{"id":8789,"date":"2020-06-17T08:41:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T12:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=8789"},"modified":"2020-10-23T14:11:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T18:11:23","slug":"voices-of-trinity-faculty-speak-on-black-lives-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2020\/06\/voices-of-trinity-faculty-speak-on-black-lives-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Trinity: Faculty Speak on Black Lives Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On July 16 Trinity students, faculty and staff gathered for our first campus conversation about Black Lives Matter and what we must do as a university community to address and defeat systemic racism wherever it exists.\u00a0 Organized by Dr. James Stocker, the Executive Director of the Trinity Global Leadership Initiative, the discussion started with reflections by Dr. Kimberly Monroe of Global Affairs, Dr. Jamal Watson of the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Program, Dean Peggy Lewis, Dr. Christopher Bishop of Psychology, and Mr. Vernon Scott of Criminal Justice.\u00a0 Below are some of their reflections.\u00a0 During the discussion many participants recommended further readings, and we are compiling a bibliography and will publish a recommended reading list later this week.<\/p>\n

Mr. Vernon Scott, Assistant Professor and Chair, Criminal Justice<\/h2><\/span>\n

\"\"<\/a>If we are truly interested in fixing the problem, as opposed to merely fixing the blame, we have to address this issue on a much wider scale. Unethical law enforcement practices is merely a by-product of the much larger issue at hand. The driving force behind unethical law enforcement practices is the same force that’s driving healthcare inequalities, educational inequalities, redlining, and disparities in opportunities.\u00a0 We are at a pinnacle point in time; where everyone is finally focusing on this issue at the same time.\u00a0 If we are truly interested in effectuating change, we need to seize this moment, and have those discussions that make us uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kimberly Monroe, Assistant Professor of Global Affairs<\/h2><\/span>\n

\"\"<\/a>Assata Shakur said, \u201cNobody is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them, or teach you your true history if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.\u201d I reflect on Shakur\u2019s words as a professor and I’m reminded of my time as a senior in college when Trayvon Martin was slain at the hands of George Zimmerman. I wanted to hear from my professors, I wanted them to teach us more of our history. When that didn’t happen I knew that I had to seek knowledge elsewhere. For those reasons and more I became a professor and I’m constantly thinking of the obligation and duty I have, to ensure my students understand and can articulate the dismantling of white supremacy and racism throughout the world.<\/p>\n

My role as a professor of history is to teach students about the global resistance of Black\/African people. From the continent of Africa fighting against colonialism, the slave revolts on the ships that sailed across the Atlantic, and in North America when Nat Turner strategically organized an uprising in Virginia, history has proven that we fought back and we survived.<\/p>\n

This moment of oppression and racism is not new, it is one that Black Americans and the global African community have faced for over 400 years since the first African was taken from Angola and brought to North America. It is a struggle, but I believe that we will win. Fannie Lou Hamer said, \u2018Nobody\u2019s free until everybody\u2019s free” and her words reign heavily today as people from all social classes and races envision a world where Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n

Book Suggestions:<\/p>\n

Assata: An Autobiography<\/em><\/p>\n

Blood In My Eye <\/em>by George Jackson<\/p>\n

The Autobiography of Angela Davis<\/em><\/p>\n

Yurugu<\/em>\u00a0by Marimba Ani<\/p>\n

The Afrikan Holocaust <\/em>by John Henrik Clarke<\/p>\n

A Taste of Power<\/em> by Elaine Brown<\/p>\n

The War Before<\/em> by Safiya Bukhari<\/p>\n

\u00a0Revolutionary Suicide<\/em> by Huey P. Newton<\/p>\n

Ready for the Revolution<\/em> by Stokely Carmichael<\/p>\n

Dr. Christopher Bishop, Associate Professor of Psychology<\/h2><\/span>\n

\"\"<\/a>Intergenerational trauma has impacted the African American community since we arrived in America.\u00a0 This ongoing trauma is a psychological warfare on the community.\u00a0 Historically, police brutality on the African American community is not an isolated incident, but a directive based on institutional racism in law enforcement.\u00a0 This discrimination leads to complex trauma where African Americans are consistently victimized by police brutality, white supremacy, healthy inequality, and other forms of discrimination and segregation that are designed to oppress the black community.\u00a0 It is important that African Americans are provided a safe space to heal and find coping strategies to manage in these tumultuous times.<\/p>\n

