VIDEO: Standing-Room-Only Bahá'í Chair Event Addresses Racism
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1363","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"351","style":"width: 200px; height: 146px; float: left; margin: 5px;","width":"480"}}]]On Oct. 29, the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace continued its Structural Racism and the Root Causes of Prejudice Series with remarks by Phillip J. Bowman, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan and John L. Jackson, Jr., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania. A standing-room-only crowd of students, the public and faculty members from various disciplines filled the Stamp Student Union Colony Ballroom.Watch the video. View the photo gallery.
“As long as racism persists society as a whole cannot fully reach its highest potential. Race is a human-made phenomenon. There is no scientific basis for race. Yet structural racism and prejudice persist as major barriers to the creation of better society and a more peaceful world,” said the Chair’s incumbent, Professor Hoda Mahmoudi. “The Bahá'í Chair is committed to promoting scholarly discourse on racism on campus not only to increase our knowledge about this vital topic, but also for us to search for solutions toward its elimination.”
At the University of Michigan, Professor Bowman is founding director of the Diversity Research and Policy Program, a Professor with the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, and a Faculty Associate with the Institute for Social Research at the National Center for Institutional Diversity within the School of Education. He spoke on the topic of “Contemporary Racism, Organizational Inequality and Sustainable Diversity: Challenges for the 21st Century”.
Professor Bowman defined and contextualized “contemporary racism” in his remarks. As we move further into the 21st century, a growing body of social research shows how various conceptualizations of “contemporary racism” have essentially replaced “traditional racism” in the United States. In his presentation, Professor Bowman argued that these new concepts of contemporary racism are necessary but not sufficient for a deeper understanding of racial inequalities at the organizational, national and international levels. He also discussed the need to develop “sustainable” diversity policies.
These policies, Professor Bowman said, must “not only attract and maintain diverse racial and ethnic populations, but also utilize their unique strengths to promote creativity and excellence within major social institutions.”
Professor Jackson is Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Richard Perry University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His talk examined the ways in which traditional understandings of race and racism in American society prove less than helpful in the contemporary politico-racial landscape. He discussed some of what makes the current moment so distinctive, delineating some strategies for more accurately, effectively and inclusively approaching the emergent social moment.
He also reminded the audience that the words that are often used to describe issues related to race are often themselves problematic or inadequate, and that these words require close examination and reflection.
“’Diversity’ isn't just about skin color; it's also about diversity of thought,” Professor Jackson said.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1362","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"346","style":"width: 200px; height: 144px; float: left; margin: 5px;","width":"480"}}]]Fittingly, the event was attended by several notable campus diversity leaders, including BSOS alumna and UMD Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Vice President Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden; Dr. Kim Nickerson, BSOS Assistant Dean for Diversity; and Ann Holmes, BSOS Assistant Dean for Administration and Finance.
The 2014 Bahá'í Chair for World Peace Spring Symposium was the first event in this series andfeatured Dr. Lawrence Bobo of Harvard University, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt of Stanford University and Dr. Vincent L. Hutchings of the University of Michigan, who explored the topic from diverse angles. (Watch the videos of Dr. Bobo’s remarks and Dr. Hutchings’s remarks.) The Chair’s focus on structural racism and the root causes of prejudice continued recently with a special event featuring Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva of Duke University, who discussed “The Problem of Racism in ‘Post-Racial’ America”. Click here to watch the video.
As the incumbent of the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi is dedicated to developing a sound scientific basis for knowledge and strategies that explore the role of social actors and structures in removing obstacles to peace and creating paths to a better world. In pursuit of this goal, she collaborates with a wide range of scholars, researchers, and practitioners. In particular, Professor Mahmoudi advocates a broad concept of peacemaking—which she refers to as a “worldview approach”—that draws insights from all cultures.
Racism has been a key area of focus for Dr. Mahmoudi, and she has taken this focus into the classroom. Dr. Mahmoudi’s academic course, “The Problem of Prejudice: Overcoming Impediments to Global Peace and Justice,” examines the root scientific causes of prejudice and discrimination as major impediments to global peace and justice. The course draws from the latest interdisciplinary scholarly research, examining and seeking to explain the prejudice of racism, sexism, nationalism, inequality, and religious strife. The course encourages the search for solutions to the blight of prejudice and to advance knowledge on framing public policy and education toward the prevention of all forms of prejudice. The goal of the course is to bring about freedom from prejudice, to explore and understand the nobility, care, and respect that is owed to everyone. Dr. Mahmoudi believes that these are the necessary conditions for human solidarity and social integration.
RSVP and learn more about the next Baha’i Chair event, the first installment in its Solidarity Across Differences Series.
Published on Thu, Nov 6, 2014 - 11:32AM