Live Blog
Follow All-Day Coverage of BU’s Day of Collective Engagement
BU Today writers are attending the all-day sessions Wednesday for the University’s Day of Collective Engagement: Racism and Antiracism, Our Realities and Our Roles. We will be providing updates, highlights, fascinating comments, and quotes and images from throughout the day, as they happen live. And on Thursday, we will publish a full recap of the day’s conversations and takeaways.
Scroll to follow the conversation. The most recent updates are at the bottom of the article. CLICK REFRESH ON YOUR BROWSER EVERY FEW MINUTES TO SEE THE LATEST COMMENTS.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 8:40 am
In opening remarks, BU President Robert A. Brown emphasized the importance of listening – to students, faculty, staff, and alumni, before rushing to act. He said change will be difficult and it won’t always come quickly. But change will come, he stressed.
“This is a time when it’s vitally important to listen and learn,” Brown said.
Provost Jean Morrison followed Brown and said she has been part of a group of people meeting every six weeks with Crystal Williams, BU’s associate provost of diversity and inclusion, to discuss a book on race and racism. The books have included Ibram Kendi’s “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” and “Just Mercy, a Story of Justice and Redemption.”
Morrison also said she’s been releasing an annual report to the Institutional Council on Diversity that includes data on diversity.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 8:50 am
Crystal Williams, BU’s associate provost of diversity and inclusion, recounting one of the small, everyday realities of racism — the “small bit of apprehension” she always felt driving to the grocery store when she hit a rotary where there was a police station. Fearing, she said, that as a black woman she had been lucky and that some day her luck would run out.
This Tuesday, instead, the traffic circle was filled with more than 100 people, mostly white, holding signs that said Black Lives Matter, White Silence = White Violence, and No Justice No Peace. “I had to pull the car over because I was brought to tears,” she said. “This is an extraordinary moment” for confronting racism in America.
A fast-moving, wide ranging conversation on the history of racism took off after 9 am, with Ibram X. Kendi, Saida Grundy from African-American Studies, Louis Chude-Sokei from African-American Studies, and Paula Austin from the Department of History.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:02 am
Saida Grundy: “Every sociological problem has at least a 100 year history. I’ve always been very preoccupied with how our current moments begin with playbooks that began long ago historically….our history of laws, of black code of slave code, these get encoded as response to things.
“Nothing about anti-Blackness is actually organic. These got inscribed because anti-Blackness wasn’t natural.”
Saida Grundy said, “There is nothing innate about our racial hierarchy, it can be undone.”
Saida Grundy said, “Voter suppression was designed to injure Black people in our society.”
“Saida Grundy said, “We miss the scope of institutional and state racism by rolling back the enrollment of Black students in the university.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:10 am
Polling place problems in several states on Tuesday were perhaps on some panelists’ minds. “Voter suppression is an expressly anti-black form of state violence,” said Saida Grundy, assistant professor of sociology and African American studies. “Others might get caught in the tuna net with us, but it was designed to injure and disenfranchise black people in this country.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:17 am
Louis Chude-Sokei says, “A crucial part of history is forgetting. Forgetting is crucial to how history works, to how human beings work.”
Louis Chude-Sokei says, “History is crucial to how we understand how our tendency to forget things all the time…Part of understanding the broader story of how we all got here and how we’ve forgotten how we got here…So much has not been discussed and addressed and it just happens over and over.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:18 am
It’s not about taking a course in African American literature,” said Louis Chude-Sokei, CAS professor of English and chair of African American Studies. “All classes have to contend with racism and gender and sexuality.”
Chude-Sokei also spoke about the deeply personal motivations driving people around the world to join Black Lives Matters protests. “You don’t go out on the street because of abstractions. Or at least most people don’t go out on the streets because of abstractions,” Chude-Sokei said. “You go out because you feel it in the bones. You are actually afraid. And it’s that kind of fear, that intimacy of knowledge of race that we’re confronting outside in the world right now
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:20 am
“This country is really good at forgetting,” Louis Chude-Sokei. “… Knowledge of the past is not fun in America. It’s not a thing Americans enjoy.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:23 am
“Part of violence is the denial of it,” says Saida Grundy. The Confederacy’s racism was “really about mass genocide,”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:24 am
“The heartbeat of racism itself is denial,” says Ibram X. Kendi.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:26 am
Saida Grundy says, “I have a colleague who says the final act of violence is the denial of violence.”
“That is actually part of the violence, the denial of violence.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:28 am
Ibram Kendi says, ‘So many deny that racism is pervading this nation, but if you ask them to define racism, they can’t define it.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:30 am
“Everyone is racialized, even people who do not think they have a race,” says Paula Austin.
Saida Grundy says, “Race is a made-up system. I always instruct my students that race is a fabricated classification system. Racism is a belief in the superiority of a group of people but that also you have a system of power that allows you to exercise that superiority in racism…Racism is a belief in inferiority/superiority that’s backed by a system of power.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:32 am
“Racism is death. I mean, we can break it down that simply.” Ibram X. Kendi
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:33 am
“It’s really important to me to engage students in the definition of racism … A lot of people do believe racism is these structures that are immutable and historically there.” Louis Chude-Sokei.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:35 am
“Racism in my definition does have to include how racism works in everybody’s brain,” said Louis Chude-Sokei, Professor of English, George and Joyce Wein Chair in African American Studies, Director of the African American Studies Program professor of English, George and Joyce Wein Chair in African American Studies, and director of the African American Studies Program. “It is encoded in the psyche of all of us, because it is how we organize people.”
