an alien, becuase you don't really fit in with anybody."
Although she proudly wears her hair natural today, Dinkel said she was relentlessly bullied when she was younger, especially about her hair.
"You start to build up walls," she said. "You start to get a thick skin. You start to be hard hearted."
Dinkel still gets followed in stores as if she were a thief. Her son has come home in tears after being called the n-word. Her son was told by another child that he must have been burnt as a baby, she said.
Her son told her he didn't want to be brown anymore — something that broke her heart.
"It chips away at you and chips away at you and chips away at you until you are an empty shell," she said.
She finally learned to love herself and her hair in all of its beautiful curliness.
"Now I have the confidence to go out there proudly as a biracial woman, black woman, white woman, whatever, and be proud of what I am," she said.
She said it is our job to talk to each other and educate each other and call each other to action.
"It is our job to have those hard conversations and be uncomfortable," Dinkel said. "I have had so many people reach out to me and ask, 'How can I do better? What can I say to make sure I am being the best version of myself? What can I do to help [prevent] the injustices that are going on right now? Where can I donate? What can I do?'"
"When you know better, you do better," she said. "Love people. I hope you can all leave with changed hearts."
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June 21, 2020 at 06:32PM
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Hays Juneteenth celebration yields a call to love neighbors - hays Post
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