{"id":137971,"date":"2021-01-22T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T17:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=137971"},"modified":"2021-02-10T09:06:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:06:39","slug":"quotable-quotes-mlk-day-at-bates-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/22\/quotable-quotes-mlk-day-at-bates-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotable quotes, and what they mean, from MLK Day at Bates in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Though offered entirely online and remotely through Zoom sessions, the college\u2019s 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Day program still delivered its share of insight, criticism, and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few quotes that capture important messages from the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ll never forget the shock I felt when Chris Wallace from Fox News asked, at the first presidential debate, \u2018What does re-imagining policing look like?\u2019 It marks an important moment that would have been inconceivable even last year: The rhetoric of Black Lives Matter protesters have made their way into the vocabulary of a Fox News journalist on a national debate stage.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 Megan Ming Francis<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Francis, a scholar at the University of Washington, offered this quote during a session on the value of social science research to racial justice. A political scientist, Francis researches American politics, looking at the intersection of racial violence and the Black freedom movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift in the national conversation, along with the rapid change in public opinion during 2020, toward broad support of Black Lives Matter, seems \u201csurreal,\u201d says Francis. \u201cLet\u2019s remember that in 2014, many white Americans thought it acceptable to debate the phrase \u2018Black Lives Matter.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTruth inherently has value. In order to have shared understandings, we have to have some level of devotion to critically interrogate our own history and come to a set of truths that is reasonably representative.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Dylan Gyauch-Lewis \u201921 of Nashville, Tenn.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Gyauch-Lewis\u2019 quote is from the annual Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, Class of 1920, Debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featuring students from Morehouse College and Bates, the informal debate (no winners were declared) saw the students tackle the question of whether the House should “regret the portrayal of the Union in the Civil War as a morally righteous actor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No regret was needed, said the Opposition: Regardless of the Union’s righteousness, it’s important to portray the Union in a kind of myth-making way to advance shared ideals and lessons about what it means to be an American. Gyauch-Lewis countered by saying that the pursuit of truth is more important than myth-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting the motion were Daniel Edwards of Morehouse and Gyauch-Lewis \u201921 of Bates. Samuel Melcher \u201921 of New York City and Caleb Strickland of Morehouse College took the Opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI wasn’t a bit surprised. I truly had hoped that things had changed. And what I learned from the movie was that things haven’t changed that much.\u201d <\/p>\u2014<\/em> Pamela Baker \u201969, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Baker offered this quote after a screening of the 2020 documentary Picture a Scientist<\/em>, which depicts patterns of sexual harassment and discrimination as experienced by three generations of women scientists: a biologist, a chemist and a geologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post-film discussion was multigenerational, including Baker other senior Bates STEM faculty, plus three guests: a biochemist, cancer biologist, and a graduate student in astrophysics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do feel more hopeful after I heard the three young women scientists on our panel,\u201d said Baker. \u201cThey still face challenges, but now they can talk about it. In the \u2018old days\u2019 we knew we’d better just keep our mouths shut because that’s just the way life was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker reflected on her own experiences, including as a technician in a laboratory at the University of South Carolina Medical School. There she was harassed by her boss at the lab, who invited her to \u201cdinner and dancing and whatever\u201d whenever her husband, David Baker \u2019<\/strong>70, then in the Navy, was deployed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was supposed to feel grateful,\u201d she assumed, since the man had given her responsibility in her job, but \u201cit was always very uncomfortable.\u201d As she went on to her own doctoral work, the discrimination and slights she faced included having a male colleague repeatedly leave her name left off papers she had co-authored, until she asked. \u201cIt was good that he said yes, but a little weird that I had to ask.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings have changed somewhat. They haven\u2019t changed enough. And just like what we\u2019re seeing with race and white supremacy in this country, there are a lot of things that were underground, that were societal norms that you didn\u2019t do as explicitly, that have been blown open. And you actually see it being much more open now in a lot of places.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Bonnie Shulman, Professor Emerita of Mathematics<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

