Racial & Economic Justice

This fall, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen will appoint a committee to make recommendations on ways to make daycares and preschools more numerous and more affordable in Carrboro. If you would like to join the Childcare Study Committee, please email Carrboro Town Clerk Sarah Williamson at SWilliamson@ci.carrboro.nc.us - she can send you an application.

The Board is looking at this issue because of the squeeze that inadequate (and inadequately affordable) childcare puts on working families in our community. Single parents in particular have a had time being able to afford childcare. In our lower income neighborhood this means that some single parents must stay home and be dependent on governmental programs. While these are the people for whom such programs exist, the entire family might be better off if their toddlers were able to be in preschool while their mother/father is at work.

The committee will look at how zoning rules limit childcare and whether there are ways for the town to make childcare more accessible for its employees and for Carrboro residents in general.

If you don't know me that well, you might be surprised to learn that I am one of the happiest people in town to witness the long-awaited opening of the free-standing Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at UNC. It's future existence was the primary purpose of my day-to-day existence during my last two years of college. As a member of the Student Coalition for a Free-Standing Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center, I organized marches, spoke at rallies, met with administrators, slept in South Building, and wrote flyers, press releases, and site analysis reports. I dedicated myself to helping the University community understand the compelling need for this institution.

Guest Post by Graig Meyer

In the recent WCHL forum on education, an unidentified caller ($50 says it was Gloria Faley) chimed in at the last minute to challenge the notion that we live in a "diverse" community.

Initially I thought "right on" when she pointed out that our town's population is overwhelmingly white and affluent. But then I thought, "Hey, one of the reasons we moved here was for the diversity."

Are we diverse or not?

If you go by population numbers, we're not as diverse as Durham but we're more diverse than many other NC towns. What really bothers me is that people from different cultural groups don't really seem to know one another. Do many members of our white, affluent population maintain friendships with many Latino immigrants or African-Americans who live in Northside.

If we were truly diverse, wouldn't we know each other better and talk a little more?

Graig Meyer coordinates the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate Program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System.