Racist scientists tried to ground racism in science after the rationality-focused Enlightenment, Grudy said, hastily adding, “The European Enlightenment. Other people were enlightened before.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:37 am
Ibram Kendi says, “…during the enslavement era…enslaved Africans were conceived of as physically hearty—so hearty and physically adept that they could withstand the rigors of enslavement. And then by the fall of slavery and the emergence of social Darwinism, suddenly the very same people who were a decade earlier or two decades earlier were physically hearty were now not fit.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:40 am
Kendi says, “Professor Astin, we’re living in an historic moment. Demonstrations have literally rocked the smallest of towns, the largest of cities…From your reading of history, how do you see this current moment?”
Astin says, ‘It’s a long movement. Some of the challenge here is that calling it the civil rights movement really hurts our ability to think of a long movement for freedom, for Black freedom specifically.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:43 am
Austin says, “State sanctioned violence is not just lynchings, it’s not just the KKK. It’s poverty, it’s a terrible education system, it’s social services and amenities…Black folks have always been saying state- sanctioned violence goes beyond the police, beyond white lynching mobs and the KKK. I see this particular moment as building not just from the movement in 2015 that was happening on campuses and in the streets, but also in Occupy Wall Street. I think Occupy Wall Street woke up some young white people who saw themselves as the social, economic beneficaries of whiteness.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:44 am
“It can’t just be about conscious-raising and book clubs,” says Paula Austin.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:45 am
With normal university operations paused, the opening plenary was quickly oversubscribed and many viewers turned to a livestream of the event. “If the opening plenary is any indication, this is going to be an excellent event (this plenary discussion is so great, y’all),” wrote Lindsey Decker, a lecturer in film and television studies, on Twitter. “I’m really glad that the BU community can come together to elevate the voices of our own experts and engage with these issues.”
Kendi asked Grundy how you can be a racist without consciously seeing Black people as inferior. “Racism is not a feeling. Racism is not a disease,” Grundy replied. “Racism acts from a pretty complex idea of self-interest that becomes racialized. You have to have a belief that the other group is taking something from you and you are entitled to that thing. There was no reason in the world that white unions should have been segregated. A large union is a powerful union.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:46 am
“I think we have a moment for cross racial class coalition building,” Austin says.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:47 am
Saida Grundy said, “There’s also, I believe, a white self-interest to absolve other whites from racism which, by the way, annoys me to no end. If white people could take one thing away from my voice today, please stop insisting that you have the authority to absolve other white people from racism. Do not tell me about the bones in their body.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:49 am
Grundy says, “Racism is not a feeling, it’s not a disease. …Asking white people if they have witnessed racism, we know that has no purchase…they have a self interest to absolve other white people of racism.”
Grundy says that if white people can take away one thing from what she says today, it’s this: “Please stop insisting that you have the authority to absolve other white people of racism.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:54 am
Grundy says, “There is no way that race is not the modality through which you see the world. Race is the way in which you construct meanings. Race is the way in which capitalism chooses its modalities.”
“We’re beyond the phase now that you need window dressing,” says Louis Chude-Sokei. “Although I’m enthusiastic and giddy about the energy out there I’m at the age where we’ve seen these things ebb and flow.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:56 am
“We are constantly stepping into the souls of dead black people and it’s really important for all of us to be stepping into the souls of dead black people.” Ibram X. Kendi
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:58 am
Chude-Sokei says, “The one thing I know for sure is that Black people can’t be the only people living with this…We have to live with this communally. That’s the one thing about what’s happening in the streets that makes me optimistic.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 9:59 am
Kendi says, “In a way we are constantly stepping into the souls of dead black people. It’s really critical for everyone to be stepping into the souls of everyone who is a victim of racial violence.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:01 am
Kendi asks Grundy what she thinks about a comment from someone who says they were raised to be “color-blind.”
“Color blindness is the idea, and it’s a very flawed concept, that the way to get rid of racism is simply to not acknowledge it,” Grundy says.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:02 am
“If you cannot acknowledge my experience, and the factuality of my Black womanhood, then you’re basically amputating my humanity,” Grundy says.
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:03 am
For me, it’s an interrogation of power and an interrogation of privilege,” says Paula Austin. “How am I benefitting? What are my privileges? To think about identity … in that way.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:06 am
In response to a question from a student about how education can help to improve the problem of racism, Louis Chude-Sokei says “One of the great things that’s happening on the streets and all over the world is people are rediscovering their own power. That is an absolute fact. Who knows where it goes, but we can all agree that people are suddenly realizing that, oh, institutions are scared of us, and we can do something. That should inspire students to engage with their own needs and their own wants.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:09 am
Talking about political protests of 50 years ago, Saida Grundy says colleges and universities absorbed those movements leading to the creation of black studies departments. “They were absorbing the uprising political rebellion from the streets. That stuff matters,” she says. “Organizing matters.”
A Conversation on the History of Racism: 10:18 am
Kendi asks Chude-Sokei to handle a question from the audience: What’s your advice for a mostly white University like BU in promoting antiracism? What are some of the things we should do or initiatives we should avoid?
Chude-Sokei says, “It’s about sustaining a commitment. It’s important for us to be totally intersectional because the struggles for Black liberation are the struggles for liberation, period.”