During the panel, Schulman shared her own painful experiences with sexual harassment, including by a mathematician who preyed on her at a conference when she was young and just starting out in her academic career in mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cKnowing that there were people being self-critical was satisfying. Honesty gets prospective students engaged.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 Ryan Fisse \u201922 of Los Altos, Calif.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Attending a session that discusses how a predominantly white college like Bates markets the college to prospective students, including BIPOC students, Fisse talked about being attracted to Bates because of its \u201cfounded by abolitionists\u201d marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a student, he attended a Mount David Summit presentation led by Professor of History Joe Hall and students. There, he learned more about Bates\u2019 early history, including that funding came from money Benjamin Bates made from his mills, which prior to the Civil War used cotton grown by enslaved persons. He said he valued the fact that Bates people were trying to tell a more complex story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking this origin story that\u2019s sort of mythified central to our marketing is disingenuous. It presents our diversity work as done. We know that\u2019s wrong. Prospective students know that\u2019s wrong.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Maddie Sirois \u201921 of Maplewood, N.J.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the same session, Sirois, who is an Admission tour guide, says that emphasizing the college\u2019s laudatory origin story in marketing materials has overshadowed, and can hinder, important, ongoing antiracism work at Bates, implying the work is done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe data urges us to rethink the \u2018mantra\u2019 that Maine is a white state. Maine is not so white. It is not when it comes to the contribution of communities of color to Maine\u2019s economy and culture. It is certainly not when it comes to COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 Professor Emerita of Politics Leslie Hill<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Maine has the largest racial disparity of COVID-19<\/a> in the nation: BIPOC people make up around 2 percent of the state\u2019s population, yet have represented almost a quarter of coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MLK Day session \u201cRacial Disparity, Structural Violence and COVID-19 in Maine\u201d looked at the resilience, innovation, and resource-pooling that BIPOC communities in Maine are displaying in the difficult battle again the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program was organized by the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"During<\/a>
Leslie Hill teaches her course on gender and sexuality in U.S. politics in 2018. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrigade, because we\u2019re warriors carrying out a mission of getting direct access and control of resources and bringing them to our community.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Crystal Cron, a community health worker and health justice activist<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cron is president of Presente! Maine, an organization that assesses and responds to the needs of immigrant communities, particularly the Latinx community, which represents a majority of the seafood processing and agricultural workforce in Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her quote refers to the action last spring, as grocery store shelves emptied, of creating a food brigade to serve her community. It began with just rice and beans and grew to a distribution of more than 15,000 pounds of fresh food weekly, and to helping the community grow 25,000 pounds of its own food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s empowering and exhausting and infuriating at once,\u201d said Cron. \u201cWe’re taking our survival into our own hands. But then, why must we do this when there’s practically endless resources that can be used to make sure our needs are met?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI think Bates has a habit of being the first to speak about anti-Blackness when it happens in the nation, but they refuse to address the trauma that they have caused students. And the form of trauma you\u2019re putting us through is anti-Blackness. And the fact that Bates was built off of anti-blackness: Where do you think the money came from? That came from Black pain and Black trauma. And the exploitation of Black bodies. And if Bates doesn\u2019t acknowledge this, and that we\u2019re still exploited, as students of color and athletes, then how can Bates address their anti-Blackness?\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Sam Jean-Francois \u201923 of Everett, Mass.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Francois spoke during the annual Sankofa event. Typically featuring performance, this year\u2019s session was a 75-minute conversation centered on Blackness in America, particularly in the aftermath of the insurrection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Francois and others spoke to the personal and shared struggles Black students experience at Bates. The distinction between the virtuous origin story so often told, of abolitionists founding the college, and the more recently examined, more authentic one<\/a>, connecting the money from mill owners like Benjamin Bates directly to the labor of enslaved people, has been part of the broader conversation at Bates in the last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou see videos of these terrorists saying, \u2018You don\u2019t treat us like this. You’re treating me like I\u2019m Black Lives Matter.\u2019 So to be Black, you\u2019re already considered a terrorist. Your whole being is anti-establishment.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Areohn Harrison \u201920 of Rockville, Md.