How I Spent My “Summer Vacation”

The Summer of 2020 was the summer that wasn’t for most all of us. The pandemic and related economic downturn sent many of us inside (except for front-line essential workers who still went to work every day) and removed most of the hurried rush from our daily lives. This allowed many Americans to slow down and see racial strife in our country in new ways.

It was unfortunate that media coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests were overtaken by riots — much in the way the message of NFL players who knelt during the National Anthem to protest racial injustice was overtaken by those who amplified the alternative narrative to make the kneeling about the American flag. Nevertheless, I believe a good portion of Americans began to see, for the first time, that racism in this country is systemic, composed of several layered and troubling elements that society works hard to mask and downplay.

Maximizer is my top strength in the Clifton Strengthsfinder assessment, so I gave some thought toward how I might make the most of “the great slowdown.” I’m not a project person, so it wasn’t going to be about building something, although learning to play the guitar or taking up a new hobby were considered. After being greatly moved by the BLM movement, I committed to expanding my understanding of racial injustice in this country.

I was raised in a very homogenous community outside of Flint, Michigan, and my primary exposure to anyone different from me was playing basketball in the city. It wasn’t until I attended graduate school at the University of Michigan that I really spent any considerable time in conversation with people of different racial and religious backgrounds and sexual orientations. I found that many of my beliefs were rooted in a lack of exposure and understanding that led to stereotypes, prejudices, and bias. When I got to know people who were different from me, I began to see everyone as individuals. The more I got to know my fellow students, colleagues, and friends, it became evident just how much I had to learn about diversity and race.

Over the last 30 years, my career in community colleges has given me the opportunity to learn a great deal about race through reading, workshops, and many friendships, acquaintances, and interactions with others. As much as I thought I knew about race, nothing prepared me for what I learned this summer. My journey started with emailing a statement to the College on the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, then reflecting on how to go beyond those words and take action — if only for myself.

• A friend recommended I visit the Justice in June website where I found a brilliantly curated inventory of videos, podcasts, and articles about race in America. I started with the 10 minutes a day routine and moved from there.

• I invited MVCC employees of color to join me for two rounds of meetings where many shared their experiences at the College and recommendations on how to make MVCC more inclusive. Their stories have inspired and changed me more than they will ever know.

• Netflix had a special section of shows about the Black experience in America, and “I Am Not Your Negro” caught my eye. It was a documentary that felt more like a film to me because it was done in a way that engaged me from start to finish. It focused on race relations in mid-20th-century America through the eyes of author James Baldwin. This led me to look up his “pindrop speech” at Harvard in 1965 on YouTube, which subsequently filled my “recommended videos” queue with fascinating resources about race that I would not have found otherwise.

• I took several different implicit bias tests from the Harvard implicit bias project.

• And on the recommendation of a colleague, I’m currently reading “Microaggressions in Everyday Life” by Derald Wing Sue and learning about the devastating cumulative effect of microaggressions that people of color experience every day. I have come to believe that microaggressions are a very uncomfortable valley through which white people need to walk and learn about the implicit bias that we all have — and yet, I’m embarrassed to say that I had never heard the term “microaggressions” until just a few short years ago.

You might say this blog post is the equivalent of the first day of third grade, standing in front of the class to present how I spent my summer vacation. At times it felt like anything but a vacation, with many uncomfortable moments and new revelations. As is the case with so much learning, it’s not as much about the answers you find as the questions you discover that make the difference in your growth. Looking back on this summer, which has been filled with so much stress and reasons to be sad, this work feels like the first few steps of a long, meaningful, and fascinating journey that will likely never end for me.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.