For Members Only and Northwestern Political Union hosted author and professor Ibram X. Kendi for a conversation on antiracism and policing Thursday night.
African American Studies Prof. Nicole A. Spigner began the event by asking Kendi, who is the founding director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, how individuals can practice antiracism in a racist world.
“The question for the individual is, ‘Are we upholding this system of racism or are we challenging it?’” Kendi said. “It’s not enough for us to recognize that the problem is power and policy… we then have to figure out how we as individuals can be a part of this larger struggle against power and policy.”
Political science Prof. James Druckman is working with researchers from Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers to survey thousands of Americans every month for the COVID States Project the largest ongoing national survey tracking people’s opinions and behavior during the pandemic.
“I’ve never been involved in anything that even approaches the speed with which this is moved,” Druckman said. “We wanted to collect data in a way that was able to look at both the spatial dynamics, by having large samples from every state in the country, and the temporal dynamics, by having data over time.”
The team of about 30 researchers and students has published nearly 40 reports since the project began last April, Druckman said. In addition to public health and policy changes, the researchers collect data about how national events have been affecting the pandemic.
NPEP Director Jennifer Lackey opened the event, which was co-sponsored by One Book One Northwestern.
“This roundtable series aims to open space for conversation on these critical topics and to bridge research, legal work, policy and community activism in addressing them,” Lackey said.
Maya Schenwar, editor in chief of Truthout, a publication focused on social justice issues, opened her talk by discussing the one-year anniversary of the death of her sister, who had been incarcerated.
Her sister, Keeley, was on probation when she died of an overdose. She had been forced into an abstinence-based drug program, which left her vulnerable, Schenwar said. Keeley died while hiding from the police, Schenwar said, because “that’s what you do so often when you are a criminalized drug user.”
After exchanges between University President Morton Schapiro and NU Community Not Cops this fall, Northwestern Hillel tackled questions about Zionism, anti-Semitism and racial justice in a weeklong symposium this month.
After demonstrations outside his home in October, Schapiro said in an email to the University community the protesters’ rhetoric toward him held anti-Semitic undertones. In response, NUCNC said they condemned anti-Semitism and their words had been misconstrued by Schapiro because “anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.”
Hillel Social Justice Coordinator Lydia Greenberg, who helped organize the symposium, told The Daily many Jewish students felt “hurt, confused, (and) frustrated” either at the administration or other students after the heated back-and-forth in the fall.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Northwestern’s Alpha Mu Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity held its 42nd annual candlelight vigil in honor of the civil rights leader, who was a member of the fraternity at Boston University.
The hour-long vigil was a part of MLK Dream Week, a University-organized series of virtual events in celebration of Dr. King’s legacy. The Northwestern Community Ensemble opened Monday’s event with a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” followed by a performance from spoken word poet Timothy Mays and a prayer led by Chaplain Tahera Ahmad, NU’s director of interfaith engagement.