Stanford community encouraged to attend events increasing awareness of racial hatred
Over the next three months, a series of events at Stanford will aim to improve awareness of racial hatred and honor the diversity of the campus community.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs announced this week a series of events called “Education Against Racial Hatred,” which are meant to increase awareness of racial intolerance and to honor the diversity of the Stanford community.
Susie Brubaker-Cole, vice provost for student affairs, has announced a new series of events to honor the diversity of the campus community. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)
The announcement comes in response to recent acts of racism nationally, internationally and on the Stanford campus. All Stanford students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff and administrators are encouraged to attend.
The first event is a screening of Harriet, a new biographical film about Harriet Tubman, followed by a conversation with the film’s producer, Debra Martin Chase, that is open to students. The event takes place Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6 p.m. at CinéArts at Palo Alto Square.
The next event will feature the work of Project 562, a multi-year effort to photograph all 562 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States. The exhibition opens Friday, Nov. 8, in the Old Union Clubhouse Cardinal Room. It will feature excerpts from Matika Wilbur’s “Natural Wanderment: Stewardship, Sovereignty and Sacredness” series. The exhibition will remain open through January 2020.
Another event – “Experience Sankofa Project” – combines installation art with history to create an interactive timeline of African and American history. Using provocative period-specific “living installations” with actors and models, the project evokes visceral emotions as an ode to African peoples’ greatness, oppression, resistance and aspiration. This event will take place Thursday, Nov. 21, in Tresidder Memorial Union. For more information, contact Dereca Blackmon, assistant vice provost and executive director of inclusion and diversity education
The final event, “Hacking Hate,” is a student-designed hackathon for teams to research and propose ways to address racial hatred and violence on and off campus. The offices of the president and provost will provide winning teams with funding and resources to implement their proposals. The event will take place Saturday, Jan. 25, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a location to be announced. For more information, contact Emelyn dela Peña, associate vice provost for inclusion, community and integrative learning.
In a message sent Wednesday to all students, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole encouraged the Stanford community to attend these events. They are part of the university’s push for greater education and awareness of racial intolerance in the midst of reported incidents of racial hatred, aggression and violence in the United States and internationally. They are also a response to incidents of racial hatred at Stanford, including the appearance of a noose on campus last summer.
In the wake of these incidents, a group of students, faculty and administrators, including Brubaker-Cole, have been working to find ways to raise awareness of racial intolerance and to embrace the diversity of the Stanford community. The group’s goals are 1) to provide more opportunities for community education about racism in our country and on our campus, recognizing that education is only one of multiple changes necessary and underway, and 2) to give voice to the diversity on our campus and to dedicate efforts toward amplifying that voice.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved, and I’d especially like to thank the students involved for their time and energy pulling together an absolutely outstanding series of events,” Brubaker-Cole said. “We’re hoping to keep the momentum going and would truly appreciate hearing from any individual or group that would like to get involved.”
More information on these and additional events in this series will be shared in the coming weeks. Stanford groups organizing campus events addressing racial intolerance are encouraged to share details with Student Affairs for possible inclusion in future communications.