Dr. Peggy Lewis ’77, Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies<\/h2><\/span>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rayshard Brooks
\nGeorge Floyd
\nAhmaud Arbery
\nBreonna Taylor
\nSandra Bland
\nWalter Scott
\nPhilando Castile
\n12 year old Tamir Rice<\/p>\n

I should not have those names and what happened to them seared in my memory\u2026.but I do\u2026a lot of us do\u2026<\/p>\n

These past few weeks I pivot between anger, sadness, crying\u2026back to anger\u2026and sadness\u2026I think I land most often on numbness\u2026but I know I can\u2019t give way to anger and bitterness<\/p>\n

I almost declined to participate in this conversation\u2026because I am tired of talk\u2026I am tired of the news\u2026.and the news analysis and the political pundits\u2026and what can I say that has not already been said\u2026but I think conversations are important and I know education is powerful\u2026and I know I will learn something listening to my colleagues<\/p>\n

But the reality of that we are living in a pandemic of racism in the middle of a health pandemic which are both disproportionately killing Black folk\u2026is to live in a daily nightmare\u2026we are afraid to turn on the news for fear of yet another policeman killing another Black man\u2026and yet it keeps happening\u2026<\/p>\n

As Malcolm X said in 1964: \u201cWe don\u2019t see any American Dream\u2026We\u2019ve experienced only the American nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as Dr. Ibrim Kendi has written \u201cWhat one Black American experiences, many Black Americans experience. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the toil and terror and trauma of other Black Americans. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the souls of the dead. Because they know: They could have been them; they are them. Because they know it is dangerous to be Black in America, because racist Americans see Blacks as dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can thank decades of American media for that\u2026.in advertising\u2026in news\u2026in shows and film\u2026we contend with countless images of Black men as criminals instead of as loving fathers and husbands and brothers\u2026<\/p>\n

When I was a television reporter in Miami back in the 80\u2019s— I covered riots that were the result of police shooting unarmed Black men\u2026.and corruption in the department that included so much abuse of power\u2026we could just exchange those pictures and soundbites for today\u2019s pictures and soundbites\u2026those community leaders and activists\u2026for today\u2019s\u2026because we are seeing the same kind of abuse and asking the same questions, and seeing some of the same responses only now\u2026.we have the advantage of cell phones and social media bringing more of these cases to our attention\u2026<\/p>\n

And once again we have a movement calling for change\u2026calling for equal justice and an end to police misconduct and laments about racism\u2026if news is the first page of history \u2013 then history repeating itself will result in us doing the same thing 20 years from now\u2026<\/p>\n

I recently reread Martin Luther King Junior\u2019s \u201cLetter from a Birmingham Jail\u201d to try to gain some perspective, and I have to tell you after reading what Dr. King wrote in April 1963, I was saddened by how little progress we have made. So much of American history is tied to race. The Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, laws mandating desegregation, the school-to-prison pipeline\u2026the criminalization of children\u2019s behavior\u2026 mass incarceration, voter suppression, housing discrimination, banking redlining, Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, removing Confederate Statues and flags\u2026. \u00a0\u00a0It all points to America\u2019s pandemic of racism\u2026<\/p>\n

What Dr. King wrote in his letter in 1963 is so hauntingly applicable today:<\/p>\n

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr (Knee-bur) has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.<\/em><\/p>\n

We know from painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressors; it must be demanded by the oppressed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026You may well ask, “Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Dr. King said then, \u201c\u2026we have waited more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.\u201d And in 2020 we are still waiting.<\/p>\n

Change in America never comes about without violence\u2026yes you can have peaceful nonviolent demonstrations as Dr. King advocated\u2026but Malcolm X also said \u201cBy any means necessary\u201d\u2026.it is not until there are flames and an economic impact that we see political change\u2026<\/p>\n

But three things give me hope—Young People; Education about the Black Experience; and faith\u2026.<\/p>\n

These young people in the streets including our students\u2026.the demonstrations across the nation and around the world in the name of justice for George Floyd\u2026.<\/p>\n

They are a multicultural, multinational, storm flooding the streets demanding change\u2026they are all races, ages and genders\u2026they get it and they\u2019re fired up.<\/p>\n

