Vienna Panel Of Workers, Residents Describes Black Experience

VIENNA, VA — A panel held by Town Manager Mercury Payton Tuesday night started a conversation on the Black experience in Vienna. Several Town of Vienna workers and residents who are Black participated in the discussion.

Mercury, who has been town manager since 2011, started his On Deck with Mercury series this year to discuss topics impacting the town. Previous topics have included the response to the coronavirus, the May town election, and construction around Interstate 66.

Tuesday's panel included Payton; John Wooden, a retired worker with Vienna's Parks and Recreation Department; Charles Lewis, who works in information technology for the Town of Vienna; Tony Thomas, an employee at James Madison High School and former police officer; and Wayne Walker, a sanitation supervisor with the Town of Vienna. The moderator was Vienna's communications and marketing manager Lynne Coan.

The discussion started with a lightning round of questions about the Black experience. Participants were asked to raise their hand if they've experienced the situation.

These were the responses:

• All five panelists raised hands felt they needed to go above to get a job, spot on a team or another opportunity.
• All five indicated someone used the n-word to their face.
• All five indicated they've confronted people for racism.
• Three said there were times they avoided confronting someone for racism or discrimination.
• All agreed that racism and discrimination is more subtle in the modern day.
• Four believe their safety was threatened because of their skin color.
• Three believe they've been racially profiled by police.
• No one has family members injured in a racially-related incident.
• All five were more optimistic about how race and discrimination are being addressed in the modern day.

Panelists went on to answer questions about their experiences with racism or discrimination, as well as ways to move forward.

Payton recalled the time when being Black in America first resonated with him. Growing up in Prince William County, he didn't really think about race until an experience trying out for the high school baseball team. In two years of tryouts, he got through the first and second cuts, but then the coach added one more cut. Both times, he was the only one cut and the only Black person.

He recalls a friend refused to play unless Payton was on the team. Soon the team found a place for Payton on the team and in the starting lineup.

"That experience made me bitter," he said. "It seemed like a small thing. It's just baseball, but to a high school kid who looks at people not through racial lenses, it forced me to look at people through racial lenses."

Even though the situation was a difficult lesson, he was encouraged by the white friend standing up for him.

Growing up in Vienna, Thomas said he's experienced racism from parents rather than their kids. When he played football, he noticed parents cheering him on but wouldn't allow him at their houses.

"The same kids that I played football with was the same kids that tried to help me resolve problems when there was a racial problem at high school," said Thomas.

Lewis said he grew up in a military family, and in most places they were one of a few Black families in the neighborhood.

"I felt that from a very early age and kind of realized or kind of noticed trends in certain types of people," he said. "Not blanketing everyone in the same slate, but it puts you in the mind frame that you have to be better than everyone else."

Lewis questioned whether his job applications are treated differently when identifying his race as Black. A few times, he wondered if he'd have to go above other candidates to prove he's worthy of the job. But he says working for the Town of Vienna is the first time he didn't feel that way.

When Wooden started working for the town in the 1970s, he questioned whether he was part of a quota due to the lack of Black employees in office positions. Today, he sees "subtle racism" as an ongoing problem. For example, he questions how people would perceive him wearing a face mask walking into a bank.

"There [is] so much subtle racism that goes on and no one addresses it, that we don't understand how much that really hurts and how much that takes the Black people and put them on the defensive every time they walk into a store or go to a bank," Wooden said.

On the path forward, panelists want to see better communication and reforms.

"Conversations need to happen," said Lewis. "They're going to be super uncomfortable, very, very uncomfortable, but they need to happen. They need to happen with both sides, there needs to be mutual respect for the person that you're talking to and the conversation just needs to start."

Walker believes people shouldn't be afraid to ask uncomfortable questions, whether they involve race or not.

"The more things you ask, the better you understand me, and I can understand you, and you can understand I'm human just like everybody else," he said.

Along the same lines, Thomas said, "My perception is my world. So the way that I judge things, you may not like it, you may not understand it, but if you ask me why I'm looking at something that way, if I could explain it to you, communication, then you'll see it from another standpoint. Me being Black, you being white, I'm pretty sure we can walk down the same line, and come back and talk about it, and we're going to have two different stories."

In a question and answer session with the audience, residents asked about how to improve diversity. Black residents make up an estimated 3 percent of Vienna's population.

Lewis believes the cost of living is a major factor. He believes there is no mid-range priced housing, even townhouses.

"You can't bring someone into Vienna, because Vienna costs way too much money in general. There's nothing you can do about it, unless you build houses or do some type of housing where you can bring people who make that lower type of income or even middle income and be able to be part of the town."

Payton, whose cousin is incarcerated and two other cousins have been murdered, sees the need for criminal justice reform with a focus on non-violent offenders.

"I'm not saying we empty the jails or anything like that, but we've got a problem in our society where we have so many people who they're serving a lot of time in jail. And that breaks my heart," he said. "I wish there were a solution where on the front end, before they even get into the cycle of ending up there, that there were some opportunity or at least an encouragement where they'd have a venue to be productive."

On a positive note to wrap up the discussion, Payton said Vienna Town Council has treated him like a normal town manager, not a Black town manager.

He added, "The council has given me the opportunity to be vulnerable in front of you. Sharing these things are not comfortable. It makes me think about things that sometimes have been buried and I've moved on."

Tuesday's discussion was the first in a series discussing racism and law enforcement. The Aug. 11 discussion will focus on law enforcement and use of force, and a wrap-up conversation on these topics will happen on Sept. 8.

The full Tuesday panel discussion is available on the Town of Vienna's YouTube channel.