Community Conversation on Prejudice, Hatred and Healing Thursday, May 23, in COCC’s Wille Hall Campus Center

A Conversation on Prejudice, Hatred and Healing will be held at 3:15pmin the Wille Hall Campus Center at Central Oregon Community College, 2600 NW College Way. The conversation, sponsored by several local organizations, has been organized in the wake of the arson attack on Trinity Episcopal Church in early March. The fires were set just a few hours after an immigrant rights march through downtown Bend to the church was met with racially charged insults and epithets.

Event organizers understand we may never know who set the fires or why.  But, they say, “We see these fires as a wake-up call and reminder that Central Oregon does have bias, hatred, and perhaps even hated crimes in its midst. Communities can heal and reduce prejudice by getting together to talk and really listen to each other, by working until we find shared solutions that benefit us all.”

Organizers of the event stress that it will be a conversation, not a lecture, that is free and open to all. They view the forum as a great opportunity to discuss local application of the topics in the COCC Multicultural Center’s ongoing series of conversations on racism and other injustices.

In advance of college events, persons needing accommodations or transportation because of physical mobility disability, can contact Joe Viola at 541-383-7775. For accommodation because of other disability such as hearing impairment, contact Annie Walker at 541-383-7743.

Co-sponsoring organizations include Rural Organizing Project, CAUSA Central Oregon, COCC Multicultural Center, Peace and Justice Team of the First Presbyterian Church/Bend, Central Oregon Jobs with Justice, Immigrant Family Advocates, Interfaith Network of Central Oregon, Human Dignity Coalition, Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Advisory Team, and the COCC Latino Club.