BOSTON UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ANTIRACIST RESEARCH Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING ANTIRACIST WORK.
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Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
Thank you for your support of antiracist work. In this challenging year, the launch of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research stands out as a beacon of hope. Yes, we have seen yet more tragic instances of the violence and suffering wrought by racism. Yes, change of the kind we envision is hard, and it does not come overnight. And, yes, we have much work still to do. But we have begun. Your support has been an essential part of this beginning. Your faith in the work of the Center, your willingness to step up at the very beginning of our journey, and your ongoing commitment to the work we do—all of this inspires, energizes, and delights us as we delve into the tasks before us. In these pages, you will see just some of the projects you have already helped us launch. With your generous support, we have continued our work on the COVID Racial Data Tracker, which makes visible the substantial racial disparities in COVID-19 infections, care, and survival. We are now expanding our vision to create a more broad-based Racial Data Tracker, which will enable us to collect and analyze information on a wide range of urgent issues that are affected by race. At the same time, our Offices of Research and Policy have started exploring a host of other pressing questions and potential solutions; our Office of Narrative has partnered with The Boston Globe to reimagine abolitionist-era newspapers as The Emancipator; and our Office of Advocacy has forged partnerships that will establish the nationwide American Antiracist Society in early 2022. And, as you will read, there is much more to come. We ask for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing more findings, news, and updates as we go.
Photo: Stephen Voss
Thank you for being here at the start, and for inspiring us to work toward a fully antiracist future. We are grateful and proud to be traveling this road with you.
Ibram X. Kendi Founder & Director Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities 3
AT THE CENTER FOR ANTIRACIST RESEARCH, ACADEMIC RESEARCH MEETS ANTIRACIST ACTION.
The BU Center for Antiracist Research opened on July 1, 2020, with a modest team of three. We began with a transformative and revolutionary vision: bring together antiracist people who will challenge the status quo of racist policies and build a future of equity and justice. 4
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
The Center integrates four key strategies to pursue its goals: • Reframe narratives around race and racism • Produce and support original, rigorous research • Eradicate racist policies • Strengthen antiracist advocacy efforts across the country Our four offices of changemaking work—Narrative, Research, Policy, and Advocacy—guide all of our efforts. In our first year, we have firmly established the foundations for these four offices by welcoming more than 20 colleagues, who reflect the great diversity of our nation. Along with this dynamic, collaborative staff, the Center now connects six different colleges and schools at Boston University as well as faculty affiliates from neighboring institutions, ensuring that it will function as an important anchor for integrative research and coordinated action. Early, substantial support from such donors as Jack Dorsey’s Start Small Foundation, Steven Soderbergh, and the Vertex Foundation has propelled the Center’s key initiatives and projects forward. One of our earliest projects was to maintain the COVID Racial Data Tracker (CRDT) in partnership with The Atlantic. This first-of-its-kind tracker clearly highlights the severe racial disparities in health and healthcare and their devastating effects when the pandemic struck. Building on the CRDT, the Center is now developing the Racial Policy Tracker and the Racial Data Tracker. In our first year, the Center has also actively supported innovative research projects. Our Research and Policy teams have delved into the pandemic’s health and economic impacts, the legal protection of sex-trafficking victims, best practices for mental health and collective care for young people of color, access to breastfeeding support, and more. Drawing on the research findings, the Center will soon share policy briefs and products.
This year we also played a key role in leading national conversations on antiracism. We began by building the Affiliates Program, the nation’s largest network of scholars studying race and racism. Its members will be important collaborators with the Center. We also laid the foundations for the Antibigotry Convening, the American Antiracist Society, and the Antiracist Tech Initiative. Our work has already reached three significant milestones: • March 2021: announced our collaboration with The Boston Globe to launch The Emancipator, a multimedia publication that will showcase leading antiracist voices and ideas for the nation and the world • April 2021: held the second National Antiracist Book Festival • June 2021: filed our first amicus brief in Thompson v. Clark, a case now pending before the US Supreme Court that addresses a procedural loophole that shields police officers from accountability under federal civil rights law for pursuing false criminal charges, which are often used to target people of color After a year of remarkable expansion and growing momentum, we are more energized than ever. We continue our work to become an international leader in the research and practice of antiracism. Together, we will help build the world anew.
