Now it is my pleasure to introduce our
two speakers for today
first Dr. Maleea Johnson Dr. Johnson
received her doctorate of education in
administration
and higher education from point park
university in 2018
and she is currently the director of
equity and inclusion
for Carlow University Dr Johnson is a
strong
advocate for equity and diversity in the
educational arena and has been for
20 plus years she has experience
ranging from early childhood advocacy to
teaching instruction
of doctoral level courses surrounding
conflict management
collaborating and working with students
of all genders
races ethnicities and backgrounds has
been her area of focus
while at Carlow Mr Ryan Scott is our
next speaker
Mr Scott is the director of the Social
Justice Institutes at Carlow University
as director Mr Scott provides vision
leadership and strategic direction to
four distinctive institutes
the well-established Grace Ann Geibel
Institute
for justice and mercy the center for
community engaged
learning the center for youth media
advocacy
and the educate for justice initiative
Mr Scott is currently pursuing his
doctorate of education
with an area of concentration in higher
education management
his dissertation will be focused on
culturally responsive
pre-college programs and the connection
to college matriculation for students of
color
i want to thank you both for being with
us today and please take it away
good afternoon everyone um this is Maleea 
Johnson
I'd like to welcome you I want to honor
your time I thank you for being part of
this discussion
I've had the opportunity to have several
discussions similar to this this summer
with the Carlow community and within
other communities
and I want to always say that I  think it
is critical that we have
continue these conversations this is a
continuation of some that were started
already this summer
and that we never get tired of having
this conversation
just based on the state that our country
is currently in
um Ryan and Ii chose this topic which is
not a new topic i mean
it's been heard several times throughout
the summer um and actually through the
last several months racism a pandemic
within the pandemic because
as as we're all really still in Covid
and that
there are you know this is the height of
Covide really for many of us it's a
global pandemic we know
we're also dealing with another crisis
which is one of racial inequality
and social injustice Ryan you can turn
to the next slide
and to be very clear we know that this
is not a new
crisis but rather the result of years of
systemic and institutionalized
racism that has led to discrimination
and disadvantage of particularly people
of color black and brown
individuals I said this earlier this
year
we didn't get here overnight and this is
not something that's going to be solved
overnight either but also for those
individuals
in the black and brown community we're
not only just experiencing
Covid which is such a infectious disease
and a huge threat to
the largest threat of the century to
americans period but
for black and brown people we're still
facing police violence we're still
facing
high unemployment rates as well so it is
um
truly a pandemic within the pandemic for
our communities
you can turn many um
many African-American and I believe I
was reading in the New York Times one
gentleman says you know
he said it's such a moment of pain
within our community right now and
what I have to figure out is am I going
to die from Covid-19 or am I going to
die from the system
which is police and just some data that
I
uh have and I actually executed and
pulled this out of some data that when I
had a collaboration with
CMU this past summer where we did
building the black and brown communities
building solidarity
students really had the opportunity to
highlight their skills and come before
other students
in the CMU and Carlow community and share
this information
and so some of this information has been
pulled out from that presentation but
one of the points I really wanted to
focus
in on was that black people account for
13 percent of the U.S population
however 23 percent
of that is Covid related deaths and
to me is just it's such a alarming
number that if we're 13 percent of the
population while we're already at 23
of Covid related deaths and if you look
at the chart as you can see
you know that is a lot those are the
largest racial ethnic groups in the 20
largest
death rates I mean that's to me it's
alarming
um and then you again you'll see in my
presentation I talk about do your
research go and do further research so
you can find out even more
information on such subjects as
this even down to Allegheny County
Ryan you can go to the next slide
and then we talk about uh you know so we
looked at kovic
and we're dealing with those covert
related deaths and how it's impacting
the black and brown communities and
not just how it's impacting them one
thing i didn't mention there was you
know
a lot of black and brown communities
cannot even get testing
have not had the opportunity to do that
so that's a whole
another aspect that we want to bring
into the discussion at some point but
not now
moving on to the mapping of police
murders nationally you can see what it
says
I'm not going to read all the data for
you but it says black time
black people are three times more likely
to be killed
by police than white people black people
are 1.3 more likely to be unarmed
compared to
white people and then I dropped down and
I wanted to look at and you can read on
your own 99
of killings by police from 2013 to 2019
have not not and I want to say not
resulted
in officers being charged with the crime
and I know ryan and I  were talking
earlier today and
Ryan you can chime in here with me but
this is where we were talking about
