Richard Mabion, a businessman and community organizer, has a challenge for
urban minorities like him: Volunteer for two progressive organizations and
stick with them for a year.
Mabion will make that challenge during a conference he spearheaded to
encourage minority participation in progressive causes. Many of those causes
have an environmental focus — such as learning how to get off the power grid
and purchasing locally grown organic foods.
Called “Break the Silence,” the conference will be today and Saturday at the
Reardon Convention Center in downtown Kansas City, Kan. Mabion hopes to
learn why some urban minorities tend to shy from embracing causes, such as
environmentalism, that he thinks would benefit them. “We want to give
them a chance to find something that will interest them,” Mabion said.
“Before we can determine why people of color aren’t participating in these
groups, we need to have people of color participating in them to see.”
Mabion—whose business interests have taken him into insurance, janitorial
services and art dealing—attended a conference in March that illustrated how
small that participation is. The conference, in Columbus, Ohio,
featured author David C. Korten, who spoke of building grassroots support for
various progressive issues.
It was a good event, Mabion recalled, but he was one of only two
African-Americans among about 200 other attendees. "When you go
into the room and you’re the only person like you there, it affects your
comfort level,” Mabion said. “The kind of activities that go on, along with
the kind of conversations, are invariably white.”
From that moment, Mabion resolved to bring more urban minorities into a
conversation that many white middle-class Americans are having about
progressive issues. Specifically, he wanted to extend the reach of the
green movement into communities such as his own northeast Kansas City, Kan.
The result is this weekend’s conference, which will feature
organizations such as the Greens of Greater Kansas City and All Souls
Unitarian Church.
Korten, author of The Great Turning, will deliver the keynote address at 9
a.m. Saturday. About 130 people have registered. Even before
organizing the conference, Mabion has been spreading the word about farmers’
markets, food circles, alternative energy sources and organic farming and
gardening. He helped organize a farmers’ market on Quindaro Boulevard
earlier this year. He’s trying to persuade a friend, the owner of Wilson’s
Pizza & Grill on Quindaro Boulevard, to put up solar panels.
“I’d love to give it a try,” said Wilson, who was involved in the farmers’
market. And last year, Mabion urged a black organic farmer to become more
involved in a food circle in which he belongs. “The food circle people
are not used to dealing with people of color,” Mabion said. “They’re used to
servicing them. … But as far as being peers, going out and having a cup of
coffee together or a beer or inviting over to your house, that doesn’t
happen.” The conference, Mabion hopes, will lay the foundation for
creating those bonds.
The conference
“Break the Silence”
focuses on encouraging minority participation in progressive issues. It
will be from 5 to 11 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the
Reardon Convention Center, 500 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan.
Admission is $1 at the
door. For more information, call 913-342-6379.
The event is sponsored
by Building a Sustainable Earth Community Coalition, the J. Gordon
Community Development Corporation, The Martinez Law Firm, 90.1 FM KKFI,
the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and the Kansas Hispanic
and Latino Affairs Commission.
By MARK WIEBE