Volume 1, Issue 5: July 23, 2020
R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*R einforcing I nclusion through S kill-building and E ducation
Image of Rep. John Lewis with quotation - If we fail to do what is right what is kind and what is just - history will not be kind to us. So you have a moral obligation to speak up - speak out - and get in trouble. You can do it. You must do it.
Remembering our Civil Rights Giants - Our Loss; Their Legacy

Our nation is mourning the loss of three Civil Rights leaders in the past week: U.S. Representative John Lewis , the Rev. C.T. Vivian , and Mississippi Civil Rights leader Charles Evers . And while we celebrate the accomplishments that our nation achieved as a result of their tireless efforts, it is bittersweet in this current historical moment to recognize that so many of the ideals that they worked for have yet to be attained.

In his recent Rolling Stones article , Jamil Smith states that "the passing of civil rights leaders such as Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian... provokes tributes and recollections of their courage in the face of violence and insults alike, as it should." However, Smith proposes that "Rather than focusing purely on the late Lewis and Vivian, we should shine a harsher light onto the nation that failed them-- the one that, instead of being decent, set them along the path that made their heroism necessary in the first place.

"For so long, those two men and their contemporaries contemplated an America where a fight for basic civil rights should be unnecessary. Why does this nation, which claims to be so free and so brave, continue to require such bravery to be free? "

The fight for equal rights and access for all human beings, in America and around the world, is not over, but it is now ours. We are the legacy that they left for us.

So, I would like to recognize and thank these great individuals for their commitment, determination, motivation, and inspiration.  We must continue to work towards the day that basic freedoms do not require the bravery that they so often exhibited. We should use this moment to reflect on what more each one of us can do to make this a better society, a more just nation, and a more humane world. 

These are goals that are at the core of our university’s mission and values. But more importantly, these goals should also have a central place in the heart of every person who wants tomorrow’s world to be better than today’s. Let us all strive to the same level of heroism, until that world becomes less of a dream and more of a reality.
 
This is our commitment as an office, and as partners in our community. Let us hold each other accountable as we strive to live up to their legacy.

-- Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D., Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Image of Rev CT Vivian with quote - You can't create the Beloved Community on yesterday's understandings. It's up to us to create the world we really want. We have to say it - we have to sing it - we have to do it.
Upcoming Events:
Image - cover of the book The Person You Mean to Be - How Good People Fight Bias - by Dolly Chugh
Summer Community Book Read Discussion
This Monday, July 27 we will host the first of four Zoom discussion sessions for our Summer Community Book Read. If you are part of the Book Read, please join us for the discussion at 7:00 pm.

(There is still time to join the Book Read! Email us at diversity@jcu.edu to be added to the group.)
Affinity Spaces continue every other week
silhouette image of a group of 7 people in a line with multicolored speech bubbles above their heads
Our Affinity Spaces continue to open for conversation and mutual support every other week on Friday afternoons. Our next gatherings will be held on Friday, July 24 at 2:00 pm (BIPOC) and 3:00 pm (AARA). New participants are welcome. Open to faculty, staff, students and alumni. Please join us!

Click the links below to sign up for the next Affinity Space meetings:
image of a cup of coffee with a heart drawn in the foam
Join us for Coffee!
Every Wednesday morning from 9:30-10:15 am, The DEI Division hosts a virtual "Coffee with Colleagues" chat. Please join us! All faculty, staff and graduate assistants are welcome.
Social Justice Movie Series
The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion  is hosting Virtual Movie Watch Parties every Thursday evening in July at 8:00 pm.

For information and watch party links for tonight's film and all films in the series, click below to register or follow CSDI on Instagram:  @jcucsdi.
image of promotional flyer for July 30 film showing of the movie Blindspotting
R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week
How to Get Started in Racial Equity Work:
Plant a Justice T.R.E.E.E.
Tiffany Galvin Green, Ph.D.
and Megan T. Wilson-Reitz


“I want to help promote racial equity… but where do I start?”

Over the past few months, DEI professionals everywhere have been working quickly to try to answer this question, in conversations seeded by our friends and colleagues who are alert to the national conversation about racial justice happening in our streets, on our television screens, in our family meals, and at our conference tables. Everywhere we look, we see new actions sprouting — conversations and dialogues, protests and demands, pledges and promises, statements. But in the middle of so much new growth around us, where do we plant ourselves?

...Recently, we have been asked to engage with people across our university community who are asking for guidance about how to make (or deepen) their own commitment to cultivating the work of racial equity. In response to this need, we have developed an organic framework for answering the question “How do I get started in racial equity work?” We call it the “Justice T.R.E.E.E.” (Tackling Racism: Educate, Engage, and Effect Change).*

* This model was also presented in a webinar for the  Alumni Continuing Education Series  on June 29. The recording is available for download through Alumni Affairs. Division staff are available to offer discussions on this material for other groups.

. ... (click below to read more)
Announcements from our network:
New Racial Justice Resource Page at ISN

Our partners at the Ignatian Solidarity Network have developed a new page of Racial Justice Resources on their website. This terrific resource includes articles, reflections, prayer services, and much more, from institutions across the Ignatian family and beyond.


Image of yard sign reading - Racism is a Sin - Black Lives Matter - with logo of Ignatian Solidarity Network in bottom corner