The LMU Anti-Racism Project

The Anti-Racism Project is rooted in our Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount identity and university mission, where we regard and treat each other with respect, recognizing the inherent dignity and immutable humanity of all peoples, made in the image of God.  We are called to be persons for and with others, acting out of our faith—inclusive of our varied religious traditions and worldviews—towards social justice for all.

Overview of The Anti-Racism Project (Emelyn dela Peña, VP for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)

Student Resources

Intercultural Facilitator Program
The premise of the Intercultural Facilitator (IF) Program is to develop a group of students, highly skilled in principles of facilitation, to effectively facilitate other students in critical cultural conversations. These conversations lead to an authentic understanding of self, simple but comprehensive ways to engage and inspire community and an honest and inclusive approach to transformative student development.

Together as Effective Accomplices Mobilizing (TEAM)
TEAM is a student organization at LMU that is dedicated to analyzing how ideologies of systematic oppression are constantly being perpetuated throughout the world. TEAM is open for all but essentially provides a space for white people to critically engage in our four main objectives: utilizing our educational tools to analyze one’s own privilege in order to understand how systematic oppression is currently being enacted in everyday life, providing training on how to be effective accomplices to minoritized communities, engaging in coalition building throughout the LMU and Los Angeles community, and providing a safe space for self-care and team building. LMU students, especially white students, are encouraged to contact the group via Instagram @lmu.team for information about upcoming meetings. 

Faculty & Staff Resources

Restorative Justice Project
The vision of the LMU Center for Urban Resilience (CURes) Restorative Justice Project (RJ Project) is to impact systemic education reform and transform social structures towards a more just society. Aligning with LMU’s mission and its commitment to anti-racism, Restorative Justice Practices are based on principles that emphasize how positive relationships are central to building community and involve processes that restore communities when harm occurs. The RJ Project offers culturally grounded ways to address conflict through restorative practices trainings, Restorative Conferencing facilitation services, and opportunities to collaborate. For instance, LMU Restore in Student Affairs works in partnership with the RJ Project for staff training as well as for utilizing Restorative Justice Practices to respond to violations of the Student Conduct Code. 

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES TRAINING
Restorative Practices (RP) is a philosophy that aims to provide communities with safe, inclusive, and effective tools to develop healthy relationships. RP also helps teach Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills such as understanding and managing emotions, exhibiting empathy, and establishing and maintaining positive relationships. The RJ Project provides trainings to equip participants to implement RP in their own divisions.

The RJ Project offers RP training components including:

• Campus Environment Assessment
• Implementation
• Restorative Language Integration
• Community Building Circles Facilitation
• Responding to Critical Matters Facilitation
• Skill-building and Coaching
• Program Evaluation

RESTORATIVE CONFERENCING FACILITATION SERVICES
When conflict occurs, Restorative Conferences can help hold responsible parties accountable for their actions. A trained, impartial facilitator invites affected parties and their supporters to discuss: 

• What happened?
• How has everyone been affected?
• What can be done to repair the harm?

Restorative Conferences provide a collective discovery process whereby underlying problems can be addressed and potentially help participants connect with much needed resources.  If you are experiencing a conflict at an individual level or trying to figure out how to address a group issue, the RJ Project and LMU Restore stand ready to engage with you, including specific capacity building for your department or area. 

For more information, please contact:

• Schoene Mahmood
  Program Manager
  Restorative Justice Project
  Center for Urban Resilience
  [email protected]
• Julia Wade
  Associate Director for Restorative Practices
  Office of Student Conduct and Community Responsibility
  Student Affairs
  [email protected]

Implicit Bias Workshop

LMU's implicit bias campaign continues with classic IB workshops and next-level programs organized to build upon the work. Contact [email protected] to request a workshop for your team or for more information on upcoming workshops. 

Cultural Consciousness Conversations

A year-long cohort of LMU faculty, staff and administrators across all divisions. Increase your comfort level and build community with colleagues. Share your perspective and learn from others on issues such as bias, microaggressions, immigration, sexual orientation and gender identity, and power/privilege. Express your interest here.

