G.K. Fimbel: We have to teach real history, even though it may be painful – Asheboro Courier Tribune

Fimbel moved here in 2007. She has been a vocal advocate for measures to end de facto school segregation.

WILMINGTON -- More than a century after the 1898 Massacre, during which a mob of white supremacists overthrew the biracial government and murdered dozens (perhaps more) of Black residents, some argue the Black community has never fully recovered from the damage it did and the inequality it enshrined in Wilmingtons way of life -- inequality that they say remains in the DNA of the citys institutions and culture.

G.K. Fimbel Fimbel moved here with her family from the Washington, D.C., area in 2007. She has children in New Hanover County Schools and has been a vocal advocate for measures to end de facto school segregation.

This is what she had to say about where things currently stand for Black residents in Wilmington, and what needs to happen to make Wilmington more inclusive.

What are your thoughts about the current state of Black people living in Wilmington?

The African-American community here is an incredibly tenacious, resilient, resourceful group of people. They have endured generational trauma and violent assaults on their dignity since before 1898 and many years after.

The other way to answer that question speaks to the past and present conditions that our country and community have imposed upon African-Americans. Are they given access to true equality? How has our city reckoned with violent crimes and transgressions against them? How are we restoring what is broken? Unfortunately, I think the answer to those questions is that we have not done enough to usher in justice and restoration.

Over the past 25 years, Wilmington's population has grown and overall prosperity has increased. How have Black residents fared during that time?

Ask the child still plagued to live in substandard housing even though their parent is working a 40-hour a week job at minimum wage. Ask the child whose closest park is poorly maintained and whose facilities are denigrating. Ask the child who is criminalized and arrested at school. Ask the child in fourth grade why she was asked to role-play slavery, including shackles and punishment, in a classroom full of white peers. Ask the hundreds of children who are disproportionately suspended at higher rates for the same behaviors as white children. All of these children, and more, could answer this question much better than I could. My privilege, including the color of my skin, shields me from many of these things.

As a white person, what do you sense has gotten worse for African Americans here?

It has always been bad for Black people as well as other people of color in America, so I can't say that anything has gotten worse. White supremacy is a gas that runs through different engines but continues to fuel racism. There has been a movement in Wilmington, thankfully, exposing the 1898 coup. But it was certainly not the singular act of violence against Black people in our country or city. I recently heard that white people are lucky that Black people are seeking justice and not revenge, and it resonated with me. The violence that white people have committed against Black people in this country is long and harsh.

What has gotten better?

I am hopeful that our honesty about racial injustice will propel us to a better way. Speaking truth is always powerful, and we need a complete transformation in this area. I should not have been in my 30s, learning the truth about Christopher Columbus for the first time. We have to teach real history, even though it may be painful. Black history is so much more than a story of struggle; Black history is a story of resistance, overcoming, and thriving in the face of brutal odds. We need to tell those stories. We also need to tell stories about the white people who stood with them in the fight for freedom. They did exist, and we have to stop absolving white people from responsibility because "it was just the time they lived in." That's bologna. I have ancestors who enslaved other human beings, but I also have ancestors who fought against it and broke ties with our family because of it.

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[Editors note: To read what others had to say about whether Wilmington can again become a place for Black opportunity, click here.]

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Reporter Scott Nunn can be reached at 910-343-2272 or Scott.Nunn@StarNewsOnline.com.