The Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement is hosting a month-long programming series to offer students spaces to discuss and process recent racist incidents and work toward anti-racism.
The office planned #GWInSolidarity throughout the month of June as a series also open to faculty, staff and alumni and ranging from community healing spaces to bias training workshops to help students heal and develop their social justice activism in response to nationwide protests against police brutality in the Black community. Programming has in total garnered almost 3,000 registrants as of Thursday, according to an email officials sent to the GW community.
“We understand that many of our GW community members deal with, feel and live with racism on a daily basis,” the series’ website states. “For many Black people and communities of color, racism and state-sanctioned violence are not new.”
Students can register for each event on the #GWInSolidarity Eventbrite, according to the event’s website. The office is also offering students a space to share any recommendations they have to improve GW’s relationship with the Black community and reflections on the events they attend, via a Google form on the event page.
Jordan West, the director of University diversity and inclusion programs, said the programs will be a space for community members to engage in conversations and challenge themselves in their work toward anti-racism and social justice. She said that following the month-long program, officials plan to share “educational resources and ongoing opportunities” with students to further the conversations and work students are putting toward anti-racism.
“We acknowledge that there are various needs for members of our community right now,” West said in an email. “We hope that the programs offer space for people based on where they are and where they are willing to challenge themselves to go as it relates to engaging in conversations and the necessary work toward anti-racism and social justice.”
West said the programs’ moderators will include members in and out of the GW community who are engaged in anti-racist work, disrupting anti-Blackness, using Black Feminist methods and practices, decolonization and social justice. She said officials designed #GWInSolidarity to create “necessary, timely and critical” spaces for students, staff, faculty and alumni to work toward action.
“We know that this work is the beginning for many people and work that others have been doing forever,” West said. “This is a time for us to continue caring for our community and moving toward action on an individual, group and institutional level.”
