SEAHO Report - Winter 2018 - 44

SEAHO Features

discussed in depth by our current and future leaders within the walls of their academia. Therefore, our students
are entering and re-entering the profession not having had the space or support to critically, analytically, or
physically think and work through the actuality and complexities of race, racism, and racial justice work.
With additional reflection, I could not help but pose the question to myself as a residence life professional. Do
we have a responsibility to racial justice in higher education as residence life professionals?
The answer is rather uncomplicated - Yes! Yes, we most critically do!
Racial justice can be defined as equal and fair treatment for all races; particularly in having policies, beliefs,
practices, attitudes, and actions that promote equal opportunity and treatment for people of all races. As
I thought more about the question, my subconscious quickly began framing my thoughts around the facts
why I would not be responsible. After all, I am not a professor and the only times I serve in a similar role
to students in a traditional style classroom is for one to two credit courses once or twice per year. I almost
escaped the reality of my responsibility with that mindset. However, my mindset was not only of error but very
problematic. I strongly believe the roots of housing and/or residence life are grounded in the concept to not
simply provide living quarters for our students but to be a housing haven of continued educational development
within our halls. The need to be a continuum of learning is strongly supported by our focus on residential
curriculum models, the financial to physical resources secured for the planning, implementing, and assessing of
programming, specific positions requiring or preferring certain levels of achieved education, and the increased
inclusion of Faculty members to have a learning and living presence within the halls.
So when it comes to race, racism, and racial justice work, we are not voided of that responsibility to be an
intricate part of our roles. We are not just residence life professionals but we are residence life educators
as well as residence life learners. Therefore, we have an ongoing responsibility to engage in dialogue, seek
internal to external learning resources, and connect with one another in order to efficiently address and share
the weight of this learning and work. Whether one is directly or indirectly affected, personally or professionally
impacted by the oppressive structures of racism and the moving target of racial justice, it does not allow us to
remain comfortable within the confines of our privileges and opt not to be involved. We have an individual and
collective responsibility to remove the roots of racism. In their 4th edition book "Uprooting Racism: How White
People Can Work for Racial Justice," Paul Kivel says, "There is a fire raging across the United States - usually
a series of brush fires erupting whenever the conditions are right - sometimes a firestorm, always a smoldering
cauldron. Whether it is major urban uprisings, intellectual debates, or everyday conflicts in our neighborhoods
and schools, racism is burning us all."
Since the fire is raging and reaching, it challenges all of us to remain actively conscious and engaged with
the rage of it. We cannot simply make a phone call from the well-manicured front lawn of our lives expecting
change from our hands free involvement. So we must not treat racism and racial justice as a glass egg that
we keep packed away in our suitcase because we are fearful of causing damage or are unsure what to do with
it once it is unpacked. We cannot only choose to engage in dialogue and the work when it is convenient or
comfortable. We cannot keep the work and learning to one a specific pocket of people as we risk not providing
lateral learning among one another. We cannot put our fingers on our noses (not it) and shove the responsibility
and weight of this work to our campus partners in multicultural or diversity related offices and wait for them to
lead the charge and shape the commitment to social and racial justice. Regardless of title or level of leadership
within our various institutions, the fact is that it has to be conceived as shared responsibility that is believed as
a shared reality. Kivel further shares, "Uprooting Racism begins with the understanding that racism exists, it
is pervasive and that its effects are devastating. Because of this devastation, we need to start doing everything
possible to work for racial justice."
In exhausting every effort as prescribed by Kivel, we must look to decrease in only resulting to reactive
SEAHO Report Winter 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Winter 2018