Archive - Story Saturday – Keith - November 5th, 2017

This post was originally made November 5th of 2017 on our original wordpress.

We have the second installment of Story Saturday!

We believe stories matter. Putting a name or a face to a story brings it home. Knowing lots of people have experiences different from yours, in your very own town makes a difference.  If we don’t share our experiences, we cannot learn from others.

So, this week, we’d like to introduce Mr. Keith Williams. We met Keith through the planning of the recent worship service, Unity in Diversity. He felt moved to make a difference after the Vigil and got the ball rolling.

Keith, outside Metropolitan Coffee.

Keith is originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He is single and has a daughter, though she is living in California. After graduating from college in his home state, work took him to Missouri and eventually to Kansas. He’s been in Kansas since 2012, Hutchinson, since 2014. He is the District Conservationist for The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), in the Agency of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. 

Isn’t that crazy cool? We feel pretty honored to have been able to snag him for this interview!

Alright, let’s get to the questions.

So, A little bit from where you grew up. Were you always in Pine Bluff? Did you like growing up there?

Yeah, yeah, I loved it.  You know we have no choice where we grow up – Where we were born – Where we live… It was not a big city, When I was growing up it was 70,000 plus. As I go back now, from year to year, the population is declining. Um, so maybe 49, 48,000 versus, from what I was used to, growing up. a lot of the decline in population is some of the white community moving out into like the suburbs areas. But actually, the high school that I went to was a diverse high school, and when i go back, I see no white students now, just all black. I wasn’t used to that, I mean, that was shocking to me. Sad.

It’s the changing of the times. It’s almost sad for me just to go back home. It’s not the Pine Bluff the I knew growing up. So when I go visit – my mom is still living, so I go to visit her and my 96-year-old grand-mama,  I go and check on her, but – I’m two or three days, and I’m out. I mean, Most people go home, they wanna stay at least for a week. Two or three days, and I’m coming back. It’s sad.

A photo of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

So, what was your favorite thing about the community you grew up in? What do you like most about Pine Bluff?

What I liked most about Pine Bluff, it was, it was just so, fun, that we had good friends -white, black. we had neighbors that were a different color than I was. We didn’t look at color. Where I grew up at, right across the street was a vacant house. And they had a big. back yard. So that was our NFL. Chris Anderson, and George and we can all come over, and just – just meet there and play ball.

Three blocks away we had a forest that connected the streets. so we’d play in it and we’d play army, just, oh it was amazing. When you look at, when it comes to color, race, it was no factor. Chris Anderson was a redhead and a white guy, I was a skinny black kid. He was my friend.

I’d go inside his house, and whatever his mama was cooking for lunch or whatever – for suppertime- I ate. He could come over to our house, Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or bologna sandwich and Grape Kool-Aid, he had it too.

So, I just- I just miss that diversity, the warmness, that home town feeling. I miss it. So that’s one of the things I loved about Pine Bluff, growing up with kids from elementary school and graduating with them in my high school class and I’m still staying in contact with them today.

One thing I find, I graduated high school with maybe 400+ students. So when we have class reunions, it’s now, all the blacks get together. and the whites do their own thing. Now, why they do their own thing, we never found out. One year, we had a high school reunion, and then found out they were having a white students’ high school reunion at the country club.

So we went over to where they were. “What happened?”

And it was hurtful, I don’t understand. I mean, if they don’t wanna, that’s fine. I’m not going to push you. But what happened? It changed from graduation night at what point? We went different directions, we went to college, we went to the army, we went to whatever- had a family.

Do you think it’s due to just people not integrating diversity into their daily lives and becoming uncomfortable with people who don’t look like them?

I think that has a part to do with it. Some moved away.. Maybe they don’t live in a neighborhood where there’s diversity. And they had diversity growing up in the small home town, where they interacted with people of other races, and now they get out on their own, and they’re just like, “I’ll just stick to myself. I’m gonna be the Joneses. I’m not gonna worry about the Browns or the Smiths.” It’s sad. We only had one student at the high school reunion, that came, that interacted with everybody. and it was more than her, that was part of that class.

So, you came to Hutchinson in 2014, what’s the biggest change that you’d like to see in Hutch?

What I’d like to see in Hutch, is more unity. I’d like to see more togetherness. This type of setting. You know, Miriam’s background, my background, your (Rebecca’s) background. That’s three different backgrounds here. Let’s see more of that. More community involvement for everybody. You know, Hutch is just not a town for white people. Hutch is just not a town for black people, Hispanic people, Asian people. Hutch is a town for everybody. So If I could see- It would be my dream just to see, You know more unity, of all the races that live in this community. That would be one goal I really would like to see. I think the Unity Service was a kick-start; it was a fire-starter. It helped ignite the spark. But there’s more to come. I mean, Sunday mornings are some of the most segregated hours in our country.

