SCNA’s Ad Hoc Committee for Racial Justice has worked to address many of the grievances people of color have expressed in the wake of the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The committee has three general categories to approach its work:
Personal Connections
The committee will encourage the board to form relationships with people of color to break down collaborative barriers.
The board has adopted language in its recruitment for potential new members encouraging nominations of Curtis Park residents with racial and ethnic diversity.
Advocacy
The committee seeks to bring a number of initiatives to the SCNA board in support of communities of color in Sacramento.
Self-Work
SCNA encourages everyone in Curtis Park to do the introspection that real understanding across racial lines requires. Self-work includes acknowledgements of historic discrimination in housing, racist attitudes and feelings of exclusion in a white-dominated society.
Zoom webinars
The committee will sponsor two public Zoom webinars:
“Facing the Long History of Racial Exclusion in Curtis Park,” is set for Sept. 24, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Viewpoint Editor Dennis Cusick will moderate a discussion with panelists Dan Murphy, an SCNA board member and Curtis Park historian; and Ginger Rutland, a retired Sacramento Bee editorial writer and author of the play “When We Were Colored,” based on her mother’s memoir.
“Discovering and Dealing With Unconscious Bias,” will take place Oct. 1, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Dr. Alison Ledgerwood of UC Davis will provide practical and helpful means to gain insights into unconscious biases we carry around as filters to our experience.
Everyone is invited with no charge to attend.
Part of each webinar will be interactive with questions taken from the audience. Register for the webinars at sierra2.org/event/webinar. Once registered, you will receive an email with a link to join the Zoom webinar.
If you’re new to Zoom, there is an easy YouTube lesson at support.zoom.
us/hc/en-us/articles/206618765-Zoomvideotutorials.
To learn more about the struggles people of color live with daily, the committee has posted links and references to resources – books, films, videos, podcasts, internet sites – on the SCNA website at sierra2.org/racial-justice/.
If you’d like to attend the committee’s Zoom meetings from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays, email Kathy Les at [email protected]. Note “Committee for Racial Justice” in the subject line.