Far from Finished<\/h6>\n
The work to achieve greater equity within the Bates community, for all members of our community, is an ongoing process. While this and other stories of MLK Day 2019 show progress and community engagement, we are mindful that much work remains ahead.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
\u201cWhy does it have to be one way or the other?\u201d <\/i>\u2014 Audience member, Benjamin Mays Debate<\/h6>\n
Featuring debaters from Bates and Morehouse College, the annual Benjamin Elijah Mays, Class of 1920, Debate offered this topic to the audience that packed the Olin Concert Hall: \u201cThis House believes that social justice movements should prioritize socioeconomic class over race and gender.”<\/p>\n
When audience members were invited to ask questions, one man asked why it has to be one or the other.<\/p>\n
Harry Meadows ’19 of Princeton Junction, N.J., suggested that d<\/span>ebating the issue is less about choosing sides than helping people understand and refine arguments that, ultimately, will have an impact on real lives.<\/p>\n During the Benjamin Mays Debate, Harry Meadows ’19 listens as Zachary Manuel of Morehouse College offers a point of information. At right is Abby Westberry ’19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIt would be great if the stakeholders of the world were able to properly balance these issues in the order that they were addressed,” Meadows said. “But I think the value of having a debate is to tease out the arguments that might expose issues with how we address the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Pora, a member of the Sisters of Mercy who works with Spanish-speaking immigrants in Maine, spoke during an afternoon panel featuring local and state advocates for immigrants.<\/p>\n Central to Pora\u2019s work is the concept of acompa\u00f1amiento<\/em> \u2014 “walking with,\u201d a theological term that emphasizes solidarity, vulnerability, and recognizing humanity.<\/p>\n In terms of deeds and actions, acompa\u00f1ar<\/em> effectively means being welcoming, offering a \u201cglad you\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccompany them to immigration check-ins or the Boston court, because there\u2019s a lot of insecurity there,\u201d Pora said. \u201cDon\u2019t play lawyer.” Instead, refer them to expert legal resources for immigrants.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAdvocacy with legislators is big,” Pora continued. “Study the history. There are many good books.”<\/p>\n And, \u201cfind friends on the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n During a morning presentation, McLean, Areohn Harrison \u201920 of Rockville, Md., and Justice Prewitt \u201920 of Memphis, Tenn., talked about mentoring middle-school boys at Hillview, an apartment community a couple miles from campus.<\/p>\n The mentoring program was sparked last year during an after-school program at Hillview, when boys started asking pointed questions about race, crime, and poverty.<\/p>\n In response, the three Bates students began a formal mentoring program, helping the boys tackle issues of racism and bias.<\/p>\n From left, Areohn Harrison \u201820, Obed Antonio, Reuben Mukenoli, Ellijah McLean \u201820 and Justice Prewitt \u201820 pose after their presentation about an aspirations program for boys at the Hillview apartment community. Teenagers Antonio and Mukenoli live at Hillview and are program participants. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n During the MLK Day session, they talked about biases they face at Bates and in Lewiston, the importance of connecting the two communities, and how mentorship benefits both mentor and mentee.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are not many faces at Bates that look like us,\u201d said McLean, of Providence, R.I. The mentors take their personal experiences, along with academic courses, and \u201cdeliver the things we\u2019re learning about to the guys we work with.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way to do that is provide that welcoming feeling, that comfort that we have as black men that they don\u2019t have at school.<\/p>\n \u201cTalking to them about their teachers can be sad and heartbreaking, to hear about some of the experiences that they have that are very similar to ours, that we\u2019re handling as 20-year-old men and that they\u2019re trying to handle at 11, 12, 13 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Wade was a coordinator of the workshop \u201cHow to Maintain Our Wild Tongues,\u201d which asserted students\u2019 rights to the dialects and non-English languages they were raised in.<\/p>\n The session\u2019s title plays on the 1987 essay \u201cHow to Tame a Wild Tongue<\/a>,\u201d by the late scholar Gloria Anzald\u00faa, who described the English-only teaching practices she experienced growing up in Texas. \u201cWild tongues can\u2019t be tamed, they can only be cut out,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Wade talked about the history of English-only teaching and monolingualism in America and how it was \u201cdisguised as improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look back at the history of colonialism, you\u2019ll find examples of missionaries and educators connecting the practice of taking the land with taking the language and the culture of the local people.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez, a presenter during the panel discussion \u201c#MeToo Means Who<\/em>?