You know – you need conversation. you need open communication and dialogue. When I met Rebecca, we communicated – She didn’t know me, I didn’t know her. I met her on Facebook. I sent her a message on Facebook. We met here at Metro one Friday evening, we got together and I’m like, hey, this is my sister in Christ. I’m her brother in Christ. You know, new friendship established.

Rebecca: I think that’s what people don’t understand who kind of just operate in different spheres with race and culture. Is how easy it is to make connections. You have so much more in common that you don’t.

And it’s so simple, it’s just a simple hello. “I’m Such and Such, you’re Such and Such. Facebook is good avenue for meeting people of different races and trying to open the dialogue. So I’m grateful for Facebook, cause if it wasn’t for Facebook I wouldn’t be sitting here today, because I wouldn’t have met with Becca, individually. The candlelight vigil, that was that was the stepping stone. That’s what did it. That night, that Friday evening at Pyle Park. I was inspired.

So, is there anything that you’ve seen in Hutch that really speaks to you that you really like about Hutch?

Now you got to realize I’m from the south. So Hutch, Kansas is considered the Midwest and it is …growing on me. Because when I thought Kansas, I thought, like, Dorothy and Toto. I thought Kansas was just flat. I mean there’s parts of Kansas that has rolling hills and you go out to the flint hills, it’s like “this is not flat at all!” So that’s my perception coming in from Missouri. Like, man,I was wrong all these years. Kansas was really diverse. You know, from agriculture, from industry. What I like about Hutch, mainly, I guess, is the job opportunities for people. You have Tyson’s, you have the hospital, you have USD 308.

Though, that could be better. USD 308 could do more recruiting for minority Teachers. Because we know they’re out there. What are they doing to entice them to come to Hutchinson, Kansas.

You got the minority students, but where are the minority teachers? Where are the minority principals? Superintendents. Who are you looking at to put in applications? Are you looking for a minority, or are you looking to keep going down the same roads that you’ve been looking at for all these years?

But Kansas, it grows you.

Blue False Indigo dots the Flint Hills of Kansas.

Now, this may seem silly, but most people want to be kind of aware and sensitive to cultural norms. So, is African-American or is Black the better term to you?

To me, I’ve been black all my life.  Now, when you fill out a resume, or a questionnaire, you know it’s actually, are you African-American/Black? I’m Black. I’ve been Black all my life. So black is more – I’m comfortable more with Black. Please, African-American? African – I’ve never been to Africa. I was born in America, as a Black American.

Miriam: Interesting. I would not have thought of it like that. My father always taught me you don’t refer to someone by the color of their skin. You refer to them by their heritage or ethnicity. So he taught me to say African-Americans. And I was always taught to say Caucasian, not White.

Rebecca: I can see though where it would make – It kind of infers that you are apart, other.

Miriam: It’s the same thing I was talking about, with asking about my heritage not where I’m from, because it makes me feel like I don’t belong here. It makes so much sense, now.

Rebecca: And saying African-American makes it sound like You’re not quite American.

Yeah, because, you think, African is the first word. Well, I’ve never been to Africa, I wasn’t born in Africa. I’m an American. I was born in America as Black American. So I’m comfortable with Black.

That is so interesting. Thank you. So was there a certain point in childhood or through your life that you were made to feel different, when you really noticed the racial divide?

Probably not growing up in Pine Bluff, but as I got older and went to college in Arkansas, Fayetteville. I saw it. I saw the shyness, I saw the “Ooh, should I talk to him? Should I sit next to him in Psychology 101?”

You know, it’s interesting you asked that question. When I came to South Hutch, there was a lady there who worked there as a district manager. She was an older lady. She didn’t know me from Adam. And I was still in Abilene. But she found out that I got the position. She found out I was Black. She had a, you could almost say a nervous breakdown, so to speak. “He’s black? A black man for this position? We’ve always had white boys for this position! But he’s black?!” So when I found out prior to me coming here on the first day, I knew I had, well it wasn’t gonna be a challenge for me, cause I was all right. It was gonna be a challenge for her more than anybody. You know, hey, I’m supervising you.

But I didn’t go in like, “Okay, I’m gonna get her, I’m gonna just beat on her because I know she has these racial tendencies.” I treated her with kindness. I’d always get to work early, and she would be there. I’d tell her, “Good morning, how you doing?”  So I treated her with kindness. Always knowing, you know how she thinks. I stayed on her and made sure she was doing what she was supposed to do, but always respecting her like a human being. But always mindful, I know how she feels about me. She’s not gonna show it openly since I’m in the office with her now. You know, versus when I was in Abilene prior to me coming, then she was wide open.

