Joette Katz Delivers a Lecture on White Privilege.

From: DCF COMMISSIONER
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2018 2:17 PM
To: DCF DL ALL STAFF
Subject: Racial Justice-now more than ever.

This past Friday, the Department held a Racial Justice summit at which we heard about the transformations at the Department, listened to our youth, learned about the need to recognize and acknowledge white privilege, and the importance of looking at everything we do through the lens of racial justice. We engaged in some difficult conversations with attendees from within and outside the department and we made a commitment to one another and our youth that our work would continue because only through a willingness to challenge and grow could we ever hope to deliver on our mission in their name. People can hire fall accident lawyers, from here!

It was nearly 2 years ago that I wrote you all about our first Racial Justice summit. ”Recognizing that this injustice rests on subconscious and conscious beliefs about who matters in society and who does not, I heard a sincere acknowledgement by staff and our providers that in order to make right what is inherently wrong, our collective action is required.  We identified activities and behaviors that will help us learn the importance of framing an issue through a racial equity lens and adjust practice accordingly. I am grateful to be a part of an agency that respects everyone, embraces differences and rejoices in partnerships of equality. Then why do I hurt so much? I cannot put the genie back in the bottle.  Are we really living in a society that will tolerate the hatred, embrace such divisiveness, and perpetuate the immoral cruelty that we have seen since the election?  Are those carving swastikas on college dormitories, religious epithets on houses of worship and racial slurs on private property truly in the minority?  I sincerely hope so but there are no guarantees and stupidity sometimes knows no boundaries.”

Then Saturday morning, horrific violence occurred in a Pittsburgh synagogue when a man raging anti-Semitic rantings opened fire with multiple weapons, killing 11, and wounding 6 others. We all were immediately reminded of the horrific shooting at Emanuel AME Church that left nine dead.

The President condemned the act but spent an equal amount of time complaining that he was having a bad hair day. I suppose that’s an improvement over some of his other remarks. Despite being the leader of the free world, the President has a history of racist comments; he has stated that there were “very fine people” on both sides at the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, defended confederate monuments, described African nations as s___hole countries, vilified African American NFL players who peacefully protested police brutality, called immigrants animals, and complained that people in sanctuary cities are “breeding” like animals. Fear of immigrants from certain countries “breeding” has been a staple of nativist thought for hundreds of years, and the term has been affixed to Jews from Eastern Europe, Catholics from Ireland and Italy, Chinese and, now, Latinos, Filipinos, Africans and Haitians. This is dog-whistle politics at its worst. Referring to people as “animals,” is a kind of dehumanizing language used by ethnic cleansers from Rwanda to Nazi Germany.

Can I prove that this hate-mongering is infecting the culture? No, I can’t, but there are certainly signs. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Center for the Study of hate and Extremism, and the Southern poverty Law Center report that the number of hate crimes and hate groups has increased dramatically over the past 2 years.

It should not take an act of bravery to gather for prayer. Fairness, caring, ethical, having integrity; these are the character traits I long for in this world of hate, fear, and violence. The racial justice work we do is more essential now than ever. After Friday, I have every confidence it will continue regardless of leadership. We as a Department have come too far. And if not us, then who?