Alumni Voices: How We Repair It
Author(s): Ernest Dimbo (2016 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, Boston University; 2020 Graduate Scholar, University of Cambridge); Chelsea Hipwell (2009 Young Scholar; 2014 College Scholar, Lehigh University); Sharmen Hettipola (2008 Young Scholar; 2013 College Scholar, Bucknell University; 2018 Graduate Scholar, University of Oxford)
“If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and How We Repair It”
For many, 2020 is not a year to dwell on; it was exhausting, chaotic, and fraught with conflict and tragedy. But there is much to learn from the ups and the downs, the successes and the failures. Being a few weeks into 2021, it is fair to say that we cannot draw arbitrary lines in the sand to differentiate “then” from “now” because we have already seen too much turmoil in this new year. Yet we still look forward to the moment when (just maybe) it will start to feel like 2021, as we tend to say.
So how do we transition to something that is supposed to feel new when time itself does not even feel as substantive? How can we move forward to healing when we can hardly reckon with the whirlwind of events over the past year? In the words of Amanda Gorman, perhaps the hill we dare climb in the present requires an acknowledgment of the past that we have inherited.
We are Cooke Scholar Alumni, students, musicians, healthcare workers, and nonprofit staff; we are journalists, writers, parents, and unemployed folks; we are educators, coders, entrepreneurs, and engineers; we are friends, community members, and global citizens. In these intersectional spheres we inhabit in our lives and in the poetic words spoken at the 46th United States’ Presidential Inauguration: How do we “repair it”? And how do we challenge others to join us in this work?
In response to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country in spring of 2020, we saw organizations and institutions come to acknowledge the deep roots of institutionalized and structural racism in the United States. Some changed their names, a few changed their logos, many released statements - but how honest were those repairs for the “it” of racism?
As time has shown us over and over again, true change lies with the people. Black activists were at the forefront of leading protests nationwide, in the midst of a global pandemic that has disproportionately affected Black communities. Black activists and voters turned out to push the 2020 election in the favor of a new administration, one which will be led by Madam Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman (that is three firsts!), and one that will usher in the most diverse cabinet in US history. Black voters in Georgia turned the Senate over to a Democratic majority thanks to the mobilizing work of Stacey Abrams, the first Black woman to be gubernatorial nominee of a major party in 2018, who fought voter suppression in the state through her organization, Fair Fight. Black Americans have been failed again and again by incompetent and prejudiced systems in healthcare and law, politics and education, and yet Black Americans showed up in 2020 - and showed the rest of the United States how to repair itself.
“The fool learns from experience while the wise learn from history.”
It is no question that the United States’ history of slavery and institutionalized racism is one of the biggest hills we have yet to summit as a nation. We will turn the calendar again shortly to February, Black History Month. We will have more opportunities to learn, to grow, to have conversations and to commit and re-commit to lives that pursue racial justice for our friends, families, colleagues, and fellow Americans. In the next month, we hope we can continue to count on Cooke Scholar Alumni to join in the work of repairing, healing, and advocating - for ourselves and on behalf of others. To take a page from the book of Amanda Gorman, let us make bridges and dare to live up to our time.
How We Repair It: Suggestions
Read a new book, listen to a podcast, watch a documentary or show (see One Scholar, One Book)
Learn firsthand from fellow alumni (see Social Justice & Law Webinar)
Support local BIPOC businesses in your area
Stay connected to your alma mater(s) through alumni student groups, etc to hold institutions accountable to antiracism work
Financially support organizations or nonprofits that are committed to antiracism work and dismantling white supremacy
Diversify your social media accounts
Commit to ongoing conversations with friends and family
Participate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Antiracism work presented by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation