Each month the Penn's Village Inclusiveness and Diversity Committee recommends several resources to help our members and friends to be more aware of the racial biases in each of us and in our society, and the resulting inequities, past and present. It is the committee’s hope that this information may even inspire us to make corrective changes. These resources, assembled by Lori Dumas and Mike Pulsifer, represent different mediums, different perspectives and experiences, and diverse authors.
December, 2021
Some Holiday Shopping Suggestions
African American, Asian, and Latino/Latina culture runs deep among Greater Philadelphia’s historic sites, artistic venues, and cultural attractions. Our region also has many Black-owned, Latina/Latino-owned, an Asian American-owned shops, restaurants, and galleries. Click here to discover articles highlighting just some of these essential businesses — more than 130 and counting in dozens of Philly neighborhoods and out into Philadelphia’s countryside.
YouTube Videos:Verses and Songs by Langston Hughes and Nina Simone
The roots to America’s racial crisis go back to 1619 when slaves were first brought to America. If we had been looking and listening to what African-Americans have been saying and singing for decades and decades, what is happening in America today would not have been a surprise to us.
Here are two examples of Black voices telling us in verse and song in the 1960s what many of us have just become aware of in the last few years. To read Langston’s Hughes’ poem Backlash Blues click here.
To hear Nina Simone sing this poem click here. To hear a longer, more revealing, rendition of this song by Ms. Simone click here. To hear her sing Mississippi Goddamn click here.
YouTube TED Talk: How We Can Make Racism a Solvable Problem and Improve Policing
Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff is the president and cofounder of the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), a university research center that diagnoses the roots of disparate policing in order to eliminate them. Dr. Goff contends that when we define racism as behaviors instead of feelings, we can measure it -- and transform it from an impossible problem into a solvable one. In this TED talk, he shares his data-driven approach that helps police departments diagnose and track racial challenges in policing in order to over come them. Click here access this 12 minute video.
Newspaper Article: Code-switching
Code-switching probably is something many of us do. We adapt the way we dress, talk, and act in different social settings and around different people. Often for good reasons we are different people around our grandchildren than we are our peers. This New York Times article explains why code-switching is a more common, often necessary, practice for Black people. Click here to read this article.
Kimmel Center Presents: Soulful Christmas on Tuesday, December 14th at 7:30 pm.
For more than seven years during the holiday season primarily African-American Churches in Philadelphia have joined together to present a musical extravaganza celebrating Christmas. This year’s Soulful Christmas under the leadership of Dr. J. Donald Dumpson will feature a region-wide mass choir, instrumentalists, soloists, and dance. This is always a sold-out event. To purchase tickets online click here and then click on Events and Tickets.