So I treated with kindness and respect, but always knowing in the back of my mind how she feels. But, come in this office, all your thoughts about me, you leave them in your car. 7:30, you got a job to do. When you get go to your car at 4:01 or 4:05pm you can think how you want. But this is a government building, and this is how we’re gonna behave ourselves.

Does that feel empowering to you or is it a sort of drag, of weight on you, like psychologically? 

No no no no no. Not on me. It didn’t feel a weight on me. Because I didn’t have a problem. I was comfortable where I was. I was comfortable because I’ve been working around white people, my whole career. People who were supervisors or higher positions than I was, I didn’t have a problem with that. So now with me coming in as supervisor, if anybody had a problem with it, it was gonna be her. And she wasn’t gonna tell me what to do. I was always in charge. But respectfully, being a supervisor, making sure that she had an understanding of what the USDA concept is. We are a team. There is no I in team. Just because I sit in this office and I make the higher salary doesn’t mean that I’m better than you, you know. We are a team. So do your job, I’ll do mine, we’re gonna get along just fine.

Fortunately she retired within the year. It was a blessing in disguise. Because you know when you know how a person feels, about, not particularly me, but about your race, you know, you handle them with a long-handled spoon. Treat them with kindness, like I said, and respect, but always know in the back of your mind, that this is her perception, and she’s entitled to her position, and her opinion. But at the end of the day, you know, she might not like me, but she had better at least like me 7-430.

Rebecca: That is a fabulous perspective. I think that I need to implement that in my life. 

What is the one thing you wish people knew or you wish people act differently in the way they interact with you?

Just to feel that – they can know that I’m an approachable person. I don’t have a stigma, I don’t have an S on my chest. I’m not superman, I’m a human, I have flaws, but I’m approachable. I’m a like-able person. I have a great personality.

I’ll be your best friend, if you want me to. I think my personality wins me over with people. You know, I don’t get mad at every little thing, life is too short for that. I’m here to live life to the fullest, the best that I can. To treat people right, and make sure I’m treated right. And, hey, lets just have fun with this thing called life.

Do you feel that being a black man, that people see you as a threat sometimes?

No. I don’t see it as a threat if I go into Dillon’s grocery store and am on the same aisle with a white man.

What gets me about Hutch when I first got here, was I could see a black couple, a black female, a black male, and I’d speak, and they’ll turn the other way. And I said, “somethings wrong.” It happens quite often. They just don’t wanna interact. So you know I’m me. Okay, that’s on them. I’m gonna go about my business. But when I go again, to Walmart or to the grocery store, and I see a couple. This happened about a couple of weeks ago, I saw a couple, you know, and attractive couple. a young man, and his wife, they had a son about the age of Liam (Rebecca’s son who was currently tossing his snack container merrily about). And I said, I’m gonna make sure I go down their aisle, I’m gonna make sure they speak to me. And I got there, they was looking at the shelves, they was focused, You know my way, but when I got close to them, smile, wave, they [turned away] So, being from Arkansas, and being an old cat, so to speak, I went past them, and I turned back around, “Hey, how y’all doin’? I’m Keith.” “Oh!” Then they open up. How come you couldn’t open up when you first saw me? People got walls up.

All right. Going a little bit of a different direction. What’s your favorite thing to do and why? 

In life?

Miriam: Yeah, just in life, what’s your very favorite thing to do.

I like play golf as a hobby. I’m not Tiger Woods, but on my way. That’s my number one hobby, I’m on my way, I promise you.

I like to travel, I travel with work. but personally, I like to travel, and I like to read a lot too. I just, I’m not in front to the TV all the time. When I am in front of the TV I’m watching documentaries. I just watched a documentary on PBS with Ken Burns, on the Vietnam War. Oh my god, eye opener, eye opener, Oh my god. So, yeah, I read a lot .

What do you like to read?

Suspense books, I like suspense movies, suspense books. you know I like stuff that makes you think. Who did it? Oh, she didn’t do it, he did it. And I read the bible, I study. Always wanna have a foundation and focus to make sure that I got this in my mind, so I can get it in my heart. So I’m making sure that i’m trying to be Christ-like. Got faults. Made a lot of mistakes in life. Got some failures, got flaws. But I’m just trying to be Christ-like.

Is there a question that I should have asked you that I haven’t asked yet. Is there anything else that we should know?

Hmm, What is my vision for Hutchinson? For while I’m in Hutchinson, Ks. My vision is to continue to partner with you (Miriam) and Rebecca, Hutch In Harmony. To continue to bring dialogue, bring people to the table, that don’t look like me, that don’t look like Rebecca, that don’t look like you, Miriam. And just have an open discussion of how can we make Hutchinson, Ks, better?

Keith, thank you so much for spending some time with us, this Saturday! It was a joy and an honor!