Special to the DM
A community workshop, Together Oxford, will be held tonight to allow the university and Oxford community to talk about today’s political climate and share their different perspectives on race and violence and other difficult topics.
Tony Caldwell and Jandel Crutchfield with the Ole Miss Department of Social Work will moderate the event from 6-7:30 p.m. Monday at Paris-Yates Chapel.
Caldwell and Crutchfield are professors of social work at the university’s Tupelo campus. The two first held Together Tupelo after the 2016 fatal shooting of unarmed local man, Antwun “Ronnie” Shumpert.
In June 2016, Shumpert was shot by officer Tyler Cook and transported to North Mississippi Medical Center where he died the next day at age 37. The grand jury cleared Cook of all charges.
After this and other police shootings across the country, Caldwell and Crutchfield took it upon themselves to continue the conversation.
“We wanted to bring the community together dealing with these issues,” Crutchfield said. “We are trying to embody social work values by leading this discussion.”
Together Oxford is a follow-up event to Together Tupelo. Both workshops aim to get communities talking about what was going on with police brutality nationwide and in their hometown.
Together Oxford is designed to include all walks of life, from students to other social workers.
Jennifer Buford, clinical instructor of social work at Ole Miss, said what the people in her department are doing is much needed.
“I was very pleased to hear that they are doing something like this in conjunction with the political climate,” Buford said. “I was excited to see the social work faculty stepping up, it is a need for the community.”
Buford has been with the university for five years and said she has personally experienced racial issues being a woman of color. She said she is optimistic about what the social work department is doing to address and react to issues like this.
“I think that it is important that the voice of the people, especially minorities, are being heard,” Buford said. “We get an opportunity to express opinions, speak freely and advocate for rights as students and citizens… We all have an obligation to support that process.”
Crutchfield said the Together Oxford workshop will focus on participants comparing their views with others, because she believes it is important to see different perspectives in order to have a better understanding of issues.
“We want to research the cultural confidence and how to work better with clients dealing with race and color,” Crutchfield said.