“One of the reasons so many white students want our classes and are on the streets is that they understand that this is knowledge for success and how you function in this century,” Chude-Sokei says. “It’s not just about Black liberation. Why should people who are not black be a part of this? Because this is really about who we all are.”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 10:30 am
“You must continuously, daily work on allyship,” said moderator Carrie Preston, Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Arvind & Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professor, Director of the Kilachand Honors College. “You’ll make mistakes, apologize with humility and then get back to work.”
A Clergy Conversation on Strategies for Change in Race Relations: 10:33 am
Panel was asked, what can we learn from religious leaders and traditions? Rev. Milagro Grullon, pastor of Community Christian Fellowship, Lawrence, Ma: Clergy here joined in 1970s to address racism by forming the Associacion Ministerial Evangelica del Area de Lawrence.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:34 am
There’s also a tremendous amount of work to do as we push ourselves further as a community to apply an antiracist lens to our research and to policies at every level of the system,” says Waters.
A Clergy Conversation on Strategies for Change in Race Relations: 10:35 am
Rev. Milagro Grullon, pastor of Community Christian Fellowship, Lawrence, Ma: Home to many immigrants, “Lawrence is a magnet for racial slurs and demeaning acts. … They have called poor Lawrence the city of the damned.” Lawrence’s anti-racism clergy group AMEDAL formed in the 1970s from that past; “spirituality has to show up in city hall, has to show up in our government everywhere. … Humans are more than flesh. There is a spirit within them.” Youths of all faiths have heartened her by “standing against these crimes of racism.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:36 am
“Racial equity intersects with every discipline across the University and poses important and bold questions that will inform and enrich national dialogue and action in the coming weeks, months, and years,” says Gloria Waters, BU’s vice president and associate provost for research, who welcomed everyone to Research On Tap, which is the signature event series of the office of research that is typically held in person.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:36 am
The first of several presenters, André de Quadros, a BU professor of music, has spent a lot of time visiting prisons and similar facilities in Massachusetts, as a way of exploring how we continue to harm citizens of the United States. “Folks in prison know these facts, they know about police violence firsthand and they understand full well that the court and police system has no justice, treats the rich and poor differently,” he says, presenting a slide that shows how young people of color account make up the majority of incarcerated people in America. Many of them, he says, are sentenced and condemned to die in prison.
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 10:37 am
The take home here should be that even though race is not a biological construct, still racism itself has real biological consequences,” says Karin Schon. The take-home message really should be from my perspective in the research that I am doing that racism is a public health crisis.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 10:38 am
Participants discussed mistakes they have made in their journeys. “One misstep I’ve made is talking too much,” Emelia Benjamin says. “This is a journey and a daily practice of trying to be culturally humble.”
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 10:38 am
“We should all know that the Constitution of the United States was established by propertied white men,” Leonard says. “It did not establish a democracy, it was not intended to establish a democracy. It was intended to establish an entrenched kind of hierarchy in the law. And where there is lawful hierarchy, there is state violence.”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 10:39 am
“Running the risk of making mistakes and learning from them is not something we’re taught in the educational system. I have so much to learn and so many blind spots.” Ken Freeman says he was in a National Guard platoon and in the minority. “I learned the value of difference and the need for all of us to work together. … an amazing lesson for me.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:40 am
Candice Belanoff, clinical associate professor at BU’s School of Public Health, takes over as the next Research On Tap presenter. One area of her research is preterm birth rates, and why Black mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely compared to non-Black mothers. “The impact of this thing that we call race is mediated by the experience and impact of racism, and that in turn contributes to the elevated risk of preterm birth,” Belanoff says.
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 10:40 am
Leonard, who is a scholar of critical law and legal history, begins by saying, “Institutional racism we need to recognize is everywhere. This is not just BU looking out at the world, but we need to be looking at ourselves as an institution and understand that all of the history that I might be interested in unpacking implicates us here at BU as well as it implicates every other important institution in our society.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:41 am
Ty Furman: I think that awareness of the idea of appropriation, is where you start—and don’t do it. You’ve got to do the work, you have to find the resources.
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 10:41 am
Moderator asks about racism as a public health crisis. Donte Bernard invited to speak. “It’s important to understand this idea of public health crisis,” he says. “So there’s some research to suggest that in education and housing, and access to resources policing, all of these different domains that black folks in particular have to navigate and think about that disproportionately affect them are related or have these historical underpinning of racism or the mistreatment of folks. Typically we think of these day-to-day experiences, but we know it’s much more than that. ”
A Clergy Conversation on Strategies for Change in Race Relations: 10:42 am
Imam Asif Hirani, resident scholar, Worcester (Ma.) Islamic Center: The Prophet Mohammed connected racism in his day “to lack of knowledge, lack of education.” He promoted education (his last sermon said “A white is not superior to a black,” nor Muslims to non-Muslims), practical application (he facilitated interracial marriages and gave leadership positions to different people of color), and “zero tolerance” for racist jokes, even among his associates. “I do know of any religion” that promotes racism.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:42 am
Harvey Young: I think that the magic of the arts, the importance of the arts is, it’s essentially a form of storytelling, it’s a sharing of experiences. It’s your rendering raw but also quite visible one’s emotional responses to the moment. It’s what attracted me as a theater historian to the study of the arts. It’s knowing that I’m learning about a cultural, social, political moment through the eyes of someone, so I think that when an artist is speaking personally and saying this is how I see the world, this is how I’m impacted by it. You know, then there’s a real truth to it. If you’re trying to imagine someone else’s cultural subjectivity that’s not your own, you’re crossing the line toward appropriation pretty quickly.
