Prosper resident Shanna Csikortos said she helped organize a second protest suggested by her 16-year-old daughter and her friends in Prosper and Frisco ISD schools.
“She found herself in tears because she didn’t feel like she had an outlet,” Csikortos said of her daughter. “She didn’t feel like she had a voice.”
Csikortos said about 1,000 people attended the June 6 "We Can't Breathe Peaceful Protest and March" that started at Warren Sports Complex and continued down Preston Road in part to honor Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
Csikortos also sought to amplify her daughter’s voice, she said.
“To change what prior generations did, that burden falls on me as her mother because our job is to leave our child a world better than we inherited,” Csikortos said. “Change will never come unless people in the community care. It’s a community effort.”
Local business owner and 14-year Frisco resident Karen White had a message for the June 6 crowd centered on understanding racial bias.
“It’s really about challenging your own assumptions and perception and stereotypes about, really, all races, including black people,” White said. “I know I’m privileged, but at the same time, I’ve been followed in department stores. My family and I have been seated in the back of a restaurant, or I’m told I don’t sound black or act black.”
White said while much of national outrage came from Floyd’s killing, conversations must address the spectrum of racism against the black community.
“While we may not be killing black people in Frisco, it’s much broader than that,” she said.
The protests are a starting point for having difficult and needed conversations about race, said Dono Pelham, senior pastor at Life-Changing Faith Christian Fellowship in Frisco.
The pastor, his wife and their children attended the June 1 peaceful protest that had an estimated 2,000 people marching along Eldorado Parkway to call attention to racism and social justice.
“A wound oftentimes needs to be opened in order to heal,” Pelham said. “There needs to be conversation. Uncomfortable truths need to come forward, and I think in a beautiful way, this march has begun that.”
Angelia Pelham, CEO of Real-Talk Executive Coaching & Mentoring, said a strategic dialogue with city leaders is Frisco’s next step.
“Probably the biggest challenge will be not viewing these conversations as an event, but an ongoing conversation that never really ceases,” she said.
This week, the city of Frisco announced plans for a June 15 town hall focused on race relations with Mayor Jeff Cheney and Police Chief David Shilson as part of a six-person panel.
Cheney and Shilson will also take part in a virtual town hall event hosted by the Collin County NAACP Branch #6165 on June 17.
Csikortos said she hopes the conversations that began with the protests will continue.
“We all stood in solidarity in that moment, fighting a history and righting those wrongs, bringing it out of the closet and finally having those conversations," she said. "Nothing changes until we start having dialogue.”
To participate:
The Frisco Town Hall: Community Conversation about Race Relations will be from 6-8 p.m. June 15 at Frisco City Hall at the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center, 6101 Frisco Square Blvd. People are invited to join in person, listen by phone or watch on Facebook Live at @CityofFriscoTX. The event will also be streamed live on the city's website at www.friscotexas.gov.
Collin County NAACP Virtual Town Hall: The Community Conversations virtual event will begin at 7 p.m. June 17. The event is open for the public to tune in. To get more information, visit the Collin County NAACP Facebook page or website.