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The racial problem is not bad people but bad policies. Ibram X. Kendi 5
NARRATIVE We’re reframing the narrative on race. To build an antiracist, equitable society, we must first recognize that racial injustice comes from bad policies, not bad people. The Center for Antiracist Research is taking the lead in shifting the story line to reveal that truth—and making sure the whole world knows it. In the Center’s Office of Narrative, we draw on the work of scholars and experts to tell compelling stories. Those stories help policymakers understand the implications of our research—and use them to make better policies. They help organizations share their wisdom with the next generation of antiracist practitioners. And they help everyone understand where racism comes from, and what we must do to eradicate it. Generous gifts from Biz and Livia Stone and others have helped make all of this possible. “We take research all the way through the pipeline of change,” says Associate Director of Narrative Monica Wang. “We feel we have a civic duty and responsibility to translate our findings and solutions in as many ways as possible, so that other audiences, other sectors, can also become engaged.” Here are some of the ways we’ve shifted the narrative in our first year. The Emancipator Sparking change on a free multimedia platform In March 2021, the Center and The Boston Globe’s Opinion team announced the forthcoming launch of The Emancipator, which aims to reframe the conversation on race. Combining scholarship and journalism, it’s a reimagining of 19th-century antislavery newspapers. (See sidebar at right.) 6
Public Scholarship Shop Helping antiracist researchers spread the word Important findings often don’t make it past the pages of academic journals. Here, affiliated BU faculty will learn how to make their research accessible to the general public. We’ll help them learn how to pitch stories, give engaging interviews, write persuasive op-eds, and hone other media skills. And when they’re ready to write a best seller, we’ll connect them with trade publishers. Program in Antiracism Studies Educating the next generation of antiracist leaders We are currently developing the world’s first undergraduate minor and master’s program in Antiracism Studies. Expected to launch in the next one to two years, this interdisciplinary program will train students in the history, theory, and science of antiracism and offer practice-focused experiences through team-based practicums and projects. Antiracist Book Festivals Celebrating today’s antiracist writers, preparing tomorrow’s In April 2021, the Center hosted the second National Antiracist Book Festival—the only one of its kind. A virtual book festival is set to take place in April 2022, with plans to move to in-person festivals and expand to regional festivals (one in New England and one on the West Coast) in 2023.
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
THE EMANCIPATOR
Scholars and journalists shift the narrative In March 2021, the Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe’s Opinion team announced their plans to collaborate on The Emancipator, a reimagining of 19th-century abolitionist newspapers, including the original Emancipator and William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator. The aim? To reframe the 21st-century conversation on race. The brainchild of Center founding director Ibram X. Kendi and Globe editorial page editor Bina Venkataraman, this free multimedia platform will marry the best of evidence-based scholarship and journalism to uncover, analyze, and comment on the racial problems of our time. The planned content runs the gamut, from written and video op-eds to data visualizations and virtual debates. The Emancipator is not just an incubator for ideas but a way to turn those ideas into action. It promises to offer solutions to everything from the lack of diversity
in STEM fields to bias in healthcare algorithms. And it connects past with present, annotating abolition-era editorials to highlight parallels today. Two extraordinary coeditors-in-chief sit at the helm of this historic enterprise: the Center’s Deborah D. Douglas, an award-winning journalist and author of U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement, and the Globe’s Amber Payne, a former executive producer at BET Digital and founder of NBCNews.com’s NBCBLK, a media vertical on Black identity. “We’re thinking of the city of Boston as being a pioneer,” says Associate Director Monica Wang. “How can we lead the way in showcasing antiracist opinion, ideas, and data-driven solutions to promote equity in government, industry, media, the nonprofit world, and other spheres of influence?”
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NARRATIVE
Opening minds to what’s possible
Photo: Cydney Scott
Monica Wang is passionate about uncovering the drivers behind racial health inequities and the evidence-based solutions to mitigate them. She is also determined to bring those findings, in accessible form, to the public.
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“We know there are racial health inequities,” says Wang. “How do we actually go about making changes? Part of doing that means we have to collaborate with people outside of academia. And that involves writing and speaking in a different way.” Wang, also an associate professor of community health sciences at the BU School of Public Health, is an expert on
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
that “different way.” She served as chair of the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Civic and Public Engagement Committee, where she developed workshops and mentoring opportunities for scientists looking to translate their findings for various audiences. And she’s published on the popular website Medium, including a recent piece on racial and ethnic disparities in COVID outcomes. Getting the call to head the Office of Narrative was, she says, “a moment of pure joy, excitement, inspiration.” It’s a challenge that brings together the research, teaching, and practice to which she’s devoted her career.
