To promote the ideal of “no hate in our state,” The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) has been touring the state to build the “Beloved Community.” As part of the tour, the group had stopped recently at Wheels to Freedom Center for Independent Living, 24 E. Third St.

Chad Dion Lassiter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, explained that the Beloved Community was a term popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel “that calls on each of us to take responsibility for the common good.”

Truth, love and kindness, the three pillars of the civil rights and human rights movement, are important in the Beloved Community, he stated.

The PHRC has been in existence since 1955. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) allows the PHRC to do certain things, Lassiter said, in reference to protecting the rights of citizens.

“In general, Pennsylvania law prevents discrimination based on race; color; religious creed; ancestry; age; sex; national origin; familial status; disability; and on the use, handling or training of support or guide animals for disability; or retaliation,” he said.

“We know that discrimination happens in all of those spaces, but our PHRA prohibits discrimination based on those things,” he added.

The PHRC can also help file discrimination complaints in education, employment, housing-buying and selling a home- and commercial property, and public accommodation.

“Particularly when we’re looking at public accommodations: are buildings ADA accessible; are the circumference of the curbs meeting the needs; are there allotted parking; and things of that nature,” he said.

He defined the Beloved Community as “a group of residents, usually within one geographic area that work together across racial, gender and ethnic lines, through the guiding principles of unity and love for humanity,” he said.

“Love is a powerful word, hope is a powerful word and sometimes people have a hard time really having love for humanity because we’re seduced into taking sides,” he added.

Lassiter detailed all the ways people label and divide by religion, political, social and economic categories, rather than seeking to unify.

“The Beloved Community says if you’re Atheist, Agnostic, Scientologist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, come into the Beloved Community. The Beloved Community says that if you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, if you’re an Independent, or if you did not vote, come into the Beloved Community. Wherever you are-socio-economic status-come into the Beloved Community,” he said.

“But when you’re in that Beloved Community, there has to be a level of civility. We can’t talk past one another. We have to talk to one another, and we do a lot of talking past one another. We do a lot of judging one another. In the Beloved Community, we simply say, no value, no judgment,” he said.

We are who we are. We all have a form of how we’ve been racialized. We all have a form of how we’ve been socialized,” he said.

Six social justice committees operate under the umbrella of the PHRC. They assist in “intentionally building a culture of peace and understanding despite our differences, whatever our differences are, there should be no higher ideal. Whatever the differences are, we are still all human,” he said.

“No matter what our personal or our religious tenets are, I think we all have to agree that we don’t want to live in a space where people are discriminated against. Unless we believe that, hey, let’s just run random with discrimination,” he said.

Lassiter cited various ways in which people are discriminated against because of their race, religion, sexual preference or their disability. Firing someone from a job for something other than job performance; denying a student with disabilities a needed service animal; avoiding selling a home to someone because of their race or sexual orientation; and refusing to serve a customer wearing religious headgear, were some of the examples given of discrimination that PHRC addresses.

“We know that there’s aspects of our democracy that talk about America being a Judeo-Christian country, but it’s also a country where people don’t have a faith. There are Buddhists. There are people who are into Confucianism. We have people who are Jewish, whatever the case may be, nobody should be discriminated against because of religious headgear or their religiosity,” he said.

“I started earlier by saying we’ve all been socialized, we’ve all been racialized, so it’s important that we check our biases at the door. It’s important that when you go to spaces that we build trust, we build a beloved community, that we see the inherent worth and dignity of the person in front of us,” he said.

Even though the PHRC is on several social media platforms, Lassiter stressed the importance of traveling throughout the state to meet the people in order to build community.

“You have to be able to learn from people. You have to be able to look people in the eyes. You have to be able to say, you know what, we’re not here to refute the stereotypes. They’re going to be what they are. People are going to believe what they believe about white people. People are going to believe what they believe about African Americans. People are going to believe what they want to believe about LGBTQ plus people. People are going to believe what they’re going to believe about Republicans, Democrats, if you’re from a rural, urban or suburban area, but the beloved community says, ‘whatever you believe, there has to be a form of self introspection. There has to be a form of self actualization,'” he said.

“Those are just fancy words for you’ve got to look in the mirror. You’ve got to look in the mirror and say, do I want to be a person that discriminates against a person because they’re Jewish, because they’re Muslim, because they’re white, because they’re LGBTQ plus? Or do I fundamentally believe that under the law, under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, everybody has the right, and the government says it more eloquently than I do, to live, learn and operate without a form of discrimination,” he said.

He urged people to call out discrimination in their communities because “there are people that really don’t care about the humanity of people unless they look like them or they’re like them.”

He called on local leaders who have “a much keener sense of the urgent issues, needs and priorities” in their areas to speak out.

“We believe that one of the most powerful tools is, if you have been discriminated against, to file a complaint. We want to have you entrust us with whether or not it’s real, perceived or imagined. You know what your experiences are, but it’s important that you know that there is an opportunity to file a complaint, even within the framework of this beloved community,” he said. We’ve been in places where we know what some of the challenges are, but we listen to the people who tell us what the challenges are. It’s not us assuming what the challenges are,” he continued.

“I don’t want to gloss over the fact that it’s also hard, it’s also hard to speak up and speak out. It’s also hard to share with someone what you’re going through. So I don’t want to mince words and say, oh, just file a complaint. I’m saying that one of the most powerful things that you can do is to bring your form of discrimination to the PHRC, if you feel as if you’ve been discriminated against…do you feel like you have experienced illegal discrimination? Contact the PHRC offices near you,” he said.

Complaints must be filed within 180 days of the alleged harm. A dedicated trained, unbiased PHRC investigator will walk you through the process to help prepare your complaint. There are no fees, although plaintiffs do have the right to obtain legal services at their own expense, but it’s not required, he explained.