When it comes to matters of race, you have to be willing to cross barriers and head off into unfamiliar territory. Doing so can open doorways to understanding.

From Nov. 1-5, the territory was Georgian Court University, Lakewood, where the Sisters of Mercy, who operate the only Catholic institution of higher learning in the diocese, invited everyone in to a very compelling series of lectures and discussions on racial and cultural issues.

Their aim was to have us all “Examine Race from Multiple Perspectives” at the annual Critical Concerns Week.

Critical Concerns Week at Georgian Court has been an annual event since 2006 when the sisters decided to dedicate the first week in November to the study of one of the special concerns adopted by their order the year before. Those issues are: nonviolence; care of the environment; immigration; women’s issues and racism, past and present.

Presentations by Georgian Court faculty and guests provided insight on the complex tapestry of theological, philosophical and sociological aspects of racism. Among the programs I attended was a dynamic session by sociology professor Rumu Das Gupta on how the marginalizing aspects of racism – low pay for long work, scant or non-existent health and educational resources – have a rebound affect that impacts us all.

The session that brought it all close to home though, was a “diversity panel” on Nov. 4 reflecting the wide cultural and racial landscape not only of Lakewood, but New Jersey and beyond.

For several hours, the members of the panel each opened windows into their own life experiences explaining how they cope with the racial and cultural divides in contemporary American society.

Thanks to them, the capacity crowd in the Little Theatre got to hear first hand stories such as the one told by Victoria Ramirez, 19. Look at her now and you see a member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Red Bank, a journalist and advocate for the Latino community.

Listening to her revealed a bit of what it was like to come to the country as a member of an undocumented family and live with the stereotyping that continues even though the family has legal status now.

Ramirez offered the personal example of a history teacher accusing her of plagiarizing a paper because “a student like you is not capable of writing an essay like this.”

Panelist Sabrein Khater, a Muslim and Georgian Court senior, spoke of how life changed after Sept. 11, 2001.

In her North Jersey school and neighborhood, people became unwelcoming because her mother and sister wore h©¦abs (head coverings).

Khater spoke of coming to terms with the situation and doing her best to succeed in life, school and faith despite it. Someday, she said, when she is more comfortable with the world, she would like to wear the h©¦ab like her mother and sister but not now.

Steven Reinman, director of Lakewood’s economic development commission and a member of Lakewood’s vast Orthodox community, spoke of his father, the sole survivor of a large family lost in the Shoah, who settled in Lakewood after a life in business in New York so he could devote himself to scholarship at the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva.

Zarita Mattox opened window on a time that only vintage Ocean County residents would remember: 1978 – when Lakewood and South Toms River’s Manitou Park section were the only areas with black neighborhoods.

“You didn’t see many African-Americans in stores or as cashiers,” in mainstream Ocean County, said Mattox who had grown up in a diverse Brooklyn environment.

Over the years, she became part of the changing face of the landscape, working in the Ocean County Library system and becoming director of the Lakewood branch. There, she is part of a team that nurtures the library as a hub for the community at large, a place where often, the culturally impossible becomes reality.

Though Lakewood is so often depicted in the press as lacking in racial and cultural harmony, Mattox managed to take listeners past that stereotype where the library is concerned.

She talked about the moments when everything comes together in the library and the divides disappear. She cited the intergenerational, multi-cultural chess games that are a mainstay of library activity as but one example.

Children from the various communities sharing in the joy of a fiesta in celebration of Latino Heritage month was another example she pointed to.

Mattox said that being able to share stories, as the panel members did, is “important. I felt that the opportunity to hear individual stories from people in the community is a valuable opportunity…It enabled us to share our diversity and I think we should meet again and take it to another level. The more we understand, the more we can work together.”

Many within earshot of Mattox and the other panelists agreed.

Sharing stories may not solve all the problems and open all the doors, but it seemed like good footing on which to begin building dialogue.

I’d like to know what you think about how the format might work to expand communication in parishes and neighborhoods. E-mail [email protected] or call 609-406-7404, ext. 5509.