When I left the training, I felt sick to my stomach, in my muscles and down to my core, but my head was clear. I felt like I was seeing the world in its true colors, fresh and new, like a baby does.
On Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, I participated in a three-day anti-racism training given on campus by the People’s Institute. The People’s Institute is recognized as one of the foremost anti-racism training and organizing institutions in the nation. Founded in 1980 by Ron Chisom and Jim Dunn, its purpose is to develop more analytical, culturally rooted, and effective community organizers.
About 40 people from both the college and the Greensboro community participated in the training. Each reacted to it differently.
Monica Walker, a Justice and Policy Department professor, has been involved in the trainings for 12 years and facilitated last weekend’s training.
“It was the first time that somebody was doing a workshop that explained the racism from a historical perspective, a political perspective and in a way that was very rationally related to the experience that I had,” said Walker of her first training.
This training had such a profound effect on her that she wanted to pass that experience on to somebody else. “It made my whole life make sense,” said Walker.
“To understand race and racism is to understand the construct on which this old thinking is based,” said Suzanne Plihcik, a Greensboro resident and People’s Institute trainer. “Attending the training is the beginning of a process to rewrite our story. I am a trainer for the People’s Institute because it allows me to be a part of something much bigger than myself.”
Senior Sunny Mathews did her first training two and a half years ago and is now a member of the Anti-Racism Team on campus, which is committed to a 20-year process of dismantling systemic racism at the college. She was excited by the last training. “This year the trainings have been received well,” Mathews said. “The applications just disappeared.”
Sophomore Liane White found the weekend extremely powerful. “It showed a part of history that is not generally taught,” said White.
“[The training was] extremely important, everybody should do it,” said sophomore Lauren Reed, who believed the training was “trying to take back the humanity that we have lost over the past hundreds of years.”
Senior Ryan Maher felt overwhelmed by the training, but thought he could now view the world more accurately. “The training gives a lot of these issues a language and a vocabulary which makes racism easier to understand and deconstruct,” Maher said. He felt the trainings are an important step towards making Guilford an integrated, functioning, and safe community.
Everybody had a different reaction to the training, but everybody seemed to leave with a sense of growth.
My only recommendation is that everybody go to Director of Community Learning Judy Harvey’s office in Founders Hall right now and fill out an application for the People’s Institute training in the spring.