Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the news

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Wayne State University Detroit Equity Action Lab to host the National Day of Healing from Racism

In the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a group of Wayne State University racial justice leaders collaborate every January to host the National Day of Healing from Racism. This day-long event — free to attend and open to all — is focused on learning how to talk about racism’s impact and how to use practices to guide people on their journey of healing from racism. This year’s event is on Tuesday, January 17, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Wayne State University’s Student Center Ballroom, with doors opening at 9:50 a.m. The Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL), an initiative of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at the Law School, will host this year’s event in collaboration with the WSU Office of Multicultural Student Engagement and the WSU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  
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Healing from racism is the subject of a day-long event at Wayne State

Racial justice leaders are hosting a day-long event at Wayne State University on Tuesday designed to help people heal from racism. The National Day of Healing from Racism, held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Student Center Ballroom, is focused on learning how to discuss racism’s impact and how to heal from it. The event is hosted by the Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL), an initiative of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at the Law School, in collaboration with the WSU Office of Multicultural Student Engagement and the WSU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “We are thrilled to be back in person for this year’s event after successfully pivoting to a virtual format in 2021 and 2022," DEAL Director Asandi Conner said in a statement Wednesday. “We have a dynamic roster of practitioners, facilitators, faculty, and staff contributing to our collective effort to acknowledge and heal from racism’s wounds.”  
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Wayne State University to open Detroit Center for Black Studies

Last month, Wayne State University announced its plan to create the Detroit Center for Black Studies as part of its efforts to prioritize faculty and research centered on the Black experience. The university will recruit and hire 30 new humanities faculty, made possible by a $6 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Dr. M. Roy Wilson is the president of Wayne State University. He says one of the goals in opening the Detroit Center for Black Studies is to connect the breadth of scholars who work in African American and African diaspora from all the universities in southeast Michigan. “The goal is an inclusive center that brings together the breadth of scholars who work in African American, African and African Diaspora Studies, and the interconnections with us and global histories, culture, economic, legal and health systems,” says President Wilson. 
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DEI commitment outlook at Wayne State University

The Michigan Chronicle spoke to Marquita Chamblee, Wayne State University’s (WSU) first associate provost for diversity and inclusion and a member of the president’s cabinet as the chief diversity officer.  “We certainly, like so many institutions and organizations, had a kind of resurgence of our efforts after George Floyd was murdered in 2020. But that wasn’t the genesis of the work that we began, that’s a much older history,” said Chamblee. “We’ve done a lot of DEI work more broadly and racial justice has probably been more in the central university, but the Damon Keith Center for Civil Rights has done a lot of racial equity work over the last several years as part of the university.” Chamblee said much credit goes to WSU President Dr. M. Roy Wilson who immediately put out a statement after the murder of Floyd and the protests had erupted, in support of the systemic change and brought staff together to make tangible changes in the university.  Her work involves responding to requests for training, workshops or an intervention around DEI that needs to be responded to in the department. The officer hired an intercultural training director to hone in on creating and expanding staff training and education programs. Conversations focus on identifying and implementing understandings of implicit bias, microaggressions and learning how to challenge yourself based on your identity to be more intentional about navigating other people around you. “We, each of us, need to look at our own implicit biases and what to do about them. The workshop on this is probably the one I get the most requests for. I think it’s because microaggressions are happening and people are aware that they’re happening and, whether it’s in a given department or generally at the university, people want to bring it awareness. What is the microaggression? What does it look like and how do we interrupt it?” In June 2020, a working group at Wayne State University came together as the Social Justice Action Committee (SJAC). The committee was tasked with first, examining internal policies, procedures and practices to identify bias on campus that may disproportionately disadvantage historically marginalized people. Chamblee said hiring more diverse staff and faculty is one of her priorities to ensure those working at the university reflect the diverse demographics of students. The university was awarded a $6 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the equitable hiring and the construction of a Center for Black Studies on campus. The infrastructure is still a work in progress and will likely materialize over the next couple of years.  “The diversity, equity and inclusion of our campus community is beneficial to everyone,” said Chamblee. “That is what we continue to support, people’s process to buy-in [to] the conversations we are having…the procedures and practices we have, we need to institutionalize them so we don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel.” 
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Wayne State celebrates 60 years since the March on Washington

Wayne State University is hosting a two-part event dedicated to honoring and preserving the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his famed 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event series will feature a panel discussion about the economic force of diversity, equity and inclusion, and an awards ceremony for exemplary community leaders. Stacie Clayton is the director of Wayne State’s Division of Government and Community Affairs. She says Wayne State wants to remind people what King’s speech and march were all about. “Our focus is on economics and social justice. We want to make sure that our students understand their role in the economy, specifically Detroit’s economy, and to understand how there are opportunities. While most people know [Dr. King’s] ‘I Have a Dream’ speech as a rallying call for equality, it also was a rallying call for economic equality. And part of that comes with jobs and employment.” The Economics of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Panel Discussion will take place at the Industry Innovation Center Auditorium on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 5 p.m. Participants are asked to RSVP in advance as seating is limited. Randy D. Williams, founder and president of Talley & Twine, the largest Black-owned watch company in the country, will also give a keynote address about connecting social justice to economic growth at the Mike Ilitch School of Business Lear Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 13. Participants can also RSVP to this address online.
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Taking pride in identity may protect mental health against online hate, study about experience of Asian Americans finds

Feeling proud of your background is key to one’s mental health when dealing with online racism, a new study in the Journal of Applied Communication Research suggests. Identity affirmation was linked to better psychological health in Asian Americans who were faced by a rise in online hate speech at the start of the COVID pandemic. Being proud of who you are and what you stand for, a form of resilience, was also associated with better physical health, better personal relationships and greater satisfaction with living circumstances. “Online hate speech attacks deep components of human identity and so may have sparked people’s need to reaffirm core elements of who they are,” says researcher Stephanie Tom Tong, an associate professor of communication studies at Wayne State University in the US. “This may have offered them comfort, provided them with meaning or helped guide their behavior, making them more able to protect themselves against the damaging effects of online racial harassment.” 
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Kids in Detroit learn what it’s like to attend medical school

Children in Detroit are getting the chance to find out what it's like to go to medical school. Dr. Carolyn King is one of the founders of Co-founder of the Reach out to Youth Program at Wayne State University and hopes to inspire the next generation of young doctors. The program, which began in 1990, encourages kids ages seven through eleven to consider careers in medicine. "In order for us to know who we can be, we have to see that role model in front of us, otherwise, we think the only thing there is to be that's passion-filled is an athlete or a superstar," said King. Second-year medical students who were a part of the program spoke about the importance of young children seeing those with similar ethnic backgrounds or genders reaching some of the highest levels in the medical field. "I really believe that representation is super important, especially in the field of medicine, where we don't have many black doctors or many brown doctors," said medical student Lyndsay Archer "So making sure that we just inspire the next generation to know that this field is something that they can do and that they can thrive in is super important."