“We can’t un-live a lot of the past — maybe none of the past — but we can certainly move forward and do good things,” said Wanda Heading-Grant, vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as she kicked off the final teach-in of the Finding Answers Together series to explore systemic racism.
The July 1 teach-in, Turning the Conversation to Whiteness, also featured facilitators Christa Hagan-Howe, a diversity educator in the Center for Cultural Pluralism at the University of Vermont; Kyle Dodson, CEO of the Greater Burlington YMCA; and Paul Marcus, a white anti-racist activist, educator and consultant. “If we’re not actively thinking about disrupting, dismantling and interrupting systemic racism, we’re probably perpetuating it,” said Hagan-Howe, who reviewed with participants the fundamentals of systemic racism before pivoting the teach-in to presentations and a discussion on whiteness.
“Race is happening all the time and we don’t even see it; we never even think about it. It’s the ideology that we swim in, it’s the water that we swim in,” said Marcus, who touched on the historic underpinnings of whiteness and its connection to systemic racism today. He urged participants to reconsider the lens through which they view and interpret what is “normal” and how racism is sustained through history. “The maintenance of whiteness becomes crucial in facilitating economic growth and capitalism. Racism and capitalism are deeply intertwined,” he explained.
Dodson’s insight offered clarity on the difference between individual, overt acts of racism and systemic racism, as well as what it will take to move forward toward anti-racism. “Four hundred-plus years of oppression, persecution, murder, etcetera, is ultimately about fear and anxiety,” he said. “It’s almost the perfect set up…this creation of this white-black dynamic so that it is insidious and perpetuates itself. It has a presence all its own, but at its base it’s about fear and anxiety. Blackness is set up as the ultimate boogeyman.” Dodson noted that to start moving the needle forward, empathy and compassion will be critical for both those who identify as white, as well as members of the BIPOC community.
Dodson and Marcus took questions from audience members who asked about topics ranging from reparations — payments to or investments in descendants of slaves to recoup lost opportunities and build a more equitable future — to what folks can do to confront racial injustice right now, in Vermont and on UVM’s campus. As one of the whitest states in the country, Marcus and Dodson implored participants to remember that there is a history and reason for that. “We are not in a bubble,” Marcus said.
Though the Finding Answers Together teach-in series on exploring, explaining and eradicating racism has now concluded, Heading-Grant assured that the opportunities to engage in this area will and must continue. Planning is in the works for additional informative events and programming in the upcoming semester. In the meantime, Heading-Grant offers this advice to lose looking for immediate next-steps to take: “If you’re still wondering what can you do and you want some quick answers, what I would do is direct you toward a mirror. Look at yourself. Start there. Look at the reflection, what action, what things can you do to make a difference? Start there and I think you’ll be in a good place.”
Missed Turning the Conversation to Whiteness or another session of the teach-in series? Visit the Finding Answers Together webpage to view recorded sessions or access presentation materials.