As Longwood continues to impress upon its students the meaning of citizen leadership, it decided to bring a deeper message on how racial and economic inequalities, the consequences of prejudice and how they can learn to be the change they want to see in the world.
Over 40 students participated in the Social Justice in Action Leadership Summit (SJALS), which was held from Friday, Feb. 22 to Saturday, Feb. 23 in on-campus locations.
Part of Longwood’s National Black History Month Celebration, the summit was free for all Longwood students. To participate in the summit, students were required to register by Feb. 15. Students were chosen to participate by being nominated by Longwood faculty andstaff.Studentswerealsoabletoself-nominatebyfillingoutan email application sent by email to all students or by filling out an application sheet on the Office of Diversity & Inclusion website.
On Friday, students were required to check-in at 6 p.m. in Blackwell Hall. At 6:30 p.m., Interim President Marge Connelly and keynote speaker Jessica Pettitt, social justice and diversity consultant, spoke on the subject of “Be the Change You Want to Be.”
In her speech, Connelly stated that the purpose of the summit is to help create authentic citizen leaders and to allow students to explore who they are.
Introducing the summit, Connelly said, “You’re going to have some pretty serious discussions, things that oftentimes are often considered taboo to talk about.
She further stated, “My guess is there are going to be times when you are uncomfortable, that you are disturbed, maybe that you are even upset, and I guess I would say not only is that okay, but that’s good, and I actually wish that for you and not in a negative way at all. I wish that for you because that is you learning, and that is you stretching, and that is you maybe changing and maybe building an even greater level of passion that you can then start to channel and making changes in the things that matter to you most.”
Having earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, Connelly joked that she also earned a minor in protesting. Elaborating further on her own social justice work as an undergrad, Connelly described it as “a pretty frustrating experience. There’s no question about it,” but later further stated, “It absolutely makes a difference, sometimes in ways you can’t see.”
She said, “Every time you stand up and do the right thing, it matters. You can’t help but make a difference. The very act of just doing it and doing makes a difference. What you do in this weekend and what you’re doing tonight is the right thing, and it will make a difference in your lives and others, and I thank you for doing this.
While introducing herself, Pettitt provided her phone number to the students at the summit, saying, “I want you to be able to have access to someone to have questions.”
While introducing herself to the students, Pettitt communicated that to be a part of the world, people need to be accessed. She further stated that it is not just the people deemed important that matter; everyone matters.
Pettitt said, “Nobody else can be you, but we spend our entire lives trying to be somebody else.”
“What I invite us to do is I want you to take pride in where you are at right now. You might not be done, but I don’t think any of us are turkeys. What I want you to do is I want you to trust that who you are and where you’re at is what matters. If we can do the best we can with what we have, then we’re not falling behind on our own ambition. We’re just dealing with what we got,” said Pettitt.
After Connelly and Pettitt spoke, the student participants were broken up into various groups to read over various nonfictional anecdotes that involved social justice issues. The students had to discuss what they thought of the anecdotes and any solutions that could be made therein.
On Saturday, students checked in at 9 a.m. with a continental breakfast provided on the second floor of Hiner Hall.
Later, Pettitt reflected on the previous evening’s activities and revved up the students for the day to come. She communicated that too often people are inhibited by not understanding how much is not known.
Pettitt said, “What I want today to do is to inspire you to ask yourself what else you don’t know, not just collect new facts.”
Afterwards, a presentation, titled, “Mindbugs: The Ordinary Origins of Bias,” was presented by Calvin Lai, doctoral student in
the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. In his presentation, Lai presented various experiments, optical illusions and more that challenge perception and illustrate the faultiness therein.
In his presentation, Lai said, “Context matters ... We fill in the blanks.”
He further stated that a “brain’s guess” on anything is based on “our experiences. It’s based on what we’ve heard before and what we’ve seen happen before.”
“What it does is pretty good, but ultimately it’s prone to error, so we always have to impose some type of interpretations,” said Lai, who further stated, “Everything we see has some interpretation in it. Our past experience imposes interpretation on the here and now.”
In a presentation, titled, “The Color of Money: Race and Economic Inequalities,” Dr. Sabrina Pendergrass, assistant professor of Sociology and African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, discussed the reasons for racial economic inequalities, the consequences and the potential strategies for change.
In her presentation, Pendergrass allowed the students to be involved in a group activity where they had to estimate how much money is spent on a year by a three person family with two parents and a three-year-old child. While the estimates within the groups of students averaged just under $40,000, Pendergrass showed that the average costs have to end up costing much, much less with the poverty line at $19,590 since 2013 based on the number of people in a household.
Pendergrass showed various graphs on median household income, poverty rates and more, ranging from the 1960s to 2010, each showing the various gaps between races.
One graph shown was the median net worth of households in 2009. While blacks had a median net worth of $5,677, whites had the median net worth of $113,149.
Proposed reasons as to why the racial differences in poverty have occurred include racialization of the state, economic detours and sedimentation of racial inequality, according to Pendergrass.
The last presentation at the Social Justice in Action Leadership Summit was “From Thinking to Doing: The Consequences of Prejudice,” presented by Dr. Jennifer Joy-Gaba, assistant professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
In a group activity, students were given labels stuck to their backs with words like, “extrovert,” “nosy” and “ugly.” Students were unable to know what their respective label was but were to be subjected to being treated however the label described them as. By being treated with an identity, Joy- Gaba said she hoped to prove that people eventually assume the identity. Joy-Gaba discussed the various types of racism still prevalent in society, including “old-fashioned” racism, modern racism, symbolic racism and aversive racism.
To contact Jessica Pettitt, text her cell phone at (917) 543-0966.
The Student Union & Involvement Office, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, the Leadership & Civic Engagement Office and Disability Resources collaborated to organize the summit.