Affinity and Networking Groups for Faculty and Staff

• Faculty & Staff Affinity and Networking Groups brochure (PDF)
• Black Faculty and Staff Alliance
• AWARE-LMU
• Asian American Pacific Islander Faculty Staff Association
• Committee on the Status of Women 
• Latino Faculty Association 
• Latinx Staff Association
• LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Network

Statements of Solidarity

LMU This Week Special Edition, June 2, 2020

Beyond Words: President Snyder's Letter to LMU, June 16, 2020

Acknowledgement of Understanding: Response to BlackatLMU Students' and Black Faculty & Staff Alliance demands, September 4, 2020

Learn

Seek Understanding

Structural Racism VS Individual Racism

Racism describes a system of power and oppression/advantage and disadvantage based on race. Structural racism is a system, or series of systems, in which institutional practices, laws, policies, social-cultural standards, and socio-political decisions establish and reinforce norms that perpetuate racial group inequities. Within the context of the United State of America, and other nations, structural racism takes the form of white supremacy; the preferential treatment, privilege, power, access, networks, and access to opportunities available to white people, which often designate communities of color to chronic adverse outcomes.

Individual racism refers to a person’s racist assumptions, beliefs, or behaviors. Individual racism stems from conscious and unconscious bias and is reinforced by structural racism. Please visit the list of articles, books, videos, movies, and TV shows within this guide to learn more about how racism functions and affects all of our day-to-day lives. 

LMU Faculty Voices

• Contextualizing Race with Los Angeles Protests – ABC7 (Cheryl Grills, professor of psychology) 
• What’s Different About the Protests in Los Angeles This Time – New York Times (Fernando Guerra, professor of political science and Chicana/o Latina/o Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles)
• Stefan Bradley on the Black Lives Matter Movement – LMU Magazine (Stefan Bradley, professor and chair of African American Studies)
• Built-in bias behind reports that represent youth of color as more dangerous – ABC7 (Cheryl Grills, professor of psychology)
• June’s rallies for black transgender lives can change attitudes and policies. Here’s how. – Washington Post (Chaya Crowder, incoming assistant professor of political science)
• On Social Justice, Black Lives Matter and the Power of Prayer – Diverse Issues in Higher Education (Bryant Keith Alexander, dean of LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts)
• How George Floyd’s death, anti-racism protests are changing 2020 politics – San Francisco Chronicle (Jessica Levinson, clinical professor of law and director of LMU Loyola Law School’s Public Service Institute)
• Better, Not Bitter Series (William D. Parham, professor of counseling and SOE interim associate dean for faculty)
  • Easing Restrictions to Stay at Home: A Pandemic of Hatred and Uncovering Invisible Tattoos of Trauma
  • The Voice of the Child: Finding Courage to Say What Others Won’t About the Garment of Truth
  • Whispers of the Devil: An Invitation to Think Differently About Our Abilities to Effect Change
  • The Cost of Not Paying Attention: Lessons Hidden in the Pandemics of COVID-19 and Racism
• When A Tree Falls On Its Own Well Toiled Ground: A Salute To Rev. C.T. Vivian - ASALH (Stefan Bradley, professor of African American Studies and BCLA Coordinator of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives)
• Decolonizing the Syllabus - Guidebook (Jennifer Williams, assistant professor of African American Studies)
• Beyond Cultural Competence, Toward Social Transformation: Liberation Psychologies and the Practice of Cultural Humility - Article (Jennifer Abe, Professor of Psychology)

Books

• How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
• White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold
• Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
• Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• Autobiography of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
  
  • Audiobook available on YouTube

The William H. Hannon Library staff also created a Black Lives Matter resource guide and the DEIA LibGuide. 

Film and Television

• 13th (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix
• American Son (Kenny Leon) — Netflix
• Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 — Available to rent
• Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada) — Hulu with Cinemax
• Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu) — Available to rent
• Dear White People (Justin Simien) — Netflix
• Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) — Available to rent
• I Am Not Your Negro (James Baldwin doc) — Available to rent or on Kanopy
• If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) — Hulu
• Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton) — Amazon Prime Video
• King In The Wilderness  — HBO
• See You Yesterday (Stefon Bristol) — Netflix
• Selma (Ava DuVernay) — Amazon Prime Video & Netflix
• The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution — Available to rent
• The Hate U Give (George Tillman Jr.) — Hulu with Cinemax
• When They See Us (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix

Sources include Black Lives Matter (@blklivesmatter), A-List Pathway (@alistpathway) and Agency (@agencylmu).

