ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Church USA/Mennonite Mission Network) – Not only does Gilberto Perez, Jr. bring Jesus’ message, he uses Jesus’ methods of communication – surprise, humor, unexpected gifts, questions, and the realization “on earth as it is heaven” can begin right now where we are, through listening and sharing food.
Sept. 17, Perez walked into the Learning to Undo Racism Event (LURE) with an enormous bag of sandwiches. The quantity may not have been sufficient to feed 5,000 people, but there was certainly enough to satisfy the hunger of those in the audience of 50 staff persons, who may have forgotten their lunches.
Download full-resolution image.Perez is president and CEO of Bienvenido (Welcome) Community Solutions and senior director of Intercultural Development and Educational Partnerships at Goshen (Indiana) College. LURE seeks to encourage the six Mennonite Church agencies and organizations that share office space in Elkhart, Indiana to engage in intercultural transformation through monthly events during the noon hour. These events shed light on systemic and personal racism, present a fuller vision of what God intends the church to be, and then suggest ways to put these insights into practice.
Perez’s interactive presentation about how he encourages communication between law enforcement officers and the Latino community in northern Indiana created animated discussion during role-plays and the question-and-answer time.
Perez opened a local newspaper and read aloud the names in the police reports, a list of mostly Spanish surnames, in much higher percentage than the 33 percent Latino population in the area.
“The majority of these offenses are driving without an operator’s license. How does the arresting officer know?” Perez asked.
Responses from Mennonite staff indicated racial profiling is taking place.
Then, Perez asked, “So, what do you do?”
Perez’s response to that question was to begin talking with Wade Branson, Goshen’s police chief. Perez wanted to see the humanity of those who serve his community. Perez asked God’s Spirit to guide him in these conversations. After 18 months of building this relationship, Perez invited the police chief to lunch at a local soda shop to ask about what he was seeing in the daily newspapers.
Branson said, “How can I learn what Latinos are experiencing? What can we do to fix this?”
Branson agreed to be present at a meeting that included two Latino pastors (Assemblies of God and Mennonite), an Anglo Mennonite pastor, and a Catholic priest. This diverse group talked and listened to each other.
The clergy requested that law enforcement officers come to their congregations to explain policing protocols in Goshen. Perez submitted a proposal to the city’s Community Relations Commission for support in convening the meetings. Some meetings had more than 150 participants, including the county sheriff and Goshen’s mayor.
Latinos talked about how they felt targeted, and law enforcement officers shared their policing process. They learned from each other. Perez also learned about how to make the communication process more helpful.
“We started with the panel concept, but that was too much us versus them,” Perez said. “We moved the conversation to small circle groups.”
After a year of talking together, the language of many Latino participants had shifted slightly to indicate they now saw themselves having more ownership in the community.
“Latinos were now asking questions about services the city offers, and talking about how they experience life in their neighborhoods,” Perez said.
A Latino man confessed that he had failed by not praying enough for police officers. Before the meeting ended, the law enforcement officers were invited to the center of the circle and participants prayed for them with outstretched hands.
“It was just a little transformation; I don’t want to make it sound more impressive than it was,” Perez said. “Nothing magical happened. But the [law enforcement] practice has changed, and there is an openness to sit and talk. It all starts with relationship.”
In a recent community presentation, Police Chief Branson said that more Latinos are coming to report crimes and ask questions.
“We didn’t see too much of this before our meetings with Latino congregations,” Branson said.
Perez concluded by extending an urgent invitation to the Mennonite Offices staff to create an environment where such break-through moments can occur, to stand on a threshold that enables understanding of both sides of a situation and embraces diversity to create a new community.
“And, now, I press you as my people, to invite the sheriff to break bread and enter the liminal space, where the things are seen differently. So often we Anabaptists don’t come with questions, but only our passion,” Perez said.
Perez, Branson and Goshen’s mayor, Allan Kauffman, took their message of relationship-building and reconciliation to the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns on Sept. 30. Here, they offered their story of creating space for community conversations to their fellow Indiana mayors and city council members.
