We Are Bexley
Peyton Payton is a guest contributor, Bexley resident and Co-Founder of Crafted Culture Brewing Company. Peyton is also the Founder of Culture People You, a Bexley-based expose' of local events, live streams and one-on-one engagements with community members.
Find him @ facebook.com/culturepeopleyou
A grey cloud has settled in Bexley this past February after an attack on our community. For many Bexley citizens, February is a time to show pride for your culture and your traditions. It’s a time for African Americans to showcase their heritage and how they’ve overcome obstacles in American history. It’s a gathering of sorts, an invitation for us as Americans to recognize African Americans and celebrate. Instead, imagery of racism was displayed unchecked in our middle school. Whether by malice or ignorance, these images caused a ripple affect of pain, fear, rage and distrust not only towards the school system but within our community. I myself reflected and thought, Is this who we are? How will we react?
It’s always amazing how a tragic event can bring people together. In this situation, Bexley is no different. The community collectively saw an injustice and decided to take it head on. And we had a choice as a people, as a city, and as a community. The majority of us decided to fight racism and while this battle is not yet over, we have shown how fast Bexley has grown from our past failures.
This clearly marked our city. Our eyes were not blind, nor were our ears mute, to the affliction. It’s commendable when you see different walks of life coming together and fight against an injustice when not so many years ago people turned their backs on issues, situations, or circumstances that didn’t affect their demographic. In this current era of Bexley, its citizens took a stand. We stood up against this attack on our ethics. We came together as a community to support our citizens. No excuse was given for the pain that was injected into our community. Our teachers, our entrepreneurs, our businesses and our community activists stood up to block the growth of these actions.
Plans are being made to connect with African American citizens, leaders, parents and businesses of Bexley to ensure change: change that invites open and honest conversations along with action plans. We have hope to the present and to the future of Bexley. Why, you might ask? Because we are Bexley! We are the city, we are our neighbors, we are the helping hands for one another in this community. We are the shoulders that can be leaned on in a time of need. We are our brothers' keepers.