Educate Yourself

This week’s blog is from the The Future Issue of the USF Magazine in the feature, How Do We Create An Anti Racist Future? A contributor to this piece is Jada Curry (’22), an Engage San Francisco Literacy Tutor and the current Board Secretary for our partner, the New Community Leadership Foundation. Read on for her answer to the feature’s title question.

I imagine an anti-racist future as one that fosters radical equity. Equity that compensates for the new forms of prejudice that have spawned from legislation such as the 13th Amendment, Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Educational Opportunity Act of 1974. Where some see these amendments and acts as “progressive” and just, true justice comes from the dismantlement and reconfiguration of structures — political, educational, health, or others — that oppress the very groups that these pieces of legislation were meant to help.

Address your own and others’ biases. Educate yourself in the history surrounding marginalized groups in this society.

“Reflect and revise your own support of the structures of oppression.

Find your method of working toward change. There are many! Finally, in supporting continued uprisings against these structures, listen to community voices. Do not speak for them; rather, uplift them always. It is our duty to fight for one another for the greater community and good, regardless of our differences.

To read the full feature and Senior Director, Derick Brown’s contribution, visit USF News online.