um some of the victims who again I mean
and there's a list of them but which was
the one that you were sharing about
earlier Ryan
so I was talking about the uh the murder
of Breonna Taylor
and the fact that uh the officers uh who
who murdered her uh are still not
not charged or convicted for for her
murder um and time and time again this
is one of the
uh pandemics if you will uh for for the
sake of our presentation
um that is is evident and it's happening
on a continual basis
and we like to just bring light and shed
light on these
these instances so that we can start
being advocates uh
in these regards thank you and so there
I mean there are a list
of victims who their assault their
their murders have not been at all dealt
with
but Ryan and I were just sharing this
earlier today
and I  know nationally what we're seeing
you can move on Ryan
um nationally what we're seeing is a lot
of people and the reason why I chose
that
actually can you go back to that last
slide why I chose that slide of
having George Floyd there is what
happens naturally over time is we tend
to
um get caught up in our daily lives
Covid is such
a huge pandemic right now and as we need
to pay a lot of attention
to it but also the pandemic of this
racism and this police
brutality I don't want this image to
be something that we forget about
because for many of us this is day in
and day out
and what we'll do is forget because we
have so many other things to do I wanted
this image to just remain in our minds
and remain very present
at all times of what is constantly going
on in
the United States and within our
communities against black and brown
people
okay um what I don't like to do though
is always just leave us on that
note of the negative I like to deal with
ways that we can build and be solution
oriented so what I've done here is
gathered done some research there are
different ways and we presented this in
our solidarity event
evaluate your biases educate yourself
there is no greater time than now to
lose the excuse of I did not know
you need to know and you need to educate
yourself we got the wonderful web out
here you can google
anything siri can tell you everything it
is time to dig in and do the research
and no longer use the excuse if i didn't
know
it's also time to lose the excuse of I'm
really uncomfortable having that
conversation
great I want you to feel that uncomfort
because when you're
at that place of discomfort is when
change can occur
find someone who will hold you
accountable help them just like we do
for when we're wanting to lose weight or
we set goals find you an accountability
buddy who's going to say hey
not sure about that you know check
someone who will help you check yourself
we do it for all all types of things
let's do it for this
engage in activism work and advocate for
equity
Ryan is going to be able to speak to
that a little bit more in his uh
presentation and I will let him do so
refuse to allow your privilege to
benefit
your causes only and that's a hard one
sometimes that we
choose to ignore but it's time to deal
with who has privilege who does not have
privilege
what is my privilege when is it at work
in me
and don't allow just to benefit you any
longer surround yourself with
individuals who are making
who are diverse in their thinking and
ways and being for some reason when we
get to diversity we think it is just
diversity of culture or race
but diversity is also diversity of
thought
so surround your people surround
yourself with people who definitely
think differently than you
and one of my favorites here speak up
refuse to sit
by and allow discriminatory practices
and conversations to be held around you
at all times speak up and refuse to
allow this behavior to continue
and what I love so much and right now it
says when you know
better when you know better you do
better by Maya Angelou
as of right now we're all held
accountable this is information that
we're being given so right now you know
better
moving forward I wanted to recap just
briefly some of the things that happened
this summer out of the office of equity
inclusion
and some of these were in combination
with other departments on campus
student outreach went forth this summer
to individuals and in group sessions
just to make sure that our students felt
like someone cared someone was concerned
someone was checking in on them to find
out how they were doing during Covid
how the death of George Floyd impacted
them and their family
and those group sessions were really um
powerful
and I'm thankful that I had a chance to
touch those students lives
town hall prayer service was in
combination with
uh campus ministry where we did a
overview of racism and there were four
types of racism but we really focused in
specifically on ins individual racism
and how it impacts us
and what we can do to change it within
the Carlow community
and we walked away saying we knew that
that was not going to be the last
of our conversations but the beginning
and that we were committed
on the Carlow campus as we even made a
commitment verbally and read out loud
what we need to do as a community and
then there was the building
solidarity in the black and brown
communities with cmu
which was powerful because students from
both campuses really spoke up and talked
about
what they felt they needed from our
institution as carlo and cmu to feel
supported and felt like they were going
to be getting solidarity built for them
during the school year
and then this coming saturday is a Carlow
diversity panel form discussion I
believe it's at 11 o'clock
it's for incoming freshmen but for
anyone who is interested in learning
more about diversity from the students
perspective
I'll be moderating it but it will be
students sharing their
