“The one thing they can’t take away from us is hope” – John Lewis “Hope is not magic. Hope is hard work.”

Update on Bishop Healy Donation and HC Alumni Relations Discussion

• Thank you everyone!! Amazing job!! Our 2020 group donation of over $10,000 has “eyebrows raised”! And at least another $5,000 has been committed for 2021.

• Our HC contacts (Alumni Relations; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Office of Multicultural Education) were excited for potential partnership with us, and the dialogue continues. They seemed really hopeful that we exist.

• Will be sending a letter to administration shortly to introduce our group, mission, and vision

• Alumni/student engagement opportunities

  • request for mentors (anyone interested in mentoring please send their information to Maria with a 2-3 line description of the services you would like to offer)

  • alumni facilitators for the LIFT program Spring webinars (helping students build social capital and transitioning to life after Holy Cross); anyone interested can contact the OME at OME@holycross.edu or reach out to Maria or Kerri

Reflections on the January 6 events

It’s a logistical progression of the last four years

Lies have so much power right now

“A big lie undoes a society…” (@TimothyDSnyder)

Who are the victims in this?

I struggle with what to say to my kids

Dialogue (with those that think differently) feels like a big step

We need to do everything we can in our circles to try to make things right

My hopeful piece is the teachers I work with

Need to engage better with people who think differently than me

There are more good people out there than those that aren’t

What’s actionable here?

Digging Deep: Open Discussion

• What can we do in our own professions and fields to make change/increase diversity? I want to know how others in their respective professions are addressing this

• What does the conversation look like in different professions

• Need to come up with strategies to combat these kinds of biases (when a black person is successful “they don’t deserve it”, etc.) That rhetoric is at the heart of what’s going on

• Dialogue around how people are encountering different forms of racism in their worlds

• The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein (history of how our government segregated America)

• Redefine “reparations”

• Systemic racism is a “groundwater problem” (The Racial Equity Institute)

• Focus on our corners of the world where we can make real impact, tangible impact; genuine opportunity to make a better world

• Gain perspective on the psychology of racism, cult behavior, facism; how do you have a discourse now – the psychology of reaching people where they are right now?

• Immerse ourselves in perspectives

• A country is built on truth and trust; if you don’t have truth and trust, violence ensues.

In pursuit of truth and trust: If crusaders can deliver with truth and trust, the world is going to get better

• Insurrection has been happening to blacks in America for a long time

• Whites have to solve white racism; blacks can’t solve white racism

• Explore small breakout groups by topic/interest as part of our monthly meetups

• How do we bring the circle back to HC (acknowledging that many of us have not been involved with college efforts in recent years)? How do make a circle that expands out?

• How do you give power back? Explore groups like Black Voters Matter

• Stay motivated by the student experience, that human connection

• It’s apartheid state; there is a great deception taking place

February Meetup

• We will fold our February meetup into HC’s Winter MLK Book Read featuring the book Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, authored by Fr. Bryan Massangale, Fordham University, and HC Faculty and Staff

• Wednesday, February 10, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Register Here

• We will hold our own short “afterZoom” following this webinar to share additional perspectives (separate link/invite to come)

Relevant Resources, Reads, and Mentions (in Egnyte folder)

• Heather Cox Richardson – BC History Professor

• The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein

• Edward Fergus – Associate Professor of Urban Education and Policy at Temple University

• “A big lie undoes a society…” (@TimothyDSnyder): Books – Bloodlands, On Tyranny, The Road to Unfreedom

• The Racial Equity Institute

• SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice 1/13 webinar: White Backlash: why it happens and how we fight back:

• NYT Magazine Reparations article

• Podcast: You’re Wrong About (Episode: Losing your Parents to FOX News)

“There are too many finger pointers – we need more thumb pointers.”