Podcasts and Webinars

• NPR's Code Switch
• Nicole Hannah-Jones’s The 1619 Project
• The Appeal's Justice in America
• Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History Podcast  
  • Miss Buchanan's Period of Adjustment
    Explores the legacy of racism in American schools, starting with the truth behind Brown v. Board of Education
  • State V. Johnson
  • Mr. Hollowell Didn't Like That
    Explores institutional racism and power dynamics
  • The Hug Heard Around The World
    Explores race and tokenism
• The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries: DEI committees - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly  

Articles and Web Resources

• Structural Racism in America (Urban Institute)
• RaceWorks (Stanford University)
• History of Lynchings (NAACP)
• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Dr. Joy DeGruy)
• The Conscious Style Guide: Newsletter subscription on academic writing for empowerment and respect
• How to be Anti-Racist: A Social Worker's Perspective (University of Southern California)

Take Action

Allyship

Watch LMU Alumni Association and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion's LMU Solidarity Hour, featuring moving personal stories from Black alumni and words of insight, action and hope from faculty.

Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LMU)
AWARE-LMU is a white anti-racist affinity group that supports white faculty and staff in deepening our learning about the impact of systemic racism on individuals, institutions, and society. We work with the guidance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Ethnic and Intercultural Services, and other campus partners, and strive to support efforts led by people of color in our community regarding issues of equity and inclusion.

• Connect to AWARE-LA and White People 4 Black Lives
• Read the following texts: Why A White Space? by AWARE-LA and What Can White People Do? by Ali Michael, Ph.D. 
• Attend a Saturday Dialogue
• Anti-racist training for the community in planning stages – contact [email protected] for further information

Empowerment

Resources for Student and Community Activism, Criminal Justice and Police Reform, and more

• Anguish and Action: Provides resources to learn about police violence and antiracism as well as actions you can take to encourage reform from organizations who have been working on these issues at the local and national level for years
• How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change: Three ways to implement criminal justice and police reform by former President Barack Obama.
• Knowing Your Rights if Stopped by the Police: A description of what the law requires and also strategies for handling police encounters. 
• Promoting Diversity at LMU: Work with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Ethnic and Intercultural Services, and other units to encourage the recruitment and hiring of diverse faculty, to diversify course curricula and teaching methods, and promote inclusive excellence in other areas of the university.  
• Confronting Prejudice: Understand specific definitions and statistics surrounding prejudice and bigotry in the U.S. and learn actions you can take to be an ally. 
• No Going Back: Policies for an Equitable and Inclusive Los Angeles: #NOGOINGBACKLA is a movement focused on the legacy of injustices against the Black community in the U.S. and calls for a proactive agenda that explicitly dismantles anti-Black racism and an independent study on the state of African Americans in Los Angeles County.

Support and Activism

Support Black businesses:

• Supporting the growth of Black-owned businesses goes a long way in empowering communities in the long run, not just in this exceptionally dire landscape. There is no doubt that the pandemic has disproportionately affected black communities. Here is a Google doc of all the Black-owned restaurants in Los Angeles. Other ways to find Black-owned businesses:
  • WeBuyBlack
  • Official Black Wall Street

Submit general inquiries, comments, and concerns to: [email protected] 

• Organize to lobby the LAPD Commission for reform: http://www.lapdonline.org/police_commission
• Contact your local, county, state, and federal representative.  You can find out who represents you in all levels of government through this website: https://myreps.datamade.us/

Self-Care

LMU Student Psychological Services - LMU Student Psychological Services (SPS) provides confidential individual and group therapy; walk-in consultations; emergency psychological services; and psycho-educational outreach programming. SPS also offers psychological consultation to students, faculty, staff or parents who are concerned about a student. There is no charge for our services. SPS is accredited by the International Association of Counseling Services, Inc. Make an appointment here.

Explore LMU’s Wellness Opportunities

Other Resource Lists:

• Sunshine Behavioral Health: Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community
• The College of New Jersey provides Self-Care Resources for Discrimination, Racism and Hate
• University of North Texas: Racial Trauma and Self Care in Tragedy