Is An Injury to One an Injury to All?
Steve Chase
way and demands a response. If you are like many people who listen to
the news, you have already heard about the October 9th incident where
an unidentified person left a four-foot "hanging noose" on the office
door of Dr. Madonna Constantine, an African-American professor of
counseling and clinical psychology at Columbia University's Teachers
College.
This sinister act of racist intimidation, which painfully evokes the
over 5,000 victims of racist lynching in our nation's history, has
also rightly struck a nerve in professional groups like the American
Psychological Association and at many of America's colleges and
universities, including Antioch University New England.
I first heard about this painful incident from Gargi Roysircar, a
colleague of mine who works in the Clinical Psychology Department at
Antioch New England. For Dr. Roysircar, this premeditated act of
racism was personal in two key ways. First, like Dr. Constantine, Dr.
Roysircar is a scholar of color doing research on racism and the
multicultural counseling competencies needed by psychology
practitioners in the 21st century. She is thus a potential target for
similar threats. Second, as she wrote to the Antioch community, "My
students in the Human Diversity course read her articles. Madonna and
I have grown up together in our respective careers. Just this year I
co-authored an article with her." This situation is very personal for
Dr. Roysircar and the other psychology faculty members at Antioch who
have worked with Dr. Constantine.
Is it also personal for a white environmental studies professor whose
office is on the other side of the building from Dr. Roysircar and who
never heard of Dr. Constantine before a few weeks ago? I think so. I
am a firm believer that an injury to one is an injury to all. I was
thus moved by Dr. Roysircar's passionate call for all Antioch New
England students, faculty, and staff to find ways to address the issue
of both overt and subtle racism at Columbia University--and at our own
institution.
This process has begun. A support group on campus called Students for
Ethnic and Racial Diversity worked with Dr. Roysircar and crafted a
heartfelt and poetic petition in solidarity with Dr. Constantine. They
gathered more than 150 signatures on Antioch New England's campus in
less than a week and sent their petition on to Dr. Constantine. As the
petition said, "We want scholars to continue doing valuable research
in safety and freedom and not to have to pay the price of their well-
being and human dignity for their academic pursuits and/or their
ethnic, racial, and cultural affiliation or identity."
David Caruso, the President of Antioch New England, also issued a
public statement saying, "This abhorrent incident is a harsh reminder
of the persistence of prejudice and racism in our culture, and of the
effort we must make together to confront such hate-based behavior and
develop and implement strategies to promote positive change." More
personally, Dr. Caruso sent a letter of support directly to Dr.
Constantine on behalf of the entire faculty, staff, and student body
of Antioch New England.
On October 17, Antioch New England's Faculty Senate unanimously passed
a support resolution for Dr. Constantine stating, "We believe that the
core values of freedom, justice, mutual respect, and universal human
rights--which should be at the heart of every academic institution-
need to be defended. The struggle against white supremacy is not
over."
Yet, making statements in support of Dr. Constantine is not enough. As
the Senate resolution went on to say: "We believe that this is a
teachable moment at academic institutions across the country, one that
could allow for deepened discussion and insight into the dynamics of
racism and other forms of oppression--as well as an opportunity for
all of us to learn how to support each other, be better allies, and
stand up for justice and decent treatment for all. We urge all our
students and faculty to find ways--in our respective spheres of
influence--to reach out and support Dr. Constantine and the
understandably upset faculty and students at Teachers College, while
also building an ever stronger community of racial solidarity and
trust right here at Antioch University New England."
The trick, of course, is how to spark deep conversations at our campus
and in the wider community about the nature and persistence of racism
and how we can act together to bring us all closer to Martin Luther
King's vision of America as a Beloved Community.
At Antioch, more of us are now reading articles, discussing diversity
issues together, and organizing workshops that do more than help us
make statements against overt racist acts like the one directed
against Dr. Constantine. As Dr. Roysircar says, "Let us not overlook
subtle racism and unconscious racial microaggressions that racial and
ethnic minorities, women, and those less privileged experience daily."
Now is the time, she says, "to build cross-cultural bridges of respect
to reach one another and all people."
This is true at Columbia, at Antioch, at other universities--and it is
also true in our city governments, our nonprofit organizations, our
religious congregations, and our businesses. Now the hard work
begins.
Best,
Steve
P.S. To read the full text of David Caruso's letter, or the ANE
Faculty Senate Resolution, go to http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com and
scroll down one post.
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Steve Chase, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program
Department of Environmental Studies @ Antioch University New England
40 Avon Street, Keene, NH 03431
Steven...@antiochne.edu; 603-283-2336 (office); 603-357-0718 (fax)
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