Thank you Danette, Zundra and Adrian

Thank you: Danette, Zundra and Adrian!
Healing From Racial Injustice: Fostering Empathy as a Catalyst for Change
 
Our members Danette Greer, Zundra Bryant and Adrian Bracy opened their hearts and ours as they shared stories of their experiences of racism as children and as accomplished women leaders. This is one of those “you really had to be there” programs. And you still can, by going here and watching the program.
 
Danette opened by sharing a statistic from Pew Research revealing that black people who have been to college are more likely to claim they have experienced racism. All three of our panelists recalled experiences as early as 7 or 8 years old…from name calling to being coached to attend a white college in order to have more opportunities in life (both Adrian and Zundra chose to ignore that advice and went to black colleges, Morgan State University and Howard University respectively).
 
They discussed everything from hair discrimination, the black tax, colorism and how loaded the word “respect” has become for a black woman. We grew to understand that they each became more driven and competitive in response to many of these challenges….which is evident by what they have each accomplished.
 
When asked what we could do today in support of dismantling racism they spoke of love. The idea is simple and could be considered trite, but if we all actually worked towards loving each other it would be that much less conceivable to find hatred in our midst.
 
As we begin our year of exploring racism as a community, keep these ideas in mind:

• Ask questions.
• Be willing to have courageous conversations.
• Enter the dialogue.