If it’s a case where someone’s doing imaginative fiction work right or, or creative work where you’re trying to sort of vicariously, through your work, walk in the shoes of another of another person be clear about your intentionality and what you’re doing so that your audience will understand how to approach it. But I do think that as long as it’s personal as long as it’s real and it connects to your own emotional truth, you’re going to be okay.
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 10:43 am
“Democracy came to the United States as an ideology, really flowered in the US in the 1820’s. but flowered only on the back of racial inequality, on the back of racial subordination,” Leonard says.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 10:44 am
“I would say I’ve learned a lot from my students to try to understand what they need and try to help them succeed. They come from very diverse backgrounds and … my group has always valued that diversity,” Kim McCall says.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:44 am
Christine Hamel, assistant professor of voice and acting at BU’s College of Fine Arts, shares how she is researching voice through the lens of racial equity.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:45 am
“I have certain ethical considerations in my field, noticing that…certain voices are more likely to be….subject to vocal policing than others,” Hamel says. “So we’ve been looking to recontextualize voice by developing some theoretical principles that can be applied to many disciplines. One of our main conceptual frameworks is the idea of intervocality, which is that voice always emanates from and takes place in the context of…human relations.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:45 am
And the one thing I will say is there will be times when people will make a mistake. And I don’t want someone’s anxiety about tripping a little bit to stop them from entering a conversation, you know, but as long as you are sort of owning your own truth, and then moving forward with some level of sincerity-hopefully a whole bunch of sincerity-You’ll be okay.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:46 am
“We’re looking at emerging antiracist approaches that acknowledge systemic cultural barriers and inequalities based on race, gender, and other socially constructed identity markers,” Hamel says.
Hamel’s research considers how the politicalization of breathing, and whose breathing is stifled by systemic racism, impacts voice.
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 10:47 am
“It’s only in the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century that American law takes care, American policy takes care, to try to root out deliberate racial violence from the law. But what we know is that particularly in the criminal justice, what we have is the perfection of statet- implemented racial violence in race-neural terms,but with much racially disparate effect.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:47 am
“Vocal justice requires attending to the social, political. and material conditions in which voices emerge, including a notion of respiratory responsibility that highlights the theory of breath and air as essentially building blocks of voice,” Hamel says. She says it requires acknowledging the politics that breathing has played, making certain spaces more breathable for non-Black people while less breathable for Black and non-Black people of color.
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 10:47 am
“As our new colleague, Ibram Kendi says, “when you’re looking at these gross disparities, in my field in particular, the gross disparities in incarceration rates in this country, your choice is to say either Black Americans have brought all these disparities on themselves, somehow it’s their own fault, “ says Leonard, “or you can look back on the history and say, ‘We have a system of law that was built explicitly on racial hierarchy more than 200 years ago and that system has had an unbroken effect in causing these vast racial disparities throughout our history.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:47 am
Ty Furman: I think one of the things that I’ve struggled with is sort of how overt am I about these issues.
And right now there’s a challenge out there to be more direct about it and and say you know what I’m really trying to do is dismantle white supremacy and and be anti racist and we’ve had a conversation amongst our staff about how are we going to be more overt with the people we work with.
You know, say we create a panel of experts right and we get suggestions for panelists. Those panelists cannot be all white men. We have to do the work in collaboration with our faculty partners to uncover other experts because there are other experts, other voices in that field, other people who are contributing to that conversation, and make sure that we’re having them contribute here.
A Clergy Conversation on Strategies for Change in Race Relations: 10:48 am
Rabbi Elie Lehmann, BU’s Jewish chaplain and rabbi for its Hillel Campus: “Memory is history layered with meaning and puts demands on us.” As Passover commemorated Israel’s freedom from Egyptian bondage, “In every generation, each of us must see ourselves as personally having left Egypt,” obliging us not to oppress others. Jews are obliged to remember this every day, not just at Passover, and “to live out the creation of a more just world.” If we fail to protest current misconduct in the world, “We are responsible for that conduct and misconduct of the whole world.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:49 am
Christine Leider and Christina Dobbs, professors at Wheelock College, presented their work reflecting on the experiences of women of color in academia, a project they began after experiencing feelings of isolation. “As brown women from small rural towns, we didn’t fully relate or share experiences with our colleagues especially at a predominantly white institution,” says Leider. She and Dobbs wanted to find out if their experiences were shared by other women of color.
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 10:49 am
“We know that experiences of racism as a child can predict negative mental health outcomes when an individual is an adult,” says Donte Bernard. “There are experiences that suggest that experiences around racism at 10 or 12 can predict one’s mental status when they’re in their 20s. ” Children go online and experience racism too, don’t forget, he says. It affects their self-esteem, can lead to depression.
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 10:52 am
The panelists discussed how the purpose of stress hormones is to prepare our bodies for action.
So while that’s great if you are going for a run or when dealing with an emergency, it’s dangerous if you’re exposed to frequent stressors and don’t have much time to recover.
Dr. Bernard had earlier said that people of color experience on average five experiences of racism a day. “So what happens is your baseline starts to change, which is called allostatic load,” Tessa Dover said. “And that is when it gets dangerous; that is when it can predict all sorts of long-term health outcomes
because of the relentless, frequent and intense experience of racial stressors.
