Anti
racism
initiative
approved
Katy Wurster
FORUM EDITOR
"Racism is destructive to the
health and well-being of everyone,
everywhere, and Guilford College
is not immune."
So says the new Guilford
College Anti-Racism Initiative,
which was endorsed by the Board
of Trustees in February and which
the faculty and staff approved last
week. The initiative, which will
formally begin next fall, is de
signed to analyze and dismantle
institutional racism at Guilford in
a process that could take 20 years.
In order to develop the ini
tiative, college administrators, fac
ulty, and staff, have been work
ing with members of the Cross
roads Ministry, an organization
that describes itself as "an inter -
faith ministry for racial justice that
provides education and training
to dismantle racism and build
anti-racist multicultural diver
sity." Over the next two years.
Crossroads members will train a
diverse cross-section of the
Guilford community to analyze
institutional racism at the college.
'The team will focus on look
ing at the way racism perpetuates
itself in institutions," said Judy
Harvey, Director of Internships
and Service Learning and the self
described glue who will hold the
program together. "[We need] to
learn how racism functions and
perpetuates it self in an institution
as well-meaning as Guilford."
Next year will serve as a team
building, training, and strategic
planning period for the anti-rac
ism team. Training will occur in
August and over fall and spring
breaks, as well as throughout the
academic year. The team will con
sist of trustees, senior adminis
trators, alums, faculty, staff, main
campus students, CCE students,
and several members of the
Greensboro community. Ideally,
according to Harvey, the team will
include people of all colors, sev
eral queer people, and several
Quakers.
f THE
GUILFORDIAN
Greensboro, NC
%j ■ v £* t ',' „•;* ?'• ; H
- i i'&i '- C''-.::: ■ ; : • ::■ I
"We want to encourage wide
application, wide interest, and
wide participation," said psychol
ogy professor Claire Morse, who
has also taken on a leadership role
in planning the Initiative.
The team will develop anti
racism strategies that are suited
to Guilford's particular back
ground, situation, and needs.
Over the next several years, they
will work to implement these
plans to make all aspects of the
Guilford community act ively anti
racist. This is a lofty goal: every
one involved acknowledges that
the process will take at least 20
years.
James Shields, Coordinator
of Volunteer Training, believes
that the initiative will benefit all
those who work on it, even before
the goals are accomplished.
"[Racism] is not only in the usual
places that we think about it,"
Shields said, "but it's in our insti
tutions. When we go out into the
community, I don't want to be a
hypocrite."
Shields pointed out that al
though the college claims to be
non-discriminatory, "there are
still systems in place that create
a situation where you only have a
few people of color in the faculty,
but then look at the housekeep
ing department. There are lots of
people of color."
This is the difference between
institutional racism and the other
forms Crossroads Ministry iden
tifles - individual and cultural. If
an institution is racist, and cer
tain elements of its structure per
petuate that racism, even the best
intentions of individuals involved
in the institution may not be pro
ductive. This is why Crossroads
designs programs to be imple
mented over several decades.
"Institutional change is de
signed to be slow, and hard, and
to not disrupt the institution,"
said philosophy professor Lisa
McLeod, who helped to write the
proposal that was approved by the
Board, faculty, and staff. Because
the programs do take so long, it
is difficult to imagine what the end
result will be. "Nobody in our
culture has any idea exactly what
an anti-racist institution would
look like," she said.
The faculty, staff, and trust
ees, however, seem to be looking
forward to finding out. Although
the Initiative has not yet been for -
mally presented to students, sev
eral students have been working
with the faculty in the planning
stages. Member of the White Per -
spectives on Racial Issues group
-i
April 19, 2002
will host a meeting next week for
interested students.
'The only thing we're miss
ing, really, is money," said
McLeod. Although the college has
pledged approximately $30,000 to
fund the first two years, the total
cost will reach at least $90,000.
In theory, the difference will be
made up by foundational grants.
But "it's more important than
how much it's going to cost," said
Shields. 'This goes a long way to
helping us say, this is what
Guilford is about."
With the college in a state of
transition, the organizers of the
initiative hope that it will become
an integral part of Guilford's mis
sion and identity. As an institu
tion that "seeks to cultivate re
spect for all individuals," the col
lege needs to directly address, in
actions as well as in words, issues
of discrimination and prejudice.
Anyone who wants to apply
for a position on the anti-racism
team should attend the meeting
next Wednesday night at 7:30 (lo
cation to be announced), or con
tact Judy Harvey.