Day 84, June 8, 2020

The Power Dynamic

Today's soundtrack: Prince and 3rdEyeGirl 2014

I woke up this morning and read about the vote to disband the Minneapolis police department. That is an incredible shift in power and an harbinger of the potential for real change to emerge out of this movement to fight against institutionalized racism ingrained into the organizations that serve as the foundations of civil society. I read a commentary where the writer talked about how police reform failed to create the kind of change that altered the practices that continue to cause the death of black, brown, indigenous, and other oppressed people all over the world, but particularly here in the United States.

Demonstrators marched to the Greenfield Police Station on Saturday

I then started to think about higher education as one of those organizations that are at the foundation of our societies. We recognize that all of education is guilty of replicating the inequities we see throughout society. In higher education we see that in inequitable retention rates and graduation rates, what we call the achievement gap between the outcomes for white students and the outcomes for students of color. We have a moment, now, to address those inequities, to figure out how to look closer at our practices and work to change those outcomes. Like police departments everywhere, we do not need to analyze racial profiling to know it is wrong. We can see that our students of color are not benefiting from our classes as much as white students, so we have a chance to fix that, we have a social responsibility to fix that. Now is the time to look at what we are doing in our classes, in our support services, in how we mentor students. To continue business as usual is to continue the violence perpetuated by over militarized and racially cuastic police departments.

I truly believe that faculty, particularly faculty at the community colleges in this country are heroic idealists. Everyone who works at a community college is committing their life's work to providing educational opportunities to people who may not have had opportunities or access to higher education otherwise. Similarly, I think there are some truly heroic and beautiful police officers who care deeply about the people and the communities they serve. Like police officers, we are fallible. We can become complacent. We can feel like we know what we are doing better than anyone else and that we are above criticism. It is natural to exhibit a degree of hubris when what we do is woven into a dynamic of power, and the classroom is a realm where the power dynamics are clearly a part of that structure. That does not mean the classroom is inherently flawed. In fact, I think it is eminently fixable. But, it will take a culture shift.

Who does not want to work for an organization that holds at its core a mission to dismantle the elements of white supremacy in our nation? Who does not want to be a part of the solution rather than to perpetuate the historical oppression of people of color?

We have an opportunity to model the change that we want to happen in our communities. It will not be easy. We will not find a simple solution. But, we will work at it, and continue to work at it with compassion, love, and dedication. There is no end to this kind of work. It is the life we have chosen. It is what gives our lives meaning.

Listen to the people chanting, listen to the people holding the megaphone.

Take care,
Leo

Cranberry Pond at Mt. Toby

From Our Friends:

Recommended from Joan O'Beirne:

Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world.

From Oona Morrow via the Design Studio for Social Intervention:

What Can We Learn from White Terror in 2020?

The Work After Our Rage

From MassMoCA:

Here are just a few of the many organizations in the Berkshires and nationally that are doing critical work in the fight for racial justice and that we were are learning from in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work: NAACP-Berkshire County Branch, BRIDGE, UNO Community Center, Berkshire Immigrant Center, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, Color Of Change, Innocence Project, Facing History and Ourselves. 

From National Geographic:

Systemic racism and coronavirus are killing people of color. Protesting isn't enough.

After the protests end and the pandemic passes, will anything change for America's communities of color?

READ THE STORY

From Americans for the Arts:

Presents the 33rd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy

Vijay Gupta


Citizen Artist, Social Justice Advocate, Violinist, 2018 MacArthur Fellow and
Americans for the Arts Board of Directors Member

Live Virtual Lecture
"The Next Response: Practicing the Future, Now"

Tuesday, June 23, 2020
11:30 a.m. EDT

Register for this FREE Event Now!
Closed Captioning Provided 

Today's Online Teaching Tips:

From Sage Publishing:

Browse a range of free resources to support your research and teaching about structural racism or visit these sites directly:

Explore a collection of articles to support researchers in future scholarship and amplify their critical work; educators as they discuss the impacts of systemic racism with students; and policymakers and advocates in their fight to make sweeping reform. Take a look at our curated research-based resources to help you and your students teach, talk, and learn about structural racism and police brutality. Find insights from social and behavioral scientists on topics like racism, ‘otherness,’ inequality, and structural failures in society that command scholarly attention: blog posts, podcasts, and webinars from the community site Social Science Space.

Visit our resources