McCurtain County scandal spotlights need for local watchdog journalism
What’s become a hot vacation destination, especially for Oklahomans and people from Texas and Arkansas, this week became the latest pox for Oklahoma on the national stage. Thanks to what’s been described as hate speech and an alleged death threat captured in a recorded conversation with McCurtain County officials.
In 2023, more than 60 years after the Civil Rights Movement, conversations with anyone longing for the days when they could take someone who is Black down to a creek and hang them is shocking — but shouldn't surprise us. Not that it’s indicative of southeast Oklahoma. Lots of folks in McCurtain County don't want that kind of association for their blooming vacation mecca. Area residents showed up to protest the callous racist comments and demand the county officials’ and sheriff’s resignations. At some point, the incident probably will be explained away as just a joke.
It’s not funny.
If you're dismissing the McCurtain County story as symptomatic of the rural folks, you're wrong. Such conversations may be happening all around us by those who feel that people of color and marginalized groups have become too loud and are having too much sway in community affairs. Emboldened by rhetoric from the halls of power and people who hold leadership positions, old tropes have emerged from a segment of society that still believes minorities should know their place. These are the same people who are quick to blame the media for inflaming an issue when ugly and evil deeds and intentions are brought to light.
More: McCurtain County community in turmoil after sheriff, commission accused of hateful speech
Exposing the conversation among the McCurtain County officials spotlights local journalism's responsibility as the watchdog of those whose livelihood depends on taxpayers' money, whether at the state Capitol or in a rural county. Often, it's local journalists who unearth corruption and misdeeds in their communities. Their work is based on documented or verified facts, not conjecture.
The tiny McCurtain Gazette-News, circulation of about 4,000, doesn't even have a website, but the other 200 or so newspapers in the state can help amplify news of the bigoted mindset and alleged threat to deny a journalist from doing his job. The Willingham family has owned the Gazette and the Broken Bow News since 1988. Like those of us who feel like there’s ink in our blood, it’s a good guess they’re not easily intimidated.
We're not returning to a time when people were afraid to speak up. Too many already paid the ultimate price to prevent the muzzling of communities in this country ― on U.S. battlefields and since the civil rights era. But since then, too many of us have remained silent in the wake of blatant and persistent racist language from those in authority.
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Gov. Kevin Stitt promptly called on the McCurtain County officials to resign. Frankly, that was refreshing. But he needs to also call out those who use racist tropes in his own government. As leader of the state, a presumed tolerance for bigotry would fall at his doorstep. The Oklahoma Sheriffs' Association also stepped up and suspended three McCurtain County officials "for good and sufficient cause." But the organization needs to do more to determine whether the known actions of a few is symptomatic in its ranks.
Oklahoma already has a heavy lift to reverse poor socioeconomic standings from health care to incarceration, education to women's well-being, kids going hungry and the persistent problem of homelessness. Throw in racist officials and the news is even more embarrassing, an impediment to the plan to become a “top 10 state.”
This is 2023, and the nonsense about people feeling that they're better than others because of skin color, wealth, gender, religion or the power they wield needs to be uprooted. If those in authority can't lead with integrity, we must demand change or vote them out.
Clytie Bunyan is managing editor for diversity, community engagement & opinion.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Demand change: McCurtain County latest pox for state on national stage