”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 10:53 am
“A colleague came to me and pointed out there were women and fac of color whose voices were not acknowledged and their ideas were being co opted, particularly by white men in the conversation,” Stan Sclaroff says. “… Sometimes you forget to pause and follow through in the facilitation of ideas and who is contributing them. If you don’t attend to this consistently it erodes participation. … The misstep there was not keeping your eye on the road during a heated discussion and remembering these important foundational commitments you make as a leader. I offered an apology and thanked the people who were coming forward.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:53 am
Derry Wijaya, assistant professor of computer science at BU’s College of Arts & Sciences, presented her research on framing analysis and how it can be used for detecting bias in media. “Framing is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them salient or not,” Wijaya says. “When a news reporter covers issues or incidents, they use certain perspectives while writing it and these perspectives are called framing.”
A Clergy Conversation on Strategies for Change in Race Relations: 10:54 am
Rev. Daryl Paul Lobban, director of justice and advocacy for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, “There are two Christianities today,” one which believes fighting for racial justice is political, non-Christian. “That is the religion about Jesus. But the religion of Jesus is those churches who feel called to fight for justice for all people, but in these times really black and brown folks who have their backs against the wall but in some cases have knees on their necks. … Jesus would be out there marching.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:54 am
Harvey Young: But in terms of confederate monuments I don’t think that there’s any reason for them to stand because they were never created as art pieces, you know they were created for the most part, to resist black liberation movements.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 10:56 am
Harvey Young: The work of diversity and inclusion, the work of antiracism requires that you see it everywhere, you see it in the programs being produced, you see it in the speakers being invited in. The only way you can commit to excellence is by embracing diversity. We’re in the process right now of launching a strategic planning process, we’ll have diversity and inclusion as a big theme. We have committees working over the summer we’re going to continue that. I’ve been listening to our alumni who’ve been sharing in this moment their experiences of a lack of sensitivity, often within some classes across the College of Fine Arts and I think that that is going to prompt us to do a number of things. I’ve been receiving emails about students experiences and alumni experiences across the College of Fine Arts in the last week or so, in which they’re feeling like now’s a moment in which they can tell their stories that they haven’t actually told to anyone in administration, and I do think that my openness and my willingness to actually say we’re going to actually do these things can make a difference is allowing people to share their story. I had one case where a person emailed me and said, ‘You know, I didn’t feel like someone would listen to me until you were appointed.’
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:57 am
The subtle way in which framing presents racialized information is especially dangerous, Wijaya reveals. “In relation to biases, framing is important because as we are all aware, explicit expression of racial bias has become less socially acceptable in modern time,” Wijaya says.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 10:59 am
“Black, Latinx, and indigenous people have the highest incarceration rates of the country,” says Jessica Simes, assistant professor of sociology at BU College of Arts & Sciences. She points out the implications that incarceration rates have among affected communities and, in particular, how the harshest conditions of prison, such as solitary confinement, are heaped upon the most vulnerable members of society.
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 11:02 am
Donte Bernard stresses an important point: it’s important to know that not all black individuals are affected the same way by discrimination. “We’re not a monolith,” he says. “There’s this idea of racial identity, and the idea is if one holds racism central to their self-context, that can actually serve as a shield against these effects of racial discrimination, especially when individuals expect it to come. If I know that some individuals, who don’t look like me , don’t feel positively about me and I feel positively about my own race, I might be more likely to make attributions as to why that happened. They don’t like me, they’re stupid, not me!”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:05 am
John Thornton, professor of African American studies and history at BU’s College of Arts & Sciences, is currently writing a book based on his research of Congo and its king from 1506 to 1542, Afonso I, and his historical attitudes toward the slave trade.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:06 am
“[Afonso] talks about giving slaves as gifts, and he talks about giving men to people who then go and buy slaves,” Thornton says. “He talks about setting up to purchase the slaves that he intended to capture in a war. So, this was a country that participated from the beginning, based on its own indigenous history, of moving people forcibly against their will from one place to another. ..In 1526, [Afonso] addressed the slave trade directly in three letters that he wrote that year.”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:08 am
McCall says students need to feel safe and have a place students to go to complain if injustices are done. Maybe we can start grass roots efforts if the university is not yet ready to undertake. “We can make small changes at the department level. I urge people to come with their ideas to department chairs.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:08 am
Harvey Young: Let’s try to hold ourselves to a more rigorous standard and let’s make ourselves do more… Why does BU not have a jazz program— let’s have that conversation. Why not have a more extensive hip hop studies program—we have some classes but why not have more of that?
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 11:09 am
Q&A portion starting. One listener asked to hear more about the direct effects of racism on health outcomes. Tessa Dover answered the question bluntly, listing some of the ways that it is unhealthy to be Black. For instance, stress from police violence and bias from healthcare providers. “We know that Black Americans get lower quality healthcare, less access to healthcare, their pain gets treated less aggressively, a lower quality of care, their symptoms are taken less seriously,” she said.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:08 am
Congo rulers following Afonso’s reign also had sustained interest in the slade trade, and their control in it, according to Thornton’s research. “We also had correspondence by later kings more or less affirming the same thing, [a] willingness to participate in the external slave trade [with Portugal] but very much conscious that they wanted to control this, and that they wanted to make sure that they had the sort of power to decide who was and was not sent out [of the country as enslaved people],” Thornton says.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:09 am
Jonathan Feingold, associate professor at BU School of Law, notes a recent win for antiracism in the courts. “Just about ten days ago, the state of Michigan reached a settlement with students from several Detroit public schools, schools that serve predominantly low-income Black and brown students. The students were challenging the conditions they face in their schools,” Feingold says. “Lawsuits like this are rare, and they’re rare in part because the Supreme Court has effectively whittled away the claims that students and their communities can bring to challenge their educational
conditions as being inadequate or unequal.
