Vassar group takes active steps towards anti-racism
When Talent Davis closed with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Vassar College’s Villard Room erupted into applause and song. Raised as a Pentecostal Christian at his family church here in Poughkeepsie, Davis has looked toward his spirituality to pave the way for facilitating open conversations and connecting with others.
In an unfortunate time of rising hate crime rates, connecting with others in the community is a necessity now more than ever. Poughkeepsie, a diverse city where around 20% of the population lives below the poverty line, is also home to two affluent, primarily white colleges. Vassar College’s Anti-Racism, Equity, and Justice organization (AREJ) held its first event on March 30. “Breaking Down and Building Up” was an evening of discussion and a workshop for members of the Vassar and Poughkeepsie communities seeking to practice anti-racism.
“The goals were simple — to break down silos and communally analyze anti-racism activities in the City of Poughkeepsie and at Vassar and build up a coordinated social justice network to collaboratively dismantle racism,” said Davis, an AREJ organizing member.
Each participant developed their own definitions of anti-racism on Post-It notes that were then posted throughout the Villard Room as a warm-up exercise. Following that, members of AREJ provided a concise but comprehensive lecture on the racial history in the Poughkeepsie and Vassar College area.
Participants learned that Poughkeepsie has a history of redlining and that Vassar did not admit a student who openly identified as Black until 1940. The speakers discussed how Black female students took over the Main Building in 1969, demanding that Vassar implement stronger diversity measures, which led to the founding of the Africana Studies department and the ALANA center.
The room was buzzing with conversations from Marist College and Vassar College students, Poughkeepsie community leaders, and other citizens.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Robin Green, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “I like the mixture of students, community people, and organizations because that’s really what we need to achieve anything.” She added, “There is unity in strength.”
Participants were then divided into smaller groups to analyze Vassar and Poughkeepsie using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) approach. Isis Benitez, an AREJ member and event organizer, said in a written email, “The decision to do a SWOT analysis was because it was one of the simplest yet data-driven ways to dissect racism and where the communities can work together.”
“The SWOT exercise was evocative. I heard some things that I’ve heard since I was a child and some novel things that sent chills down my spine,” Davis said. “I was grateful for the candid truth-telling that occurred, however, I was most grateful for the solutions that were forged in the strategic plan.”
One group extensively discussed the gap between Poughkeepsie and Vassar and landholding. End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) and the Poughkeepsie Community Action Collaborative are two anti-racist community groups that Anne Lancellotti is a member of.
“I think that the idea of what Vassar does with its land is very important,” said Lancellotti. “For instance, if you own some of the businesses here, having respect for their need to attract the entire community, not only a small community of Vassar students, and giving those businesses a little leeway in the rent so that they can attract people from the wider community.”
According to Laura Motoya, who works with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project and the Hudson Valley Language Justice Collective, Vassar should join a community land trust. “What it means is that the house might be owned by an individual, but the land is owned by a land trust,” she said. The land trust consists of a three-part board, including government, community members, and outside experts.
“If we live in a project or a housing community, you and I have no say in what happens to those projects, how the walls get painted, how our rent goes up…in a community land trust, we make those decisions together,” Motoya continued. “Vassar could donate two houses to start it off. Or the money to get two houses from the city that are dilapidated. Or, I don’t know if there’s some kind of youth build program here, where young people can also help…Let’s not even say money. The social capital that Vassar has, the brains that are here–you can start a community land trust for Poughkeepsie.”
The ALANA Center’s director, Nicole Beveridge, described how her hopes for the occasion came true, saying, “My hope for the event was to strengthen the current ties between Vassar and neighboring communities and to move forward with plans, policies, and action steps that center antiracism.”
Overall, it was an extremely successful night for the community as important discussions were had and plans were made. Benitez hopes to organize and hold more events like this one.
AREJ is currently analyzing the data and feedback that was received and plans to hold an event like this at least twice a year to check-in and hold each other accountable.
