TO THE EDITOR:
Chapel Hill is ripe with icon. And like fruit requires proper cultivation, planning and timely harvesting, so icons need iconoclasts to shed light upon intentional and unintentional, systemic marginalization of people.
I am a 38-year-old male minority who has lived in Chapel Hill now since 2008 with my minority status wife of 14 years and three children ages 11, eight and four. We moved here expecting a better life of culturally rich experiences, social equity and opportunity for us and our children.
When I began working for one of the largest corporations headquartered in North Carolina, I was shocked at the experience and observation of a white male dominated, hostile workplace. With a house pending sale and a job I could not sustain because I lacked the resources and tools to navigate the lending crisis, we were caught in the perfect storm. We went from a six-figure income as homeowners to unemployed and on welfare.
After more struggle I have eventually carved out a high degree of success. But now, due to the job losses and periods of unemployment we are financially set back many years as we chose not to file bankruptcy or foreclosure and instead burned through retirement and credit.
As a result, I have not found the type of respect I have gained in the workplace living in Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill respects and rewards the wealthy, the intellectually renowned and the more superficial constructs which uphold the sacred institution. We are renters and that carries a stigma.
I wonder how much respect I should wield for overcoming our destitute situation. I wonder if socially, people will continue to assume that my Korean wife and I will not have anything in common with them, though we grew up in caucasian households and I am half caucasian. I wonder if they will be mature enough as my neighbors who are in their 80s now to have a dialogue about these matters of importance. I wonder if North Carolina will remain narrow-minded enough to put young children who are adopted by gay and lesbian couples at risk by prejudiced driven health care policies.
Many of the icons and pillars in our little town need to be driven out of our town. The town that belongs to the people who are here with intent to make it a place of social justice and equity regardless. A place where being a neighbor means getting to know your neighbor so you know how to love them. A place where community means unity in diversity that we are all willing to make a bit more effort to repair.
Jason Gayton
