Andre Sims looked out across Decatur High School’s cafeteria, filled with members of the community.

“I want to make us uncomfortable a little bit,” he said. “At this time, right now, we’re challenged.”

African-Americans make up 13 percent of the United States population and yet 41 percent of prison inmates are African-American, he said after asking people to guess the statistics.

“Approximately 1 million who are incarcerated are African-American,” Sims said. “So we have a challenge, it’s challenging for us and we need to talk about how Dr. King would feel about it.”

Sims, a senior pastor at Christ the King Fellowship, along with Mayor Jim Ferrell, Councilwoman Lydia Assefa-Dawson and Councilman Martin Moore, among others, spoke at Federal Way’s 2015 MLK Community Festival on Martin Luther King Jr. Day about the importance of diversity and facing the challenges of “what’s next?”

The program began after a morning breakfast with music provided by St. John-Bosco Community Choir, recognition of a student who won the Diversity Commission’s art contest and a Jagusha Garinaga performance.

Sims explained the importance of opening up a dialogue about racism in community forums, symposiums and even prayer rallies.

When an African-American male stood up at a recent City Vision meeting and told a story about how a local pastor was humiliated by two police officers, Sims commended Chief Andy Hwang for issuing a public apology and saying he wanted to do what they could to improve the community relationship.

Sims also spoke with Judge David Larson about serving at-risk youth, age 18-25, and how many of them — not just African-Americans — deserve a second chance.

Yet, ensuring one out of three, or 33.3 percent, of African-American males (the current statistic) stay out of jail throughout their life is an issue that requires more.

In cases such as John Crawford’s, who was an African-American man shot in Walmart simply because he was carrying a toy gun to the cash register; Akai Gurley, an African-American who was shot in a “projects” building while police were doing a top-down search; and Eric Garner, an African-American who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold because he was supposedly selling single cigarettes illegally, Sims explained that it’s a problem that these incidents occurring but another problem all together when none of the officers are indicted for any charges.

“This is the reality of where we are in the nation,” he toldthe crowd. “Does this happen in every case? Absolutely not. Do these single cases that I mentioned all symbolize what law enforcement is about and everything that’s happened in our nation? Absolutely not. Are these cases problematic? Do we need to create some kinds of ways to have conversations about how to make changes? I think so too.”

Sims said he thinks the Martin Luther King celebration should be “what are we going to do, how are we going to change the way we see things?”

“And that’s what I’m excited about because I see people in leadership in our community talking about their willingness to have conversations at any time, at any place for as long as necessary to see our community grow together,” Sims said. “Even though we’re diverse, we can be unified.”

Sims said this is not just a white or black issue, but a “brown issue, a yellow issue and red issue. It’s a human race issue.”

Ferrell said diversity asks the question if we can do better.

“Of course the answer is yes,” Ferrell said. “Dr. King spoke of justice and equality and spoke of a future in which all Americans are judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin.”

Ferrell said as a nation, we’ve come a long way but we’re not there yet.

The challenges King faced in the Civil Rights Movement of violence and arrests differ from today’s less visible, systemic racial inequalities.

“We need courage to reach across the artificial boundaries that separate us,” he said. “Those barriers will not erase themselves. We need the courage to say the status quo is not acceptable, that we’re going to seek diversity, not just on King’s day.”

He said that courage could take the form of running for City Council or school board to share the voice of the community.

“It could be volunteering to serve on one of our fine community organizations, Advancing Leadership, the Multi-Service Center, FUSION (Friends United to Shelter the Indigent Oppressed and Needy), or serving on the city’s Diversity Commission that works so tirelessly to realize greater diversity in Federal Way. It could be as simple as reaching out across your comfort zone in school or work, or in your neighborhood, and introducing yourself to someone with different colored skin, different religions or beliefs or a different way of living their life.”

For more information or to get involved, visit the city’s Diversity Commission web page.

Photos courtesy of Bruce Honda.