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“Just for the settlement itself, [in favor of the students], we should mark it because it is a win, and it’s win we wouldn’t have but for the students in the communities behind them,” Feingold says.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:11 am
“Staff have a very important role to play — they see things, they hear things and can provide important information about the pulse,” Sclaroff says, noting its one path toward change.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:13 am
Kevin Lang, professor of economics at BU’s College of Arts & Sciences, says that Black people are more likely to be monitored in the workplace and therefore are more likely to be fired. “The higher rate of firing [of Black employees]…therefore makes it seem rational to monitor Blacks more heavily,” he says, which doubles down on creating further disparity for Black employees.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:14 am
Harvey Young: With BUTI, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, we’re mindful of the fact that in the area of classical music—you go to your latest symphony orchestra concert and look at the stage of musicians, you will notice that there’s a lack of underrepresented minority artists on that stage.We’re kind of confident classical music will be around 300 years from now, and that people will be going to symphonies. So how do we actually change the look of that orchestra? So what BUTI is doing, really Hilary Respass, who’s the executive director of BUTI, is they have been working with a number of programs that work with underrepresented young students to help mentor them through the process. In cases where cost is a barrier, they are doing a lot of work, and people are welcome to join this effort, you know, to create scholarships for underrepresented students with financial need to be able to participate in the program. So that’s one way in which a new pipeline is being built to bring in more people.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:15 am
Benjamin says being in a male-dominated field, in cardiology, a male-dominated specialty, and not esp diverse, once you’ve achieved educational stature “it’s easy to point out something problematic than someone earlier in their career who’s more vulnerable.”
She says you don’t want to be seen as a person using your position to “rob other people of their ability to move things forward.” … “There definitely are racist policies mosty people don’t walk into work thinking I’m going to be racist sexist or homophobic today. … Microphenomena just wear people down. Some people say it trivializes the much more structural racism.
“In terms of something every single person can do, whether a staff person, etc. is when they see a microsaggression, they can say something. My big Achilles heel when I’m tired or frustrated or angry, my better judgement is diminished. I hired a coach who said ‘Do you want to be right or be effective?’ … Calling people out does not work. People become profoundly defensive, hearts and minds are not changed.”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:16 am
“The layoff hazard for Blacks, the risk of being laid off is initially higher for blacks, but as we increase seniority, the risks converge for blacks and for whites,” says Lang, making this disparity difficult to escape, since the higher firing rate for early-career Black employees means that less Black people will get promoted to a relatively safer management position.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:18 am
“How do we develop a process where we no longer appoint people to positions without an open search?” Benjamin asks. “If we step back, that is the culture that is what we all see. That is an example of trying to lead by curiosity. … Asking what are people’s values, how do we move forward, how do we do better next time?”
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:19 am
“State support for a racist position makes committing atrocities much easier and it makes opposition more difficult,” says Timothy Longman, associate professor of political science who reflects on the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when 500,000 people were killed.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:19 am
“In the United States our national government at times has tried to commit itself to being more proactive and stopping violence and racism and promoting civil rights. At the moment, that’s not the case,” says Longman, pointing out that atrocities are not inevitable, historically speaking. “The level of violence can be reduced if people speak out, if religious leaders speak out, and proper protest can make a difference,” he says.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:21 am
“What I’m seeing right now gives me hope because people are speaking up and are acting, and this speaking up against atrocities can be effective and can bring real change to a society,” he concludes.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:24 am
Ty Furman: I consider myself a theatre artist. I do not feel that it is my privilege to tell any story I want to. I just don’t think that’s the case. I think if I use my power and privilege to uncover those storytellers, who are coming from their personal experience, or from a history, that’s the way I want to do it.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:28 am
“In my experience, shame is a very ineffective, bad pedagogical method,” Benjamin says of microaggressions. “Sometimes the people who are most destructive are the white allies who do the white gotcha: ‘I caught ya being racist!’ It doesn’t move the conversation forward.”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:31 am
“We had 700 applicants to our last [faculty] opening,” McCall says. “We had less than 10 applicants of color. The problem is very big.” She says she’s committed to talking to people early in their careers and going to conferences to recruit directly. “I think it’s the personal touch with students of color and inviting them to seminars. … I think the pipeline is there. We need to talk to students about academic careers, introducing students to research early on and the value of academic research. As a woman in science, I didn’t have a single woman science professor, not in high school, not in college. Not one. Role models are really important.”
Racial Violence and the Law: A Sordid History: 11:35 am
Wrapping up the session, Onwuachi-Willig asked the panelists what law students and lawyers could do to bring about change and fight racial injustice.
“What the folks on the streets who are calling for defunding the police are recognizing is that while legal change can matter,” Leonard says, “what fundamentally needs to be done is a change in institutions.”
Psychological & Physiological Impacts of Racism: 11:35 am
Donte Bernard addresses clinicians who are listening who may feel uncomfortable talking about racism or race. They can say something like, “I know I’m not an expert here, but I want you to know I’ve opened this space up for us to talk about anything and everything,” and “I want to acknowledge that last night a black man was murdered; how are you dealing with that?
”
“That simple question opens the door and invites a new discussion that can bring a whole new side, not only to the client but you as a clinician, into the room,” he said.
