The week of October 19, the University of Maryland’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosted its third annual Rise Above “-Isms” week featuring various events that explored racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia and more.
“The attempt in the event is to address systems of discrimination and prejudice and really looking at biases that we all have and how to address them and think about them and have an opportunity for us to have campus wide conversations about these issues,” Beth Douthirt Cohen, director of education and training at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, explained.
The events she describes are not like a typical academic panel or lecture. They are set up to be interactive and engaging giving people the opportunity to gather their thoughts and express themselves. Douthirt Cohen said that there is a lot of ideological segregation currently in our culture, and this is an opportunity to have conversations across different believe systems.
“We try to create spaces where people can think about what they are thinking and what they are feeling,” she said. “We try to honor both what people’s feelings are around topics as well as what they are thinking about topics, and create smaller spaces where they can name that and articulate that and larger spaces where everyone can hear it.”
While the –isms and phobias covered during the week have national and global context, the goal is to talk about what is happening on campus. Douthirt Cohen hoped that people ended the week thinking about ways to make UMD more inclusive.
“We want to raise awareness of the fact that these isms are out there they exist they haven’t gone away and it takes all of us to interrupt them and to address them,” Douthirt Cohen said.
Photo via OMSE Twitter
Day 1:
What’s in a Name? What Difference Does it Make?
This event discussed historical namings of various institutions, particularly around the discussion of Byrd Stadium and the Redskins. Students showed a lot of interest in discussing in this topic.
“We think about these namings that [are] kind of all around us and how do we determine whether or not the name should be changed and that kind of thing,” Douthirt Cohen said.
#ITooAmMaryland, and We Belong Here Together
This event, a repeat from last year, explored microaggressions that UMD students have, exclusivity and ways to make campus more inclusive.
“It’s not the blatant aggressive, racist or sexist misogynistic remarks,” senior government and politics and criminology major Forrest Hane said. “Those aren’t things I think we need to worry about as much. It’s the smaller aggressive acts the smaller disrespects to people that you don’t think have an impact on them that have a large impact. They are being disrespectful or rude or non-empathetic in smaller ways that are equally important.”
Hane enjoyed the conversations about actual solutions to these issues and not just a discussion.
Domonic Rollins, an education and training specialist in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, led the event. His goal was for people to understand how everyone participates in excusive behavior.
“I think sometimes as folks of color or LGBT people or gender queer folk we sit in our marginalized space and we might not think about the ways we sometimes have power,” Rollins said. “I wanted that to be something people had an ah-ha moment around and I think that was achieved here.”
Day 2:
Trans*Advocacy Training
While Douthirt Cohen said that the week aims to touch on as many –isms as possible they like to focus on ones that people have less experience with.
“The trans advocacy training [facilitates] understanding the experiences of gender nonconforming people,” Douthirt Cohen said. “What does that mean? What does that look like? I think we think about gender as a very binary you are either a man or a woman and so kind of interrupting people’s understanding of that is going to take time. I think for a majority of our community it is not something we are talking about all the time.”
Interrupting Sexism: A Photo Booth
“We have an interrupting sexism photo booth where it’s really about what are ways we can interrupt and stop sexism on our campus,” Douthirt Cohen said.
An Afternoon Conversation with Alicia Garza, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter
Garza held a two hour-long talk about her involvement in the #BlackLivesMatter movement and took time at the end to answer audience questions.
“I think we need to figure out how to have folks in motion because that’s what you should be doing,” Garza said.
Annabelle Maldonado got emotional when she walked into the room.
“This is a room full of people who are ready for change,” Maldonado said. “That was very powerful image. This whole room times five people and the networks and the experiences we all bring to the movement.”
She asked a question about black and brown unity and hopes to take Garza’s advice to realize her vision.
Photo via OMSE Twitter
“I think that was really big for me because how do you go about tackling that?” Maldonado asked. “So my biggest take away is really addressing these uncomfortable situations between black and brown folks. We don’t always have or have never created space to have so I think for me I’m going to go and look for those spaces or create them.”
Courtney Humphrey, a senior criminology and criminal justice major, attended to get clarification on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and said it helped to hear her explain why she does it and her plans for the movement.
“Just to hear the passion behind her voice and that she loves and respects herself as a black female as a black person was beautiful,” Humphrey said.
Day 3:
Self Care & Healing in Social Justice Movements
Douthirt Cohen pointed out how difficult it can be to work in some of these movements. This year they added events like this one aimed at sustaining yourself when dealing with these heavy topics.
“We are in the middle of multiple civil rights movements in this country,” she said. “People who are active in those and attempting to be in those, how do they sustain themselves in that work? It’s not easy to do.”
Who Gets to Stay & Who is Told to Leave?: Immigration Stories from Our Community
This event discussed xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. Students discussed ways to bring awareness to other cultures on campus and how to make international students feel welcome.
“The vast majority of us unless we are indigenous to the United States either came here due to voluntary or involuntary immigration reasons,” Douthirt Cohen said. “We all need to think about [our relationship to immigration] even though we might not think it affects us directly.”
Olaedo Onu, a freshman biochemistry student and first-generation American with Nigerian heritage, appreciated this type of event. Growing up she said that sometimes she felt like she was not looked at as an American. She experienced judgment because of the foods she brought to school and her foreign sounding name.
“As we got older people would ask me what my name meant or how to pronounce it,” Onuh said. “Teachers here will ask me, how do you say your name? It used to be they would just assume how to say it.”
Her name means golden or precious gem.
Day 4:
Radical Access, Disability Justice & Awkward Ableism
In conjunction with disability awareness month Rise Above “–isms” week featured an event on the disability justice movement.
“[It] is really focused on what prejudice against people with disabilities looks like because I think it’s a system of prejudice people are less familiar with,” Douthirt Cohen said.
The session was led by Mollie Greenberg, a PhD student in the department of sociology. She taught about ableism, how it exists and how it needs to be disrupted.
“With any –ism, racism, sexism and ableism you can not disrupt that systemic oppression without having honest dialogue and that’s what I wanted today to be,” Greenberg said.
“Because Mollie has the academic expertise and studies the area …and you live it, you bring not only your academic background but your personal insight and experiences into teaching, and your critical pedagogy is a helpful way to interrogate ableism in a multifaceted intersectional wonderful awesomeness,” Stephanie Cork, a PhD student in kinesiology added.
Driskell After Dark: Resistance, Hope & Justice in Art, Song, & Poetry
At the final event, students had the opportunity to perform and use art as a way to talk about the world changing, what needs to change and how to address these -isms.
Students presented works on race, gender and religion. Senior government and politics major Opeyemi Owoeye, stage name O-slice, performed Preach her poem about the new civil rights movement within the African-American community. She spoke about American history in lines like ‘stolen from the Navajos built by slaves.’ She said it took her two years to write.
“[It is] very cool to be around people who are my age who are talking about a lot of social issues and applying that to art and poetry,” Crystal Martin, a senior neurobiology and physiology major and poetry minor, said.
The week wrapped up with Omekongo Dibinga from Upstander, a bully prevention awareness organization, leading a responsive reciting of an affirmation he uses in motivational speeches:
“Today I give myself permission to no longer be a volunteer victim. I will live life by my own rules and no longer listen to liars, haters and fools. I will take control of my own destiny and let no one get the best of me. For if it is meant to be it is up to me.”