About 15 of us gathered on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 4th for an enlightening workshop and discussion with Prof. Charles Toombs of San Diego State University, who is also President of the California Faculty Association. The focus was on how to more effectively center anti-racist praxis in our union, especially given the vastly different racial/ethnic makeup of our membership as compared with California’s. The stated goal was to examine how systemic racism, white privilege and white supremacy culture operate in organizations, and learn how to use and talk about diversity, inclusion, antiracism, social justice, power, whiteness, white privilege, and white supremacy culture in accountable and transformative ways. The entire elected UA Executive Council was present, along with several others, including a representative of the staff union.
We learned of a variety of specific practices developed by the union in the California state university system, especially their explicit policy for interrupting manifestations of white supremacist thinking that may emerge in the course of their faculty experiences. We discussed several sample scenarios to help translate these ideas into praxis, along with some of the particular challenges we face at UVM, including the concerning rate of turnover of faculty of color who do come here.
The session, which was initiated by UA EC member Yoanda Flores, began with a brief presentation linking this workshop to 2 months of Labor Spring events happening across the US this March and April. Labor Spring was initiated by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and the Labor and Working Class History Association, especially by faculty members who were students during the nationwide wave of student support for union organizing during the mid-1990s. Support for unions, especially among young people, is even higher today and there are many high-profile organizing efforts on campuses and beyond. Labor Spring has now posted some 86 events at nearly 70 institutions, especially on campuses with current labor struggles. Our brief slide presentation on Labor Spring (adapted from the initiators’ longer slideshow) can be accessed here, and there is more information at https://lwp.georgetown.edu/9404-2/.
We believe this event represented an important affirmation of the commitment of UA leadership to do more consistent anti-racist work in our own organization and begin to more thoroughly walk the walk. EC members and others are excited and determined to move forward with steps to change the culture on campus and directly address existing shortcomings. Please stay tuned!