HDS Students Challenging Racism and Privilege

Upcoming Events

2008-09-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

SCRAP's weekly meeting time has been moved to Friday 3:30pm, in Div Hall 106.

Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North
Tuesday, December 11th
Reception at 6:00 PM in Sperry Room, Andover Hall
Film at 6:30 PM
Followed by an open discussion with a member of the DeWolf family.

Meeting Minutes 11-30

2007-12-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

Hello friends, below are the minutes for last Friday's meeting. We hope to see many of you at our final meeting of the semester next Friday (Dec.7th) 3pm once again in DH 106. This final meeting will involve planning how SCRAP will look next year as well as some group reflection facilitated by Julia (look for a note from her).

Last Friday's meeting (11-30):

In attendance: Sarah C, Julia, Becky, Brandon

1. check-in

2. Julia has contacted James from the "Traces of the Trade" film and has requested a screening at HDS hosted by SCRAP for Tuesday December 11th at 6pm (Room TBA). We hope to hear back soon and finalize this exciting event. We are also looking for two volunteers to advertise this event... have it posted on the hallways computer screens, put on the HDS events page, have fliers made...etc.

3. Sarah announced that there will be a Service Trip Ethics Meeting this Tuesday from noon-1pm in the Rabinowitz room (library). I do believe food will be served.

4. Plans are in the works to try to bring Tim Wise to campus next semester for a lecture with follow-up workshop hopefully facilitated by Prof. Nancy Richardson. We are thinking of a Thursday evening lecture and Friday early afternoon workshop (or similar arrangement). If you don't know of Tim Wise, go to the Harvard Bookstore and pick up his book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, which I just happen to know is on sale in the remainders section downstairs for 6 bucks! Dean Graham has pledged his support for this event and in "motivating" faculty members to attend (Sarah C. as witness).

5. We decided to apply for money from "the Diversity Fund," through the OSL, to pay for, or help pay for the Tim Wise event and follow up teach-in/workshop. Becky is checking into the application process, if you would like to help with that process this week, please contact her...the deadline is this Friday (Dec. 7th.)

6. We reflected on the structure of our meetings and would like to refocus on the reflective aspect of SCRAP by holding two hour meetings that would be split up between guided check-in/reflection and planning. We do not think that active reflection and active planning can be done without each other and this would encourage both in each meeting.

7. At the next meeting we will discuss the SCRAP blog and ask for a volunteer to be in charge of regularly updating the blog with upcoming events, meeting minutes...etc. No prior experience is needed. Anne has already done much work to get the blog up and running, though unless she wants to continue running the blog, we don't want to assume that responsibility upon her.

Have a great week everyone, stay warm and stay healthy!

Brandon

How to post to this blog

2007-11-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

This blog is a public forum sponsored by SCRAP. SCRAP is open to all members of the HDS community, and we welcome all students, faculty, and staff to read and contribute to this blog. Since this is a public blog, you don't need a Google account to read it, or to reply to existing posts.

To post, however, you need to have either a Gmail account (sign up at www.gmail.com) or a Google account. Instructions to get a Google account can be found at:
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=27441&topic=10459

In addition to the Google account, Blogger requires authors to have an invitation from the blog to become an author and make posts. Want an invitation? Just email one of the blog administrators: asung@hds.harvard.edu, rfullan@hds.harvard.edu, or kconroy@hds.harvard.edu. We'll set you up.

Note: Invitations only work once. If you have trouble with it the first time, email an adminstrator and we'll send you another invitation.

Minutes: Nov 8 Meeting

2007-11-14T05:58:00.001-08:00

Hi SCRAPpers,

I was the notetaker for last week's meeting, and I lost the paper I took
the notes on. Yipes! So I'll try to recreate the highlights - chime in
if you were there:

Present: Brandon Due, Becky Fullan, Sarah Cannon, Julia Hamilton, Kieran Conroy, Emma Crossen, Matthew Cressler
#1: Go to the Town Hall Meeting on tuesday! Really!
#2: Thursday nights are not working out well. We will move to Friday at
3pm (see Matt's other post) and if we need to arrange a special meeting
so that prof. Giles or Richardson can attend, we will do so. But
Fridays will allow more folks to be there.
#3: We are working on arranging a screening of Traces of the Trade - but
in case we cannot work that one out (we should know by Tuesday), keep
brainstorming other movie ideas.
#4: Sarah C. will send out a copy of some materials with specific
definitions of words like "racism"to read and reflect upon for our next
meeting.
#5: The SCRAP blog is getting up - there will be an email with the
address coming out soon - log on!

Anything else important that I am missing?

-Julia

SCRAPish events this Tuesday: Town Hall and Film

2007-11-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

Julia will be sending out minutes from last week's meeting (note the change in meeting time to Friday at 3pm), but I wanted to bring attention to a couple of events tomorrow evening, Tuesday the 13th.

1. Town Hall Meeting (hopefully many of us can make it to listen, speak and eat!)

Tuesday, November 13, 5:30-7:30 pm, in the Braun Room. BBQ dinner provided!