experiences with other students and then
last but not least sometime in september
we'll have a
listening forum for students where we
get to sit down and really listen to
them as administrators
and student affairs individuals so we
can find out really what they're
thinking what they need and then we can
dialogue back with them and share some
of the things we're doing to hopefully
address their needs
and so with all that being said Ryan
will take over and he will really share
from his perspective
and from his office what they are doing
to
deal with this pandemic within the
pandemic and thank you for your time
oh I left something great off resources
how could I leave that off
what I will do is probably post them in
the chat as well some great resources to
support the Black community proactively
coping with racism black women for
wellness there's some podcasts on there
I know that you probably won't be able
to get them all right now so i will try
and put them all
in the chat for you as well thank you
thank you Dr Johnson and um and I would
encourage you all
uh to check out those resources as uh
many of them are really great
resources and to start discussion uh
surrounding race um the social justice
institute's in collaboration with the
office of equity and inclusion
and I see we have Dr. Pearl also on on
the uh
presentation as well um who is uh the
new director for the Atkins
Center for Ethics
uh has partnered for many of these
activities
uh and also I see Dr Chrys Gabrich also
on here as well who has
i've been instrumental in a lot of these
uh activities
but we've had several different speakers
come in regarding race and presentations
and workshops and and the like
um you see Dr Fania Davis who did uh
restorative justice practices
uh we did a two Covid panels on
race in policy and grassroots uh
nonprofit organizations
we brought in Dr. Yusef Salaam from the
exonerated five last year
we did a presentation long live their
legacy with the pittsburgh
pirates and several others throughout
our time here so carlo has a rich
history being committed to social
justice started with the Sisters of
Mercy
and we like to continue that tradition
in in our daily lives
some of the upcoming events for the fall
we have the pittsburgh solidarity
for change mural project right now and
actually us in the office of equity
inclusion will be partnering on this
initiative we're encouraging
uh Carlow faculty staff and students and
alumni uh to participate in that project
there'll be murals around the city of
pittsburgh and various
marginal historically marginalized areas
and we'd like to get you guys involved
and there's several ways to do that if
you wanted to if you're interested
please let me know you do not have to be
an artist
to be a part of that project but it's a
good way for community socially
distanced of course
um to participate in this sort of
project we'll also be partnering with
uh the library on the anti-racism book
club we're going to be looking at Ibram
Kendi's
book how to be an anti-racist uh so
we're encouraging faculty and staff to
participate in that
more details to follow we'll be doing
anti-racism workshops
in september we'll also be doing a
racial justice and health justice
workshop uh working with the school of
nursing
we're going to have our ongoing
presidential lecture series and it's our
second annual
uh so this year we're going to be
focused on understanding
um justice through the lens of social
justice and ethics
with Covid 19 and in regards to race
and then we're also going to be working
at the Carlow votes campaign
which is going to be looking at policies
and educating for justice we're going to
be educating on platforms we're going to
have debate watch parties
nonpartisan of course but we want to
make sure whatever issues that you're
passionate about you learn about
and you make educated decisions based on
that
okay so we started talking about racism
and
what does it mean to be an anti-racist
versus
being you know being a racist um so
we have six different ways these are
actually recommended from Ibram
Kendi's book so this isn't something
that I created but it was something that
stood out to me
and I thought that I should share with
you today the first one is
understanding the definition of racism
so if we look at the definition of
racism or racist
we look at webster's dictionary as a
belief that race is a primary
primary determinant of human traits and
capacities
and that racial differences produce an
inherent superiority
of a particular race number two
stop saying I'm not racist it's not
enough just to say I'm not racist and
it's often a self-serving sentiment
uh Dr. Kendi says that people can't
constantly change the definition of what
racism is and what it what it does
so it doesn't apply to them for example
if you're a white nationalist who is
non-violent then you might see the ku
klux klan as racist
if you're a democrat that thinks there's
something culturally wrong with black
people
then then racist if you're a democrat
that thinks that something's culturally
wrong with black people then racist you
might
say people are republicans
number three identify racial inequities
and disparities
racism yields racial inequities and
disparities in every sector
of private and public life and that's
everything from criminal justice to
education
politics employment income homeownership
even
is another aspect being anti-racist
means learning
about and identifying inequities and
disparities that give
in particular white people or any racial
group material advantages
over people of color
number four confront the racist ideas
you've held
on to or continue to hold we must
recognize our implicit biases
um I know we I saw a presentation
through the presidential lecture series
last year uh Dr. Clara Chang