The second thing I think is hopeful, is that books on the Black experience are flying off the shelves\u2026Black authors and Artists are being given platforms to speak in all types of media\u2026maybe our K-12 textbooks will finally change\u2026<\/p>\n

We are hearing from and reading:<\/p>\n

Bryan Stevenson\u2019s Just Mercy\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Michelle Alexander\u2019s The New Jim Crow<\/em><\/p>\n

John Lewis\u2019 Walking with the Wind<\/em><\/p>\n

And people can watch for free Ava Duvernay\u2019s amazing film works:<\/p>\n

13th<\/sup><\/em>, Selma<\/em>, and When They See Us<\/em><\/p>\n

And finally\u2026the third thing that gives me hope—is faith\u2026I am a follower of Jesus\u2026and this morning I listened to Reverend Berniece King, Dr. King\u2019s daughter\u2026.and she reminds us that we are called to love one another\u2026.and that we cannot let the injustice make us injust\u2026she quoted Micah 6:8:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.\u201d Then she said: \u201cWe have to learn how to love each other through our differences! Social Justice needs to be aligned with the Word of God\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Do good to them that hate you is hard to swallow but that is why I look to Jesus\u2026.In the end I have faith\u2026.. and that will get me through this ongoing nightmare.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jamal Watson, Program Director and Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications and Public Relations<\/h2><\/span>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is appropriate that this event is sponsored by the Trinity Global Leadership Initiative. Indeed, the response to George Floyd\u2019s death has been global. From London to Paris to Hong Kong, protestors have taken\u00a0 to the streets to demand justice.<\/p>\n

This summer, I am teaching a course called \u201cRace, Gender, Class in the Media.\u201d My graduate students are interrogating issues of white supremacy and racism in the media. They are drawing on theoretical frameworks to understand the protests in the streets. They are studying historiography to understand how the civil rights movement in particular, dramatized racial injustice in the 1950s and 1960s and changed America for the better.<\/p>\n

Today, I leave you with three suggestions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. We must know our history. We have to understand the intersectionality of social movements. As we fight against racism, we must also address economic disenfranchisement and sexism.<\/li>\n
  2. We must actively acknowledge our implicit biases. We must address systemic racism. Many of us have learned what not to say in public; but we must also acknowledge our biased private thoughts.<\/li>\n
  3. We must work toward being an antiracist. As Dr. Ibram X. Kendi has said: \u201cIt is not enough to not be racist. We have to be antiracist.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While we can\u2019t necessarily dictate how others act, we can work toward educating ourselves and in doing so, help to create a \u201cBeloved Community.\u201d In order to do that, I recommend several books:<\/p>\n

    Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America<\/em> by Michael Eric Dyson<\/p>\n

    How to Be an Anti-Racist<\/em> by Ibram X. Kendi<\/p>\n

    The Sword and The Shield<\/em> by Peniel E. Joseph<\/p>\n

    My Vanishing Country: A Memoir, <\/em>by Bakari Sellers.<\/p>\n

    Finally, solving the issue of racism can\u2019t be placed exclusively on Black people. That\u2019s a burden too great for Blacks to bear alone.<\/p>\n

    As Toni Morrison remarked to Charlie Rose in a 1993 interview when she was asked by Rose how she responds to everyday racist encounters. She said:<\/p>\n

    \u201cLet me tell you, that\u2019s the wrong question. Don\u2019t you understand, that the people who do this thing, who practice racism, are bereft. There is something distorted about the psyche. If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. My feeling is that white people have a very, very serious problem. And they should start thinking about what they can do about it. Take me out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Dr. James Stocker, Executive Director, Trinity Global Leadership Initiative and Associate Professor, International Affairs<\/h2><\/span>\n

    \"\"<\/a>How do we recognize key turning points in history? In some cases, these don\u2019t become obvious for many years, even decades, but in others, you know it as soon as it happens. I think the current moment is in the latter category. There\u2019s no denying that there is something different about the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd on May 25.<\/p>\n

    These demonstrations did not just spring out of nowhere. The Black Lives Matter movement took off in 2013 after the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. In one sense, it is part of a larger African American struggle for equality in our country, but in another sense, it is a reaction to those earlier movements. While the civil rights movements of the 1950s onwards succeeded in gaining legal equality for black Americans, they did not fully break down larger barriers to equality that still exist today. You know the statistics:<\/p>\n