On Tuesday, Oct. 19, the Antiracism Collective held a well-attended (nearly 80 people) workshop, “Antiracism & Us.” At this event, we wanted to start the conversation about how we can build an antiracist CSI. Students, staff, and faculty met together and in breakout groups. We ended our meeting by building a list of ways we want to work collectively to create a more inclusive and equitable campus. Among the suggestions were the following:
* Facilitation of White self-examination and consciousness raising, including tools and texts
* Ally/upstander/solidarity training – including the limits on this role
* Campaign to publicize official reporting mechanism and procedures – not just posters but actual outreach, an event, and slides/video permanently/prominently hosted
* Advocacy for required antiracism training at least along the lines of SPARC training for all campus community members
* Explanation of and formation of accountability groups
* Campaign for a real, publicized BIPOC safe space for students at least, though ideally also for faculty and staff
* Antiracist pedagogy training and mentorship
We now call all Collective members — all are welcome — to come together to discuss priorities and establish working groups that will take point on organizing around these projects.
Please join us from 4:00pm to 5:00pm on Tuesday, Nov. 2 via Zoom:
Meeting ID: 871 1594 1980
Passcode: 913681
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Please note that in order to encourage participation in both events, this meeting has been arranged to follow the Writing Across the Curriculum event on “Antiracist and Antiablest WAC,” which is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 2 from 2:30pm to 4:00pm (Meeting ID: 891 1382 1048 | Passcode: 239298). Readings for that event are:
Tara Wood, “Cripping Time in the College Composition Classroom” and Mya Poe, “Reframing Race in Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum.”
By Catherine J. Lavender, PhD