“I think it’s important that we start those conversations and not overburden our clients and expect them to open up the conversation.
Offering that space can be very validating.
”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:36 am
“We have to think creatively about ways to make more rapid progress on diversifying faculty,” Sclaroff says.
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:37 am
Harvey Young: One thing that we did within CFA quite concretely is we created FA100, which is a class that has all first year undergraduate students, and then that will serve as a place where we would have conversations around race and inclusion in the arts. Hopefully students will take those lessons with them and they will help to inform the choices they make in the classes they take and what they go to and see over the next four years.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:37 am
“Within HR, there cert has been a lot of effort in the talent acquisition area in terms of hiring a diverse workforce,” Freeman says. “What my colleagues in HR would say it’s just the beginning, not the end. We have a long ways to go … [but] I believe this is a movement for us to have a new beginning and my colleagues believe that as well. This is an all white panel — our black colleagues are feeling tremendous stress and strain and believe this may be another false start in this country — and this university potentially. Stand up with those of like minds to transform the culture of Boston University. It’s going to take rays of light…. That collective role where we change, make change, that system that comes from the bottom up as well as the top down.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:40 am
Harvey Young: One thing that’s important in the arts is to be wary of the damage and the danger caused by tradition. I think that too often, we associate a tradition with high cultural value that then stands in opposition to an ability to do the work of diversity inclusion.
Research On Tap: Emerging Scholarship on Racism and Antiracism: 11:43 am
During the Q&A portion, Christina Dobbs points out the importance of finding ways to participate in antiracist work where the risk feels manageable, “and sometimes that can be scary,” she says.
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:43 am
“We have to address the structural racism that’s in the academy — the way we create hierarchy of institutions and in the field,” Benjamin says. “This is an example I’m really humiliated about … I reviewed an application that came out of a prestigious lab and I reconstructed the application as stronger than it actually was. We all have to question ourselves everyday.”
The Arts and Antiracist Practices: 11:44 am
Ty Furman: Partly why I love being in this context of higher education is that we have these conversations. I continue to be on this journey of just completely rethinking the way I was trained
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:46 am
“We are all still learning. I don’t think anyone on this panel thinks we’re a white savior. … We really want to work together, all of us, in making BU more inclusive and supporting people of color throughout this whole movement,” McCall says, “and keep the movement going. I think we all feel like we’re making real progress right now.”
A Conversation About White Allyship, Advocacy and Leadership: 11:47 am
“We need to be resilient,” Freeman says. “We need to be courageous.”
Inclusive Pedagogy and Decolonizing the Curriculum: 12:46 pm
Karen Hendricks, moderator and associate professor of music and chair of music education at the College of Fine Arts: “Effective pedagogy is that which is inclusive,” incorporating the diverse strengths of students. “All individuals are valued. [But] University knowledge systems remain rooted in colonial and western-centric worldviews.”
A Conversation with Diversity & Inclusion Practitioners: 12:47 pm
“When I think about diversity, it’s really about identity work, who we are, why that matters, differences that make a difference,” Enos says. “Inclusion, on the other hand is our environment, our sense of belonging and what are we doing to provide spaces fo4 community. This year we added equity to talk about access, how we do things and meet individual needs and understanding a systemic nature of diversity and inclusion. Bridging those three things is about community, capacity building and making sure that we are making sure we are enacting our values.”
Practices & Ways to Undertake Antiracist Work Outside of the Academy: 12:47 pm
Jorge Delva, dean of the School of Social Work, opens the session on undertaking antiracist work outside of the academy by saying social work is focused on social justice. “If we’re not focused on antiracist practice,” he said, “we’re not focusing on social justice.”
Racism & Antiracism in the Clinical Medical Practice: 12:47 pm
Michelle DeBiasse, professor and director of programs in nutrition at BU’s Sargent College for Rehabilitation and Health Sciences, started off the session by stating some research-based data about racism in the medical field. When in pain, white people receive higher doses of analgesics than Black people. Looking at 2007 to 2012 data on pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 births reveals a 3.2 times higher death rate for non-Hispanic Black women versus non-Hispanic White women, DeBiasse says. And with increasing age, this disparity rose to 5.1 times higher in non-Hispanic Black versus non-Hispanic White women. Black students comprised 7.3% of medical school graduates in 2019. And, DeBiasse says, nearly all chronic diseases are higher in prevalence and severity in Blacks than in whites.
Black BU: An Intergenerational Conversation About Alumni Experiences with Racism & Antiracism on Campus: 12:54 pm
Anthony Harrison (COM’81) says, “When I think about my time on campus, the late ’70s, early ’80s, while Boston was absolutely one of the most racist cities on earth at that time, I actually was fortunate that I was in a bit of a bubble at the university. And was able to sort of escape the racism that was existing in the world and felt very supported in terms of the community and some of my closest friends are people that I met in my dormitory in freshmen year.
A Conversation with Diversity & Inclusion Practitioners: 12:50 pm
It’s “arduous work,” says Rady Roldan-Figueroa, director of diversity and inclusion and associate professor of the history of Christianity at the School of Theology. And, he adds, he would not have taken up his position as director of diversity and inclusion at BU—work that brings with it inevitable criticism—before he had earned tenure. “You need institutional protection to do this work,” he says, “and for me that institutional protection is tenure.”
