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Lunch feeds community's hunger for social discourse

Tampa Bay Roundtable serves up the first in the luncheon series. "It was a home run," said one participant.

By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
Published June 22, 2005

TAMPA - Lunch was in a church, not a country club.

Dessert was pound cake, not creme brulee.

Tuesday's inaugural Tampa Bay Roundtable luncheon paired home style cooking with candid questions as the nonprofit Roundtable, an umbrella organization of 17 groups, launched the monthly lunch series to spark more political and social discourse among black people in Tampa Bay.

Loosely fashioned after the more exclusive Tiger Bay political club luncheons, the Roundtable version at the 34th Street Church of God primarily focuses on improving black life in America by dissecting problems and successes.

As a meal of chicken with gravy, biscuits and string beans was served, 47 attendees - some of them white - asked pointed questions of editorial board writers Joseph Brown of the Tampa Tribune and Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times.

Why aren't there more black reporters on TV, one woman asked. What can the black community do when stories appear to be unfair, asked another.

Both speakers advised networking with reporters and writing letters to the editor. The black community also has to be realistic, they said.

A community's "dirty laundry" can't be aired until it's taken out of the hamper, Brown said.

Both the media and the public deal with race issues incorrectly, Deggans said. "The biggest problem we have is we don't know how to talk to each other," he said. "White folks get defensive and black folks get upset."

At a Tiger Bay Club luncheon, usually attended by a mostly white crowd of businesspeople and community leaders, the person with the best question is awarded a stuffed tiger at the end of the meeting. The Roundtable lunch didn't feature a stuffed toy, but did result in a consensus.

"It's a beginning," said Eddye Bexley, 61, of Tampa, also a Tiger Bay Club member. "I wasn't there when the Tiger Bay Club started and I'm sure they started the same way."

Lunch attendees included everyone from public relations workers to professors.

The mixture of professionals and blue collar workers was a good sign, said Gerald White, 42, of Tampa, who also sits on the Hillsborough County charter review board.

"It was a home run," said White, a former Tiger Bay member. "The questions from this group come with a whole lot more passion. It's more than a question about a public policy. Plus, this is in our community."

Speakers don't have to be black, but they should be of interest to the Roundtable's member organizations, which include the National Society of Black Engineers and 100 Black Men of Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Roundtable hosts luncheons the third Tuesday of every month. The July 19 event features Myron Hughes, vice president of economic development with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. For more information, call the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs at (813) 874-8622.

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 01:08:17]