\u201d prefaced her segment about domestic workers by saying, \u201cI\u2019m a very proud daughter of a domestic worker.\u201d<\/p>\n The panelists looked at forces that determine which victims of sexual violence get recognized.<\/p>\n Assistant professor of art and visual culture Carolina Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia was a presenter for the MLK Day 2019 session “#MeToo Means Who<\/em>?” She’s shown here working with Lewiston High School students on a YWCA mural in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n In the U.S., Gonz\u00e1lez pointed out, domestic work is often regarded as informal. “Employers don’t see themselves as employers, and employees don’t see themselves as employees.” That can have far-reaching ramifications.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does it mean if you experience some sort of discrimination or violence, and you don\u2019t have an HR department to go to? You can actually go to jail, because it\u2019s your voice against your employer\u2019s, who is usually someone who has more weight.\u201d<\/p>\n During the session, the audience responded with myriad answers when asked, \u201cWhat are the conditions that create vulnerability for targets of sexual violence?\u201d<\/p>\n As attendees for the #MeToo session overflow the Hedge 106 classroom, presenters Melinda Plastas, Carolina Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia, Paula Espinosa \u201919, Leslie Hill, and Emily Kane await the go-ahead to move to a bigger venue. In the end, the session moved to Pettigrew Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Kane, also part of the panel discussion \u201c#MeToo Means Who<\/em>?\u201d commented on an open letter published last year by the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (National Farmworkers Women\u2019s Alliance) that expressed support for sexual-violence victims in the film industry.<\/p>\n The now-famous letter begins this way: \u201cWe write on behalf of the approximately 700,000 women who work in the agricultural fields and packing sheds across the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Kane, \u201cI love the way they’re seizing a moral authority \u2014 that most of society doesn’t grant them \u2014 to say, \u2018We can be people who get to tell you rich and famous women that we believe you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s generosity there, Kane added, but also a sense that the farm workers know who they are. \u201cIt\u2019s that sense that, \u2018We know what this is about and we could help you figure out what to do \u2014 though also, you could help us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Organizer of the panel discussion \u201c#MeToo means Who<\/em>?\u201d Hill talked about the construction of activism, mentioning the Movement for Black Lives.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re constructing a movement in the moment, taking on issues that are important inside their own communities and generating conversations about them,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n Along the way, \u201cthey\u2019re finding people to talk with and trying to figure out, \u2018How can we change this future?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Cheney was part of a panel discussion by Bates historians about the intersection of activism and scholarship in the study of history.<\/p>\n A historian of China who concentrates on the environmental, social, and legal history of the Qing Empire (1644\u20131912), Cheney admits that he has \u201cquestions, and a difficult relationship with my responsibility to help change the present\u201d in China.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/01\/190121_MLK_Day_1403-1.jpg\")
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\n\u201cWhat can you do to <\/em>acompa\u00f1ar? Smile.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Sister Patricia Pora<\/h6>\n
\n\u201cWe provide a little safety net and ways to maneuver in those settings when they\u2019re not necessarily supported.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Ellijah McLean \u201920<\/h6>\n
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\n\u201cIt was disguised as an effort of improvement.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Stephanie Wade, assistant director of Writing at Bates<\/h6>\n
\n\u201cWhat does this informal structure mean when we’re talking about human rights violations?\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Carolina Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia, assistant professor of art and visual culture<\/h6>\n
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\n\u201cMale domination of workplaces. Unequal protection of laws. Immigration status. No fellow employees. The informal nature of jobs. Language barriers. Fear of losing a job. Obviously, race. Mental state or ability. Class.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Audience members during \u201c#MeToo Means Who<\/em>?\u201d<\/h6>\n
<\/a>\u201cI love the way they’re basically saying, \u2018We believe you.\u2019\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Emily Kane, professor of sociology<\/h6>\n
\n\u201cYour generation is producing the leadership that can carry such conversations forward and get beyond the headlines, get beyond the hashtags.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 Leslie Hill, associate professor of politics<\/h6>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily know what to do.\u201d \u2014 <\/em>Wes Chaney, assistant professor of history<\/h6>\n