On purpose?

I used to work at a college that often hosts conferences and lecture series with speakers for which all of them are usually White and if lucky, perhaps a woman. What is disconcerting about the most current one is that the topic is moral and ethical leadership in American society. Without saying a word, what's conveyed is that people of color nor women are leaders for this kind of leadership. It stuns me to think that they could not find ONE person of color to address this topic especially in light of the history of the Black church in Civil Rights both past and present. It's also interesting (and sad) that they have a White woman addressing millenials when this generation is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse to this day. The truth is that this college has a pattern of choosing all white speakers and makes me wonder if this is actually intentional. Ignorance can only go so far.

However, I can't limit my critique to a Christian liberal arts college. I must admit that I was disappointed to see that a public small college that recently hosted an event was easily 95% White in attendance, and only one of six speakers on the panel was a person of color. Thankfully, the balance of gender was much better. Unfortunately I noticed that the one lone woman of color spoke only once as questions weren't directed to her, and I found that the men (no surprise) spoke up the most. What was particularly curious was that the topic was about toxic stress in communities in Rhode Island. Since many of the communities impacted by poverty and toxic stress tend to be lower income and of color, it begs the question of why there was such a glaring lack of representation in the attendees and the speakers.

Conservative or liberal or all ways in between, we have a ways to go...


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