Over 12,000 educators and students around the world convened virtually this week to participate in a University of Pittsburgh Office of Diversity and Inclusion forum titled, “Advancing Social Justice: A Call to Action.”
The three-day forum, which included over 50 interactive sessions and workshops, was held to provide participants with the tools and resources “needed to advance, address and confront systemic and institutional racism,” said Dr. Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at Pitt.
“This is an opportunity for us to strategize ways we can take action,” he said. “And as Representative [John] Lewis encouraged us, this is a way for us to do something about it. As we are in the midst of a global pandemic and as we are witnessing community activism and calls for change in the wake of the homicide of George Floyd, this year’s forum and this opportunity for us to gather has a heightened tone of priority.”
Dr. Leigh Patel, a professor in the School of Education at Pitt, started off the first session, “A Call to Activism: Witnessing Globally, Responding Locally,” by discussing the many disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The virus has hooked into those existing inequities and exacerbated them as every social condition does,” she said. “When we have environmental racism, any kind of virus or any kind of changing policy is going to hook into those existing inequitable structures.”
To act against racism, one must know “your place to step up, speak up and whether that is coming from an informed place,” she said.
“To be in right relationships is to understand … the histories of the people who are alive, who have been stewarding these lands, airways and waterways for millennia,” she added.