Inclusive Pedagogy and Decolonizing the Curriculum: 12:46 pm
Yvette Cozier, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion and associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health: Public health providers study barriers to health access, which requires difficult conversations. SPH has a school-wide program that reads one book to “facilitate conversation and discussion by providing a common language” about discrimination in public health and other areas from which health providers might learn. “We mail books to all incoming students,” who begin discussing during Orientation. The coming academic year’s read, There Goes the Neighborhood, details prejudice against immigrants to America.
A Conversation with Diversity & Inclusion Practitioners: 12:52 pm
Roldan-Figuero says this work began at the School of
Theology with he and a group of others putting together a diversity statement—a statement of common ground. “It involved conversations with faculty,students and staff. We discovered important partnerships. I personally discovered how invested the staff at the School of Theology—and this is probably true around the University—is on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Staff involvement is key, he says.
Black BU: An Intergenerational Conversation About Alumni Experiences with Racism & Antiracism on Campus: 12:57pm
D. A. Whatley (Questrom’15), now president of the BU Young Alumni Council, recalled an incident at a party while he was a student. He recalled that a white man kept trying to engage him in conversation. The man was asked to leave, and was escorted away. “It turns out that the individual…had said something quite startling…. And the guy’s words were, you know, back where I’m from, we lynch N-words like you. Now, this is simply, you know, me having a conversation—not wanting to engage in a conversation with someone. I didn’t—I was jokingly trying to just brush him aside. It wasn’t me trying to be rude. At least not intentionally to this individual whom I shared several classes with, and to my knowledge, we were at least good associates. But internally, it’s, like, gosh. Now I see this person all the time. You know, should I be concerned when I’m walking by myself on campus? You know, who else does he know that feels this way? And an overwhelming amount of emotions just filled me. And it took me back to just thinking about how, you know, as a person of color, especially with the stereotype of the angry black man, you know, how do I react to this situation? Do I retaliate? You know, let my emotions get out? I attended BU on a full tuition merit leadership scholarship. I came to campus to, you know, to be an example of leadership. And I didn’t want to lose that just by, you know, expressing my emotions like that. So then I was like, well, okay. Do I educate? Do I elevate? Do I just kind of cast this aside? Eventually I just decided, okay, I’m just going to enjoy the rest of my evening. I’m not going to let this get to me. But it was a really, really just harsh thing to hear simply because I wouldn’t discuss—I wouldn’t engage in the conversation with him. ”
Practices & Ways to Undertake Antiracist Work Outside of the Academy: 1:00pm
Douglas Luke, director of finance and administration, School of Social Work, talked about racial equity and the importance of acknowledging past and present inequities. He asked, what’s next? It’s not enough, he said to not be racist, “We must be antiracist.” Dawn Belkin Martinez, clinical associate professor and associate dean for equity and inclusion, followed by connecting racism and housing injustice. “Evictions, foreclosures, and rising rents,” she said, “are all black issues.”
Black BU: An Intergenerational Conversation About Alumni Experiences with Racism & Antiracism on Campus: 1:01 pm
Pauline Jennett (STH’05, Wheelock’17) says, “And often students of color in the research arena are encourage not to research things about ethnicity and their passion.”
Black BU: An Intergenerational Conversation About Alumni Experiences with Racism & Antiracism on Campus: 1:03 pm
Pauline Jennett (STH’05, Wheelock’17) says, “And I just want to take a moment just to read the definition of microaggression. It’s a common daily verbal, behavioral and environmental communication, whether intentional or unintentional that transmits hostile derogatory or negative messages to target a person.”
Black BU: An Intergenerational Conversation About Alumni Experiences with Racism & Antiracism on Campus: 1:06pm
Joel Christian Gill (CFA’04), a cartoonist and an associate professor of illustration at Mass Art, says he came to BU from southwestern Virginia. “One of my first conversations with anybody Black who was from Boston…. started to tell me this really interesting story about all of these neighborhoods I should not go in. Like, don’t go to this neighborhood. Stay out of this one. Don’t go here. Now, remember, I grew up in a place where there was, like, I could point to the place where the Klan met. And then I come to the place that is this bastion of liberalism and people are telling me not to go into these different neighborhoods and areas.”
Racism & Antiracism in the Clinical Medical Practice: 1:07 pm
Samantha Kaplan, assistant professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at BU School of Medicine, points out the racist history of medical education that stems from slavery in the United States.
In this painting of Dr. James Marion Sims (the “father” of modern gynecology infamous for his inhumane treatment of Black patients) treating a Black woman in an early American clinic, if any of the medical trainees treating this woman had been people of color, Kaplan says, they would have disputed the longheld Antebellum idea that Black people don’t feel as much pain as white people. Historically, many gynecological and other medical procedures were performed on Black enslaved people without the use of analgesics or anesthesia.
“I point these out because while we have come pretty far from something that is this blatantly atrocious, we still are perpetrating racist teaching in our medical education. Oftentimes, without recognizing it,” Kaplan says.
Practices & Ways to Undertake Antiracist Work Outside of the Academy: 1:10pm
Judith Scott, an assistant professor at the School of Social Work, talked about her time as a clinical social worker in Lynn, Mass. There, she found the interventions designed to serve a multicultural population—to help them parent or deal with trauma—were not a fit for their cultures. Scott connected that to how families and trauma are focused more on the “white experience rather than the multicultural experience.” Translating that to communities, she said, is problematic. We fail to address that systemic racism if “we are not doing the work of looking into communities that are being marginalized and lifting up their voices.”
Practices & Ways to Undertake Antiracist Work Outside of the Academy: 1:10pm
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