did a phenomenal phenomenal uh
presentation on implicit biases
and I would encourage uh you to tap into
that and and
we may ask her back to do an another
series uh this year
uh on implicit biases
number five understanding how
anti-racism needs to be intersectional
so we must understand how
things connect with other things so how
does it connect with gender
sexuality and ethnicity it's imperative
to use an intersectional
approach when we're talking about
anti-racism
and number six be a champion champion
anti-racist
ideas and policies you can't be
anti-racist without action
so I'm going to repeat that you cannot
be anti-racist
without action ways you can take action
are by supporting organizations in your
community
that are fighting policies to create
racial disparities use your power
and privilege to make changes it could
be at the grade school level it could be
at the government or corporate levels
you just have to take action um someone
asked me before how can you do this
again I'd say uh through three things
your time your talent
and your treasure your time
your talent and your treasure
also be sure when you're um well
actually before I get to that I want to
also share a list of different resources
that you can use when looking at racial
justice these are some great books
obviously i talked about the how to be
an anti-racist book by Ibram
X. Kendi uh which we'll be doing at the
staff and faculty level
and some others here and i'll share this
in the chat as well
and our common read i just want to shout
out this year is Just <ercy
by Bryan Stevenson it was our common
reader last year but the university has
taken it ahold uh this year as well so
I'd encourage you to
follow that we also have some other
racial justice resources
um and this one uh a lot on this list
and I'll share this in the chat as well
um are geared towards uh kids as well so
if you're a parent and say how do I have
these
discussions with my kid um you know how
can I talk to them about issues that are
so
taboo in certain cases and you you just
don't know how to handle it
maybe I'm not an expert maybe my parents
didn't talk to me about it how can I do
that
um here's some resources there um also
to be make sure
in your collection when you're talking
to kids in particular
that include black children or other
children of color make sure that you're
sharing stories that experience
joy adventure and love otherwise you may
inadvertently portray
the black experience as one that is just
suffering or um
and not one that shows resilience and we
want to make sure that you know you're
holistic when you're showing that from
not not a deficit model
but more so from an asset based model
and finally uh for this in the interest
of time because we want to get to some
of your questions
uh this is a quote from the late uh
John Congressman John Lewis who is
actually a dear friend of mine
uh so I think I  would be remiss if I
didn't shout him out in this
presentation
never ever be afraid to make some noise
and get in good trouble
necessary trouble and that's something
that I would leave you with today
as we go forward in life together
thank you so much Maleea and Ryan um i
love that last quote Ryan perfect
perfect way to end this conversation um
so
let me check the chat and
I know we did have some questions in
there um
one of the questions I think that was
asked and perhaps answered but it's
worth repeating
um question from one of our trustees of
the 171 people in pennsylvania killed by
police
how many or what percentage were persons
of color
and Jess Gold wrote back there is a
website
mappingpoliceviolence.org is a research
collaborative collecting
comprehensive data on police killing
nation police killings nationwide
so that's a source
mappingpoliceviolence.org
and that information that was on the
slide underneath
it had the resource that is exactly
where it was taken from so if you go
into
that you can actually tap on it and it
can break it all down for you according
to raise
gender and now what it will do it will
show it to you visually but I could not
get it to nail it down for me and give
me a percentage
but if you play around with it more you
probably can really get it down to the
percentage but you'll be able to see
everything you want on thatmapping.org
great
terrific um we have a question about
will alumni be able to join the
anti-racism book club I know that's
intended to be for students our alumni
welcome as well
well we do have one that's going to be
it's going to be started geared towards
faculty
and uh and staff and we wanted to kind
of intentionally start there as
as we're serving our major stakeholder
which is our students
um but that is something that you know
the the uh
I guess the sky's the limit I mean if
it's something of interest
for alumni to do get in contact with me
and if we can get a group together to
supplement that let's do it
terrific well we can include it in an
upcoming newsletter to alumni and see
what kind of interest there there might
be
that's great um we have a question about
do you think the
elections how are the elections going to
affect
the racial situation any thoughts on
that
that's a sixty thousand dollars yeah
yeah I say that yeah that's a really
good one but um I'd say yeah definitely
it's gonna have uh some impact good and
positively and negatively I mean we're
seeing it now um
one of the things that we talked about
offline uh before this call and I think
it was the
just the four of us uh Kim Maleaa myself
and Amy
um just you know out of all of the
trials and
controversy um there's been a lot of
great things that have come out of it
one there's been a lot of different
policy changes that have taken place as
a result
we have a lot of young people a lot of
people who are taking activism
