You may know that being a lawyer is an important part of my personal journey. It was my work in law that first helped me to understand what institutional and interpersonal bias look like, how they function, and how we can work toward #BreakingBias.
Last week, I attended the Antiracist Development Institute at Penn State Dickinson Law’s Second Annual Convening at in beautiful Carlisle, PA to give a book talk on Breaking Bias and learn from like-minded professionals across the legal academy and higher education to re-design our systems for greater equity, belonging, and justice.
My time at the convening began with an #antiracist tour of #Gettysburg. I bore witness to dozens of monuments dedicated to Confederate generals and the Confederate cause, with ZERO imagery of Black, Brown or Indigenous people – or women for that matter – as well as scarce mention of the word enslavement or slavery. It was at that moment that I knew, we have so much work to do ahead. The work of humanizing the experiences of our Black and Brown ancestors and to face the identity-based entitlement and superiority entrenched in our culture.
This experience connected seamlessly with my Breaking Bias book talk with Dean Danielle Conway, where we talked about how all of the systems that create identity-based disparities are human-made…and that this means we humans can redesign and recreate them! #DesignThinking
Over the three days, I was also honored to sit in on ADI’s POD strategies, the law’s school’s required “Race and the Protection of the Law” class, and be inspired by the wisdom of the Rev. Dr. Eddie Glaude.
One of the core ideas at the heart of Breaking Bias is the idea that we don’t have to accept a system as it is: we can suggest, build, and iterate on changes that create the world we want to see. No change is too small to make an impact or too radical to consider fully – and that’s just as true in our own spiritual practices as it is in the legal education community.
Thanks to TaWanda Hunter Stallworth, M. Div., Serena Hermitt, Danielle Conway, Dermot Groome, Eddie Glaude, Sean Shultz, Jamie Merida, Victoria Sanchez, Vernadette Horne, Kristina Ebanks, Christina Lazaro, Dr. Carleen C., Ray Brescia, Nicole Dyslewski…. And everyone else who makes this work possible. We are doing this, and we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors as we march on together!
❤️ I’m grateful to be surrounded by big dreamers and hard workers imagining an end to racism and all forms of -isms. Who are YOU grateful for in YOUR communities today?
#NeuroDecolonization #MindScience #Compassion #Meditation #HealingTogether #BreakingBias
