By SUSAN JONES
Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems will be the host this year of an official event for the National Day of Racial Healing, which was started in 2017 by the W.W. Kellogg Foundation and takes place on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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Participation is free, but registration is required to secure your spot at the National Day of Racial Healing event on Jan. 21. Registration will remain open until the event reaches capacity. Ron Idoko said last week that about 50 people had already signed up and the space has room for about 200.
For questions or additional information, please contact us at crsp@pitt.edu.
The foundation, which hosts both in-person and virtual events throughout the country, defines racial healing as “the experience shared by people when they speak openly and hear the truth about past wrongs and the negative impacts created by individual and systemic racism.” Fundamental to the day is a “clear understanding that racial healing is at the core of racial equity.”
At Pitt, the theme for the program is “Understanding and Navigating Racial Anxiety: Cultivating Transformative Racial Healing.” It will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Jan. 21 in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room. It is open to Pitt faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the community.
“The event is to really bring people together to talk about how we heal our communities, to address systemic racism, create environments where people can have safe, productive conversation on the topic,” said Ron Idoko, associate director of the Center on Race and Social Problems. The community is invited, he said, because “I think as an institution we certainly owe it to the region to be able to help drive some of the dialogue and to really help think about how we make positive change happen.”
The Pitt event will specifically hone in on the theme of addressing racial anxiety, he said, “recognizing that for many people to even get into the place of wanting to talk, you have to address the anxiety that makes it difficult to have the conversation.”
Idoko said many people are fearful of saying the wrong thing, not knowing enough, upsetting someone, or being upset or misunderstood themselves. “You’re not the only one who might feel like, ‘Oh, this is a very difficult conversation.’ If anything, most people feel that way, and we can learn to change that dynamic.
“Racial anxiety often stifles productive conversations,” he said. “It can often derail or hinder meaningful relationships, and ultimately impact our ability to foster meaningful change, because if you can’t talk about the change you want to see, then it’s going to be very difficult to implement it.”
The discussions will cover many topics, including:
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Insights on what racial healing is and its importance and role in fostering societal transformation.
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Exploration of the dynamics of racial anxiety, its impact on interpersonal and institutional interactions, and pathways to healing. Idoko said they are developing a racial anxiety worksheet so people can have tools to understand how anxiety might manifest within themselves, so they can be more mindful of addressing it.
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Guided opportunities for attendees to reflect on their own experiences and envision “what is the world that you want to live in,” including actionable steps toward racial healing.
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The importance of talking about racial healing through a public health lens. He said the CDC and multiple state and local governments have declared racism a public health crisis.
In addition to the conversations, there will be a free lunch, music and art. “We want to get people to move away from the framing of these conversations as always tense, always centered on trauma, and to say, ‘No, it’s more about community building, empowerment, being uplifted,’ ” Idoko said.
There also will be time for networking and for sharing tools, programs or initiatives that people are using to help foster change.
Idoko said that though we have to be “mindful of what’s happening in society that can make people feel more frustrated or isolated or disenfranchised,” in the end no matter who wins an election or what else is going on, “we still need to be able to talk about this, we still need to be able to have productive dialogue. And we need to recognize, too, that part of the frustration or the divisions that we experience are because we don’t know how to have ongoing, robust, productive dialogue.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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