‘Make a Choice to Make a Difference’
Jun 8, 2020
Musketeers offer ways to help during trying times
Xavier President Michael Graham, S.J., began speaking with a call to action.
In his speech to the newest class of Musketeers last August at Cintas Center, he addressed the topic of racial injustice head-on.
“I will be candid here because I must be,” he said. “If I’m not, I worry you might wonder what I stand for.”
He went on to explain exactly what he, and by extension, Xavier University, stands for: equality, inclusion and justice. In a passionate discourse, he denounced the country’s original sin of slavery, prayed for better relationships between those who swear to protect and those who need protection, and implored the audience to do what they can to improve their communities.
“Make a choice,” he said, “to make a difference.”
The speech seemed to foreshadow current events like the Black Lives Matter protests in Cincinnati, and the words are as relevant now as they were a year ago. The difference appears to be that now, more than ever, people want to make a difference; but sometimes, they just don’t know exactly how.
Kyra Shahid, Director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, says that after meeting last week with student and administrative representatives, they identified three main ways a person can make a difference:
- Educate ourselves. “We need to be educated on a multitude of things, including awareness,” she said, adding that Xavier’s library and archives had gathered some books that could do just that.
- Help create spaces for all of us to learn, grieve and cope. These spaces could be physical ones — there’s a room in Conaton on Xavier’s campus, for example — or they can just be times we set aside to think, learn or cope, possibly even within our own minds. “We need time and places where people can go if they’re triggered, or if they want to just stop what they’re doing and think about what is going on,” Shahid said. “Things will not go on like normal right now. People need time to process.”
They could also be virtual spaces. Xavier’s Stained Glass Initiative, a website created in 2017 to help detail racial repair, is partnering with Diasporic Soul to offer “Stopping the Clock: A Remembrance Ritual for Black Loss, Black Love, & Black Life.” This includes a collection of resources and a live, communal space for acknowledging the loss and honoring grief of Black people. This ritual will be held June 20 at 6 p.m. and more information is available here.
The center is also holding a biweekly virtual space to process grief, anger and uncertainty on Thursday, June 18 at 3 p.m. during the CDI Living Room Zoom Meeting. This space will be held bi-weekly throughout the months of June and July. (Zoom link. Password: CDI).
Lastly, possibilities for reflection and discernment can be found through some of the prayers on the Jesuit resource page, Shahid said. She also suggested reaching out to a friend who may be struggling, or gathering with a diverse group to share your feelings — and make sure to listen to theirs, too. - Find your purpose. Shahid says it’s difficult sometimes for people to realize that they can make a difference, no matter their occupation. “Say you’re an accountant, and you’re thinking, ‘I’m just an accountant,’” she said. “Well, you can use your position to contribute.” She says to look on the CDI site for the Purpose Project, which the center created during the coronavirus pandemic to help with these feelings. “We help people find what they can do,” she said.
“It’s about helping people,” Shahid said. “It all comes back to that.”
Some Xavier faculty and students felt they could make a difference by showing their support at the protests being held around Cincinnati.
As associate director of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion at Xavier, it made sense that Tracey DuEst would attend. But she has a personal stake, too. Her 22-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter are African-American, and her partner is from the Caribbean.
“I couldn’t not go,” she said. “I have a lot of energy and emotions being the mom of two African-American children and the partner to an Afro-Caribbean woman, and so many people in my life and family who are people of color. I had to go do something.”
DuEst attended a demonstration June 7 at Inwood Park in the Clifton neighborhood, where she met up with Associate Professor of Psychology, Anna Ghee, and also on June 8 at the Hamilton County Courthouse. She said it felt different from other protests she’s attended. “My body kept getting chills,” she said. It gives her hope that the work she does fighting racism and creating equal opportunity for people of color is beginning to have an impact. As an example, Xavier’s Aspiring Anti-Racist Allies group has tripled their membership in under a week.
“I do feel in some ways through my lens that there is a revolution going on,” she said. “This is happening all over the world, and the fact that other countries are protesting the killing of George Floyd means the magnitude of outrage is far larger than anything I have known in my life.”
Kate Roach, a senior history major from Fort Wayne, Ind., also attended some of the protests.
“We talk all the time on campus about standing up for what you believe in,” she said. “This was a way to really get out and take it to the streets, to stand up for those who need it. It was exciting to be out there, really inspiring.”
Rev. Abby King-Kaiser, interim director of the Center for Faith & Justice, said everyone can help in a different way, based on their frames of reference.
“I think the actions we need to take depend on our social location, our identities, our experiences, our spheres of influence and our power,” she said.
The center has taken on a new project, a campaign on social media for distanced community engagement around mass incarceration.
“We will be posting resources and questions, as well as recruiting students to join letter-writing campaigns to cut down on the isolation that people who are incarcerated have been experiencing in this time,” King-Kaiser said. “We are working through two alumni who do this work.”
So whether it is reaching out, getting education, attending a protest or writing a letter, there are always ways to make a difference.
“This is why discernment is key — there is no one next step that is appropriate for everyone in our community,” King-Kaiser said. “I hope that along the way, we truly care for and value each other so that we have the inner resources we need to take on injustice in the world.”
By Ryan Clark and France Sloat, Office of Marketing and Communications