One of the central events of the semester, Town Hall provides space for students to express ANY concern about their experience at HDS to fellow students, faculty, and administration. Based on student feedback gathered at three Pre-Town Hall sessions, the November 13 Town Hall will be focusing on three topics: Community, Diversity, and the Environment. The purpose of Town Hall is to determine the pressing issues facing our community through open communication, to begin to create solutions, and to continue to get to know the members of our HDS community.

2. There is a screening of the new documentary "The Bible Tells Me So" at the Law School tomorrow evening at 7:30pm (Pound Hall 102), The film examines biblical teachings on homosexuality and documents the lives of Christian parents who have gay and lesbian children. A number of Harvard connections are made and I have heard it is a fantastic film. There will also be food, and a facilitated discussion following. I plan on leaving the town hall meeting a few minutes early to head on over. You can find more information at http://www.pon.harvard.edu/news/2007/film_bible_tells_me_so.php.

Peace,

Brandon

Minutes: Nov 1 Meeting

2007-11-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Fellow SCRAPpers,

Here are the notes from last week’s meeting. They’re a little different than normal meeting notes because we had a larger issue dominate our conversation – however we touched upon everything that was on the agenda in an organic way through our larger conversation which was, in fact, quite productive. I hope my notes make sense, and if you have any questions please let me know.

November 1, 2007 SCRAP Meeting
Becky F. – Facilitating
Sarah C. – notetaking
Anne, Brandon, Matthew, Kerry, Erin, Cheryl, Kierran – attending

1. Go Arounds
2. In the last meeting of the Standing Committee on Diversity the Dean made the statement that he personally did not see or understand institutional or, as he put it, “endemic” racism to be a problem here at HDS. Sarah C. brought this up as an issue as these types of viewpoints in the administration and faculty pose a serious obstacle for all of our work.

We decided that the best way to deal with this was to assemble a sort of SCRAP Goal List, specific actions that we wanted to take by the end of this term as well as into the Spring. We established some ideas about “teach-in” type events to hold in the Spring that would invite the community to come see a speaker (we would work hand in hand with the Standing Committee on Diversity on bringing a speaker in) and then have a following day “teach-in” event led by Nancy Richardson. The teach-in would be aimed at the broader community – faculty, students and staff. We discussed specific issues related to staff that need to be addressed. Sarah C. is to follow up with Pamela Macey on those issues. We brainstormed some people to bring in as speakers – Tim Wise was a top choice as his work deals specifically with issues of white privilege and would challenge people’s assumptions most directly. Another suggestion, by Cheryl, was Beverly Tatum.

We also agreed it would be wise to pay attention to diversity/racism type events being held by other Harvard schools, and aim at working together with them.

We are to continue to individually and then collectively come up with a list of people not only as potential speakers to come in for the teach-in event, but also for Cheryl who is looking into other ways that we could bring speakers/guest lecturers to the school.

We also discussed other concrete action plans we can hold before the end of the term, and agreed that another movie showing with a discussion led by a faculty member seemed simple enough to do before the end of the term. Farid Esack was mentioned as an excellent faculty member to lead such discussion, but after being contacted by Laura M. he had to decline as he is very busy currently preparing for AAR.

We are to continue individually and collectively to come up with a list of good movies to watch. We agreed that these need to deal with issues beyond the “black and white” racism issues, and touch upon broader issues of diversity as well. We also need to think of other faculty members who would be great to lead these kinds of discussions for this upcoming movie event (date to be determined) as well as future events.

3. Sarah C. is to follow up with Maritza regarding the staff member upset about the orientation event being held during Rosh Hashanah. We agreed to invite the staff member to our meeting so that we could listen to her pain and offer and opportunity for healing – not a place for us to defend ourselves and discount her trouble with our decision.

4. We also broadly discussed coalition building and were alerted to a mass meeting of all students interested in issues of racism at HDS that is going to happen before the end of the semester. We agreed it is important to attend that meeting as it will be an amazing opportunity for coalition building. We briefly discussed issues of SCRAP being misrepresented in the community as a group that is only concerned with white privilege and is only full of white people, and wrestled with the best way to deal with that misrepresentation. Although we came to no firm conclusion, we felt that the best way to deal with those rumors is through our events and putting ourselves out there, being honest about ourselves and our goals. This will be further discussed at our next meeting.

5. Becky, Kierran, and Anne are working on creating a SCRAP blog, which will also help with our representation in the HDS community by making our meeting notes public. It will also help us with group communication, as well as create a place for conversation outside of meetings. An update about the blog status will be at the next meeting.

I think that’s it. Sorry these notes are so long, but the meeting was really important. All of these issues will definitely be followed up on in the next meeting.

Thanks for bearing with me through these notes, and I’m excited to see you all again at our next meeting this Thursday at 6:30, in the same room in the basement of Div Hall (I think its 106 but I don’t want to be wrong). Cheryl has graciously offered to provide pizza for our next meeting.