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Harrison\u2019s quote calls out the Capitol mob\u2019s blatant hypocrisy, representing itself as a band of patriots, and noted the trauma of being Black in a country primed to presume the worst about you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His quote also spoke to a broad consensus among the Sankofa group: the entitlement of a predominantly white, Trump-supporting mob as it attacked the Capitol, and how disgraceful (but unsurprising) it was to witness the dazed response of outnumbered and unprepared law enforcement. That lackluster response was in sharp contrast to the massive armed and armored forces regularly mustered for peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Black Lives Matter protesters march in Boston on May 31, 2020. (Samuel Mironko ’21)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cYes, it\u2019s great to celebrate MLK, and yes, the holiday is needed to bring to light the work of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and so many other folks. But also, we have to focus on the fact that the U.S. only celebrates him now that he no longer has breath in his body.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Akira Townes \u201917 of Cockeysville, Md.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Townes was describing the frustration of the U.S. historically failing to acknowledge the value of BIPOC folks \u201cuntil they\u2019re no longer here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Townes, a graduate student in public health at the University of Washington, made the observation during a Q&A period in the workshop \u201cExploring the History and Meaning of MLK Day, \u201d a session that used a sociological lens to understand the importance of the holiday, the ritual and traditions involved, and controversies or conflicts surrounding the way the day is celebrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia Southern University sociologist Chad Posick joined Bates sociologists Emily Kane, Benjamin Moodie, and Michael Rocque on the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A mural on the wall of row houses in Philadelphia depicts, from left, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Martin Luther King Jr., and Frederick Douglass. The quote, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest,” is from Ella Baker. The mural artist is Parris Stancell. (Tony Fischer [CC BY 2.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.)], via Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to compare it to a 100-meter race, I don\u2019t know how many meters the movement has really taken us.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Jacob Iwowo \u201923 of London<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A panelist for a program led by students in the course \u201c#BlackLivesMatter,\u201d taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Cassandra Shepard, Iwowo responded to a question from Bates President Clayton Spencer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She asked, \u201cWhat do you think of as the distinctive power of the way the Black Lives Matter movement is organized, perhaps as compared with the earlier era of the civil rights movement, and are you optimistic that this is a moment of breakthrough?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iwowo, who had shared information on economic inequality as the underlying driver of the Black Lives Matter movement, said while he didn\u2019t want to be \u201cAfro-pessimistic,\u201d he questions the relative significance of the current movement within the historical context of centuries of oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot to say that the work that has been done hasn’t been amazing, and that it isn’t great to see the support, but, our presentations today are specifically about the systematic issues that are at play. And some of those systematic yardsticks need to be moved in order to call Black Lives Matter a breakthrough, in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another panelist, Mohamed Diawara \u201923 of Philadelphia, who had led a discussion on racial justice and the criminal justice system, jumped in first by focusing on the differences between the two movements, beginning with the concrete example of technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media coverage of protests and violence against protesters was extensive in the 1960s, but \u201ca lot of stuff had to go through newspapers, radio, or word of mouth,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe it took longer to get around, or the severity of maybe wasn’t perceived how it should have been perceived at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, \u201csomeone can record what happens and you see it instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat Black Lives Matter also provides that I think is maybe a little bit different is more gendered justice\u2026. and making a visible space for LGBTQ folk to be able to be more at the forefront of the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would deem that the Black Lives Matter movement is an awakening for a lot of young people. It’s a call to action for young and old; it seems to be bridging generations.”<\/p>\u2014 Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Cassandra Shepard<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Shepard offered a third answer to Spencer’s question, delving into another dimension of difference between the two movements, including \u201cmaybe a little bit different is more gendered justice\u2026. and making a visible space for LGBTQ folk to be able to be more at the forefront of the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A broad selection of quotable quotes \u2014 and what they mean \u2014\u00a0from presenters during the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":138045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,7,30,11009],"tags":[10594,5709],"class_list":["post-137971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-alumni","category-civic-engagement","category-the-college","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-martin-luther-king-jr-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137971"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138030,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137971\/revisions\/138030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}