让我们谈谈
愿景:
让我们谈谈 seeks to provide a platform for constructive discussions on race from multidisciplinary perspectives.
使命:
Let’s 谈论它 is a student-focused, facilitated conversation series, which explores racial justice and equity; including but not limited to topics on privilege, protest and anti-racism.
即将到来的事件:
Participants must register by 11:59 p.m. on the Tuesday before the scheduled program to be guaranteed a spot.
故事是如何开始的
作为一个黑人, I have long seen men of color murdered at the hands of people who were supposed to protect the public. In many of those cases, the men (some of them just boys) were attacked by police based on a call from a “concerned” citizen. In some cases, they were accused of showing aggressive behavior toward others. 在所有情况下, officers swooped in in force and became physically aggressive during a non-aggressive situation, leaving the Black man either dead or seriously injured.
同时, I’ve seen scenes in which a white man threatens or commits murder, and after some verbal exchange — sometimes while still holding his firearm — is peacefully taken into custody by sympathetic police officers. In many of these cases, the white man is physically abusive to the officers and still makes it to jail without physical harm coming to him.
For well over 400 years, 黑人男性, women and children have been victimized, threatened and murdered without just cause or justice. Why have these crimes gone unpunished? How has the sense of “just-us” become so poisoned? Who will stand up with Black individuals and families to call for the system-wide change that must happen?
Why is a non-threatening Black man dead at the hands of the very officers who are supposed to protect him, while a white man who openly threatens those around him is taken into custody and treated with consideration — while the community openly agrees with and approves of these practices?
This was the platform for the Let’s 谈论它 series: to give us all an opportunity to address our biases, 我们的特权, and the racial dynamic within which we exist and operate.
As a result of these conversations, participants have had meaningful, positive and life-changing awakenings. I have received many calls and messages from people who shared that they simply did not realize that what they were doing or saying was not racially appropriate or considerate — these conversations (and, 在某些情况下, actions) were just what they’d learned from their families.
I am both proud and grateful that 让我们谈谈 has given people an opportunity to embrace and enact positive change.
约翰尼·L. 里德,M.P.O.D., M.Ed.,亚足联®
Assistant Professor, Business Administration