Cross cultural response to Robinson case decision - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

 MADISON (WKOW) -- Leaders in the protest to the Dane County district attorney's decision in the case of the fatal shooting of unarmed, African American teen suspect Tony Robinson say the white, majority community is becoming more engaged on this issue, and others involving racial disparity.

"Fortunately there are a lot of people who are white who are stepping up to support the Black Lives Matter movement," Nell Schaefer of the non-profit group Groundwork says.

District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who is African American, says both his personal and policy-making experiences with racial disparity helped inform his decision.  But Ozanne says the facts of the violent encounter between the teenager and Madison Police officer Matt Kenny allowed Kenny to legally resort to deadly force.

Groundwork focuses on educating the white community on the history of racism, and on strategies to effectively respond to manifestations of racism in the Madison area..  Schaefer refers to the shooting of Robinson as "murder," and believes the handling of the case is consistent with an approach that has led to significant, racial disparity in Dane County's incarceration rate.

Williamson Street business owner Stephanie Rearick's coffee house is a mere block from the scene of the Mar. 6 Robinson shooting.  She points to racial disparities in Dane County's incarceration rate, and in the rate of student achievement in Madison, as signs of segregated outcomes locally.  Rearick says the Robinson case has highlighted these problems for more of the white, majority community.

"And now that it's becoming more and more talked about, I think people are rightfully deeply ashamed and getting really motivated to act,"  Rearick says.

Schaefer says protests in the street are not the only place where members of the white community are becoming more engaged in local, race relation issues.  She says a program of "living room conversations" is building, with white community members inviting friends and neighbors to discuss overcoming obstacles to more racial equality.

Rearick is part of a community response team network, which formed after the Nov. 2012 officer-involved shooting death of unarmed, white suspect Paul Heenan.  Rearick says momentum from reaction to the Robinson case could help propel response team network initiatives, such as proposed, regular mental health screenings of police officers.

Rearick says increasing white engagement in a cause championed by the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition involves a process.  "It can be hard for people to know what their appropriate role is,"  Rearick says..  Schaefer says it's important for majority community members to support the framework of activism of the Coalition.

African American pastor Everett Mitchell says there are perceptions to overcome in building a cross cultural response to the Madison area's racial struggles.  Wednesday's protest march from Williamson Street to the Dane County courthouse in the wake of the Robinson decision involved some activists carrying signs with profanity-laced criticism of police..

"My white brothers and sisters sometimes think this is anti-police, anti-community, anti-white, but it's not.  It's pro-community, it's pro-connection."