Hello!
Welcome to my first Equity Corner, where I will highlight upcoming events and opportunities that can assist the Mandel School community in creating a sense of collective responsibility for developing a place of belonging. I have just finished my first month with the school, and I cannot fully express the deep gratitude I feel towards this community with words. You have all been so welcoming and helpful as I get my bearings and learn the ways of CWRU.
Some of my scholarship has centered on contemplative practices, and I feel strongly about intentional reflection on our experiences. I tend to identify with Schön’s (1983) definition of reflexivity (used interchangeably at times with reflective, reflexive and self-aware) as the ability to recognize one’s position within the power structure of the context, one’s objectivity and subjectivity. Regardless of the nuances of these words and definitions, the ability to recognize one’s position is an important skill for taking decolonizing approaches to social work in nearly every setting.
I bring this up in the context of Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. My guess is that a great number of people in the United States continue to believe and perpetuate the story of the first Thanksgiving in what is now known by many as white New England settlers inviting the indigenous peoples who helped them survive in unfamiliar territory to a harvest festival to thank them for their life-saving assistance. That is certainly the story I was told and believed for decades before I began learning more about imperialism and colonization, and eventually stumbled onto the Doctrine of Discovery that was used to justify European exploration, conquest and oppression.
Recent activism has urged a decolonization of Thanksgiving; some are even calling for abolishment of the holiday altogether. I struggle with the idea of losing this holiday, yet I also know about the ruthlessness of the colonizers, how the Doctrine of Discovery gave permission to white explorers to murder, and how destructive colonization has been to indigenous lives. None of these words feel truly harsh enough to fully capture the cruelty and violence carried out in the name of Christianity while it was costumed in “a search for spices and a path to the Far East.”
My own family has sought to tell more truth about Thanksgiving and truly gather in thanks as we assemble at my brother’s home in Kansas. I think we were trying to decolonize Thanksgiving before we knew what that meant. Whatever your background, identity or positionality, I invite you to learn more about how you can rethink Thanksgiving and find ways to practice gratitude that do not rise from the ashes of other people’s existences.
Lastly, I would like to share that Associate Dean for Equity and Innovation Scott Wilkes and I had our first meeting last week with a wise group of students, alums, faculty, staff and field instructors who are forming a committee to help guide the Mandel School’s work on anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. I will have more to share once that group identifies goals for our concern, energy and devotion to this important work.
In gratitude and solidarity,
Sherry Warren
Director of Equity & Lecturer