you know by the hands and really going
out and advocating for change
um so and at the same time you do see
some
some people who are doing some negative
things too um so i think it's it's a
both and
I think some things um have to get worse
before they get better
um but you know unfortunately I think
that um you know
it's just with anything any any change
that that occurs you're going to have
on both positive and negative outcomes
Maleea do you have any comments on that
or should I move on you know what I was
thinking to myself that it this is such
an
intense time in history right now
and with all that we are dealing with
facing the racial injustices and
inequity
I definitely think this election as you
said that's the 60 000
question right there if not way more
than that
I definitely think that this this
election is going to be
critical and key and if nothing else you
know
get out and vote if it is you cannot get
out and vote
in person please mail in your
vote as soon as you can so that it can
be counted
there's a lot of different things going
on that could prevent
um your voting and I will just leave
it at that but
do yourself a favor do us all a favor
get out and vote be a part of it your
voice needs to be heard if you wanted to
have impact start with you i believe
everything begins with us
terrific agree um so
the civil rights tour and i know that
um Linda schifino uh was a key person
starting that and I think she's on the
call uh
today can you talk about that Ryan and
the importance of that
um activity for our students well
certainly appreciate that um and that
was actually one of the things on my
list and so
thank you for bringing that up linda
thank you please forgive me
uh one of the uh important things that
we have is our civil roots of the civil
rights tour
um which we're really excited about it
actually happens every two years
this year was actually canceled due to
the Covid 19 pandemic
however it's an opportunity for students
to get a nine-day
tour of the deep south and you'll hear
from different stakeholders who were
part of the civil rights movement
visit historical sites um and really
just
encapsulate themselves in a a an
experience that will give them
you know realities of what it was like
during the times of the civil rights
um and we're hoping that it's a
transformative experience that when
students go
um they come back change and they come
back different uh thinking differently
um on how they view the world and it's
an excellent opportunity that we're
encouraging students
uh to participate in it is actually low
cost so during
you know with the help of alumni who
have done a fabulous job
um with their financial contributions
to make it possible um you know without
you you don't
you have these experiences um so we you
know like to thank you and we
we urge you to continue to help support
uh civil rights tours for our students
so that they have this experience
and are there plans then to have um that
tour this coming summer
yes the plan is in june uh so they they
go on a nine day tour and it's actually
for credit purposes
also so  I mean like I said it's actually
a course that the students will
enroll in um and we have limited spots
uh
due to funding we take about 12 students
as a good number
um each year or every two years uh on
the civil rights tour
so uh Joe Waller i don't know if he's on
the call as well he's
going to be going down with the students
in june
great we have a question about further
explaining how to participate in the
mural project if you're not an
artist can you tell talk a little bit
about the activities
for those draw stick figures well yeah
so I'm a stick figure kind of guy myself
so um
you know I you know i'm one of the types
so you just show me the the piece where
I'm supposed to paint and I can kind of
follow it
um it's kind of like a in a painting
with a twist kind of uh
kind of kind of uh mentality so you kind
of just if you can
draw on the lines you can try that but
really the uh the goal is just really to
bring community together
um in an effort to do a project that's
meaningful and important
um so if not it could be helping to
record stories or hear from
uh community members about their
experience in their communities
these are communities that are
oftentimes overlooked or looked at
from again a deficit model but i think
you know put
you know visiting and engaging with
community members connects carlo
also with the community and the
community with carlos so i think that's
a
an awesome way for you to get connected
excellent yeah absolutely ryan
connecting the community with carlos
very very important and carlin with the
community
would we be also brian you really using
our student leaders and our student
organizations and clubs
to promote this and to really garner
more student participation as well
as we kick off the school year yes yeah
and it's in the project itself will run
from september to october
um so it's going to be ongoing so there
may be a space for you even if it's 10
15 minutes to give of your time to visit
and uh and work on it it is something
that will be an awesome experience
well thank you thank you Maleea and Ryan
so much for being with us today
and we're grateful for all the
information you shared and for
you're continuing to lead this effort on
behalf of Carlow
our faculty staff and students we
appreciate your time today
I want to encourage all of you to join
us again in september september 16th
to hear from Dr Matthew Gordley dean of
Carlow's newest college the college of
arts and sciences
Dr. Gordley will share goals and
opportunities for this new college and
introduce other leaders in the college
thank you all again for joining us today
and have a great wednesday I'll see you
soon as well
thank you
