So You Care About Black Lives? Why Do Your Actions Show Otherwise?
This event was conducted on September 4th, which included three wonderful workshops highlighting and giving a platform to black students and POC faculty to express what white/non-black POC can do for the black community.
The conversations were very insightful and we hope that everyone can take the time to watch and reflect on what was said, and think about what we can do to contribute to the BLM movement. We also want to preface that we are all learning, and please be gracious with all the participants in the workshops, and that these conversations are necessary because they allow us to assess where we are as an institution and how we can also grow and do better.
Down below is a description of the event:
With all that is going on from Donald Trump to the death of George Floyd, and now the brutal shooting of Jacob Blake, this has caused us as a nation to suddenly come to a “racial awakening”. But truth be told these issues have been happening prior to this moment, and at a magnitude that a lot of people especially at this campus can not fathom to understand. Due to the onset of technology, we can now see these instances of police brutality and mistreatment of black individuals visibly, but these instances have been happening in silent and these acts of racism don’t always include physical inflection of pain towards the black community but also involve prejudgements, microaggressions and, ostracization that is felt and seen on this very campus. Wesleyan by far is not the worst institution when it comes to race relations but as we all know WE can do better. So, this virtual event is all based on how we can take our words, social media posts, and most importantly our PERFORMATISM and turn it into real action. I hope you can take a few moments out of your day to join these workshops, discussions, and special speaker Ted Shaw. All in all we hope these videos can arm you with the tools to take action in the fight for racial justice while being mindful of your space, being reflective of your positionality, and being aware how your everyday actions, habits, language, and thought processes play into these system of racism and how you can rewrite that.
In solidarity,
Annie Khan and Alphina Kamara
Student Organizers
Opening Remarks
https://wesleyan.zoom.us/rec/
Passcode: tGNA$8QN
African Students Association
https://wesleyan.zoom.us/rec/
Passcode: h2Y@!i=P
Did my professor just say that?
https://wesleyan.zoom.us/rec/
Passcode: s9K@V0S+
Ted Shaw
https://wesleyan.zoom.us/rec/
Passcode: 5#zh4ab!