All My Best,
Sarah Cannon

Minutes: Oct 25 Meeting

2007-10-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,

As there is much happening both within SCRAP and outside our group, please take a chance to read through the upcoming meeting agenda and the minutes for the previous meeting. Highlighted items may require your immediate attention.

Tentative Upcoming Meeting Agenda, Thursday, 6:30 DH 106 (Nov. 1)

Facilitator: Becky Fullan, Notes: Kieran Conroy Snacks: Julia Hamilton

1. Check-in

2. Coalition building (updates from other student groups, the diversity committee, and Race and Ethnicity Colloquium)

3. Faculty search discussion

4. Meeting time revision

5. Preparation for possible future meeting with individual concerned about orientation event timing during Rosh Hashanah.

*Items on the table: Hosting Wed. Noon-Service, Hosting Community Tea, host another movie event/discussion, Robert Jenson event(?), town-hall meeting November 12^th, report from Diversity Initiative….

SCRAP Minutes October 25th:

In Attendance: Chris (facilitator), Kerry, Ashley, Julia, Kieran, Becky, Brandon (notes)

1. General check in… remember ground rules.

2. One-to-ones: We will begin one-to-ones this week, please set up a time to meet with the person assigned to you. We hope to assign new one-to-ones every other week, but members are encouraged to use the one-to-one model as often as they have time for. If you would rather not participate, please contact your partner (and Brandon) right away so they can arrange for another partner. One-to-ones "are about beginning and deepening relationships [...] we share stories about our experience, discover interests in common, and make specific commitments." (see attached document for further information). A one-to-one can be 20 minutes (10 minutes for each person) or an hour... the point is intentionality, something between meeting for coffee and an interview (or so it seems to me). Perhaps for the first one-to-one we can focus on the question of discovering each other's motivation for being part of SCRAP or the issues SCRAP is concerned with.

-Kerry Maloney and Emma Crossen

-Brandon Due and Sarah Cannon

-Matt Cressler and Monica Maher

-Razia Tajuddin and Laura McTighe

-Emma Sloan and Mary Fuchs

-James Young and Sarah Chiddy

-Ashley Berendt and Anne Sung

-Kieran Conroy and Cheryl Giles

-Erin Ehmen and Julia Hamilton

-Hannah Hofheinz and Robin Tanner

-Chris Scheller and Rebecca Bijur

-Amy Beckhusen and Maritza Hernandez

-Nancy Richardson and Rebecca (Becky) Fullan

-Eleanor Craig and Brandon Due

3. Coalition Building: Each member of SCRAP is asked to communicate with whom you know outside of SCRAP who may be interested in dialog/work on the issue of Faculty Hiring. We are especially interested in finding out what other groups like the Diversity Committee, ASA, Harambee, Neustra Voz, the Race and Ethnicity Colloquium, etc... are doing and interested in doing concerning Faculty hiring. We will discuss possible options of dialog, collaboration at the next meeting(s).

4. Interest was expressed in obtaining a list of upcoming faculty searches. If someone has this list, please forward it / bring it to the next meeting.

5. Orientation event conflict with Rosh Hashanah: We decided that SCRAP would be interested in inviting a member of the community to one of our meetings who has been upset about our Race and Privilege Orientation Discussion. If Maritza feels comfortable, she can communicate with the individual to set up a time to meet with our group. The point of the meeting would not be to justify our decision to hold the Orientation event when we did, (though we will provide justification if asked for). The purpose is to allow the individual who feels hurt by our decision a chance to heal as well as a chance to help us all realize the ways in which we all experience silencing. A listening forum of storytelling is the proposed format--to invite the individual to share their story and then open the floor to share our own stories. More to be discussed at the next meeting…

6. Following the Orientation event discussion in our meeting, we brainstormed the possibility of expanding a discussion into the community, perhaps through community tea. The event would focus on one-to-one type of interaction, perhaps in a format like speed-dating (with obvious differences :P) We also thought it best to make an attempt to look forward intentionally to other potential conflicts with major Holy Days, though recognize the difficulty of institutional planning around dozens (hundreds?) of “Holy Days” each year.

7. Ashley proposed the group look into its own online blog for communication purposes, feedback...etc. Nice. Anyone have any ideas? Who to contact?

8. Discussed the diminished attendance of the meeting and one possible problem being the lateness of Thursday evening when everyone is exhausted. We will keep the meeting time scheduled as is, but will re-examine the issue soon.

9. Breathe…. that’s right, oxygen is good. Stop for 2 minutes in front of a tree so loaded with color that the leaves have no choise but fall to the ground. Or, as Ashley recommended, "look at the moon tonight."

Blessings,

Brandon

SCRAP Mission Statement

2007-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

We participating in SCRAP recognize that racism exists, that it is a problem at HDS, and that we have a responsibility to address it. By fostering proactive conversations, nourishing healthy relationships, and raising awareness, we will actively work to confront the presence and persistence of white privilege and other forms of racism. We will ground this work in challenging and supportive reflection regarding racism within ourselves as well as our communities. Acknowledging the inherent complexity of this ongoing task, we stand committed to mutual accountability with the HDS community and our broader communities.