In Fall of 1990, exactly thirty years ago, I headed to Rutgers University as a college freshman. Prior to arriving on campus, most of what I knew about college I learned from watching 不同的世界.

Weeks before the fall semester started, I received my housing 和 roommate assignment. The welcome letter shared information about orientation weekend 和 an encouragement for new students to call their roommates 和 to get to know each another prior to arriving on campus. 是的，在电子邮件、Facebook和Instagram出现之前，推荐十大靠谱买球app平台 被称为 each other…from a house phone…with a cord…that attached to the wall. 我还记得我和室友的第一次谈话. 她感觉到我与众不同. 她说她能从我的声音里听出来——从我说话的方式里. “你是黑人吗??她问. “你是我认识的第一个黑人.

I was one of two Black people on my residence hall floor that year. 这对我来说并不新鲜. 我在一个以白人为主的社区长大. What was new to me was residing, day 和 night, in a predominantly White space. What was new to me was the near-daily experience of having to explain my hair routine. What was new to me was the gaze of onlookers as I placed a satin scarf on my head each night. 这些问题让人筋疲力尽, 这并不是因为好奇心本身就具有侵略性, 而是因为这种好奇常常带有种族偏见.

我十岁的时候就知道种族很重要. 我在五年级. 推荐十大靠谱买球app平台正准备读一篇买球app地下铁路的文章. My teacher asked if I could st和 up 和 tell the class about the Underground Railroad because, 用他的话来说, “毕竟, 他们就是你这种人.我不知道那是什么意思, but I knew from the tone of his voice 和 his chiding smile there was little affection for 我喜欢的人. I stood silently with a mix of shame 和 embarrassment until he permissioned me to sit down. It was the first of many classroom experiences that left me feeling naked under the racial gaze.

在某些方面，大学是不同的. 我有选择. 课程目录和书一样厚 黄页 (继续我的电话主题). As an English major, I could choose from a menu of literature courses. 再见了，赫尔曼·梅尔维尔、阿瑟·米勒和查尔斯·狄更斯. 大家好，奈拉·拉森，克劳德·麦凯，兰斯顿·休斯. College was the first time I was introduced to 和 read a book written by a Black author. When I read the Harlem Renaissance writers, words came alive on the pages. 我和这些作者没有任何关系, 但是他们选择了一个普通的, ancestral memory 和 gave me a language for things I knew in my bones. College, or at least my classes with Professor Cheryl Wall, was different. 我在书中看到了我完整的人性.

College was also the time that I started to underst和 that something was wrong with our criminal justice system. 那是我大三的时候. As I was sitting in my dorm room one afternoon, I was startled by a comm和ing knock. I opened the door to two men who identified themselves as federal agents. They showed me their badges 和 explained they were investigating a case of scholarship fraud 和 they thought I might have some information related to the case. They placed a police sketch in front of me 和 asked if I knew who was pictured. I didn’t, but their line of questioning moved quickly from “Do you know who this is?到“这不是你吗??他们坚持不懈地指出两人的相似之处. 在那一刻，一切都变得毫无意义. I don’t know that I’ve ever described the experience as racialized. 我不知道是不是. 这幅素描在种族上是模棱两可的. What I know is that by this time in my life most things took on racial meaning.

It was that same year that a young African American man was shot in the back by a police officer a few miles from my college campus. That week, we marched in protest, stopping traffic on New Brunswick’s Route 18. 我真的不知道我为什么要游行，也不知道这是否重要. What I know now is that I was looking for an outlet 和 a community to help make sense of something that just didn’t seem right. 当时我没有找到答案，但我肯定有疑问.
 
Those same questions resurfaced several years after I graduated from college. 我在纽约城外生活和工作. The news reported the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant living in the Bronx. 他是认错人的受害者, 手无寸铁的, 和 fired at forty-one times by four officers while trying to enter his apartment. More than twenty years later, that number is still incalculable to me.

As I reflect on the past several months 和 sit in this current moment, 我被太多的回忆淹没了. 我把这些记忆保存在我的身体里. 有时他们使我坚强. 有时他们让我生气. 有时他们让我在种族歧视的目光下畏缩. 它们通常会让我对周围的环境高度适应. 但总是如此, my memories motivate me to address how racism is manifested in our lives 和 our relationships with institutions 和 one another.

三十年后, my memories don’t seem very distant from the experiences of our students of color. Our students want a curriculum that positions them as more than objects of history. 我也是. 他们想要一个没有种族偏见和伤害的校园环境. 我也是. They want residence hall experiences that foster mutual exchange 和 underst和ing, 不是种族窥阴癖. 我也是. 他们需要教员, 工作人员, 和 administrators who are willing to interrogate 和 change systems that continue to cast them as “different” 和 to challenge the very norm against which their difference is calculated. 我也是.

我不想为推荐十大靠谱买球app平台的学生说话. 他们自己做得很好. 6月，推荐十大靠谱买球app平台听到了他们的讲话. 现在是九月，有人问我:“推荐十大靠谱买球app平台要做什么?? 推荐十大靠谱买球app平台必须做点什么.我现在同意这种观点，就像三十年前一样. 这对我来说并不新鲜.

我对今年充满希望, 但这并不是因为我有任何证据表明这种变化是深刻的, 持续的, 可伸缩的变化——是可能的. 我充满希望，因为推荐十大靠谱买球app平台所侍奉的神能完成不可能的事. I am hopeful because we have an opportunity in our brokenness 和 limitations to step into the redemptive places where Christ’s grace 和 mercy abound. I am hopeful because we have all that we need at our disposal to do the messy, 困难, 以及至关重要的和解与修复工作. 现在，推荐十大靠谱买球app平台必须 do 的工作.

为推荐十大靠谱买球app平台今年的共同工作提供便利, our quarterly newsletter will follow a simple pattern that includes an opening message, 接着是邀请 读、反映 和 回应. Our work cannot remain in the domain of the intellectual or sympathetic, 它还必须在实践中表现出来. 因此, each issue will provide resources for us to grow our knowledge (head), 探索推荐十大靠谱买球app平台个人和信仰与这项工作的联系(心), 加深推荐十大靠谱买球app平台的努力(双手).

I love you 和 urge you to engage head, heart, 和 h和 as we dive in. 我也恳请你让我知道(实物), 温柔的方式)当我没有听好或者我做得不够的时候. 我也还在学习. We can 和 must continue to do this work in service to our students 和 to one another. 当推荐十大靠谱买球app平台一起旅行, I pray that we will joyfully embrace the promise of reconciliation 和 hope of repair, 和 that we will do so with an expectancy that God can 和 will do more than we ever imagined.

桑迪梅奥
包容性卓越副教务长