“One of the biggest factors driving the shift is understanding how and why racial inequities exist in the world,” Wang says. “The narrative hasn’t been consistent. You can look at the same data but have different interpretations of it. Shifting the narrative opens your mind to what’s possible. The call becomes ‘How can we—with the power, resources, skills, and expertise we have as individuals and organizations—come together to collaboratively address these difficult problems in innovative ways?’”
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We feel we have a civic duty and responsibility to translate our findings and solutions in as many ways as possible. Monica Wang Associate Director of Narrative
Amplify new narratives: You can help us change the way people everywhere think—and act—about race. To learn more about supporting the Office of Narrative, contact Ron Gray at rongray@bu.edu or 617-599-8065. 9
RESEARCH We define and advance racial data science.
All research is not alike. At the Center for Antiracist Research, we believe that advancing racial data science is the most effective way to expose the effects of racist policy. What is racial data science? It entails collecting, curating, and analyzing comprehensive data sets of historical and real-time racial and socioeconomic patterns to shed light on racial inequities. Only through such evidence-based insights, disseminated widely, will organizations and governments replace their current policies with antiracist ones. Consider some of the findings already revealed by the Center’s primary tool for this work, the Racial Data Tracker— which we aim to be the country’s largest online database of racial data.
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Nationwide, Black people have died of COVID-19 at 1.4 times the rate of white people. Homeownership among Black people hovers at 45.4 percent, whereas for white people it soared to 75 percent (for more information on the tracker and our findings, see page 13). Our next move? Identifying the policies and practices that have led to these inequities and helping change them. Guided by Assistant Directors of Research Elaine O. Nsoesie and Katherine Levine Einstein, we are launching these ambitious initiatives (see sidebar). Generous support of the Center’s research and data collection from the Vertex Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other donors has helped make this, and more, possible.
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
Racial Data Lab
Affiliates Program
Research and Policy Teams Program
Pioneering racial data science to change antiracist policies
Establishing the nation’s largest network of antiracist researchers
Creating an environment where collaboration turns ideas into action
The Racial Data Lab leverages two of BU’s core strengths: our significant research and education expertise in computing and data sciences and our national leadership in antiracist research. The lab is developing two novel platforms, the Racial Data Tracker and the Racial Policy Tracker, to collect, organize, and study racial inequity data in every sector from wealth to health and produce documents and resources that influence antiracist policy (see page 13).
The program brings together scholars and students from across BU and New England engaged in antiracist research to form the largest concentration of experts in the field from a variety of disciplines. Affiliates can participate in all aspects of the Center’s work, from research to advocacy.
Spearheaded by members of the Affiliates Program, research teams of scholars, policy experts, journalists, artists, and advocates will conduct racial equity research that is interdisciplinary, engages the public, and creates a pipeline for training the next generation of antiracist researchers and data scientists.
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RESEARCH
Teaming up to change the world Elaine O. Nsoesie and Katherine Levine Einstein, assistant directors of research, are on track to upend conventional wisdom about how racial data science can expose—and change—racist policies.
Elaine O. Nsoesie
Katherine Levine Einstein
Nsoesie, a computational epidemiologist and assistant professor at the BU School of Public Health, is the architect behind the Center’s Racial Data Tracker, a powerful tool that houses and analyzes massive data sets of historical and current racial and socioeconomic trends to shed light on racial inequities. Einstein, associate professor of political science, explores which racial and ethnic groups bear the brunt of those inequalities, how policies perpetuate inequity—and how to change those policies. Under Nsoesie’s guidance, a team of BU graduate students, from fields as varied as economics and computer science, are beginning the data download from
government sources at the national, state, and local level, and writing the code. “We want to see what they’re reporting but also what’s being left out,” says Nsoesie. Right now, they are focusing on six major areas: health, economics, criminal justice, education, environment, and politics. “Within those, you have, for example, voter representation in politics and housing and income disparities in economics,” Nsoesie says. “And we share all of the information with the policy group, which uses it to create reports.” “Our hope is to create clear policy recommendations,” Einstein says. “We want to learn which politicians will be interested in our policy reports and what information would be most helpful to them. Based on our findings, we may end up writing model legislation to circulate among politicians, suggesting they implement specific policies.”
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Our goal is to have the most comprehensive database of racial equity data in the country. Elaine O. Nsoesie 12
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
Visualizing disparities, visualizing change The COVID Racial Data Tracker, a collaboration between the Center and the COVID Tracking Project, has made national headlines with its ability to collect, publish, and analyze racial data on the pandemic across the United States. The research has revealed, among other startling facts, that Black people have died of COVID-19 at 1.4 times the rate of white people in this country.
“Our goal is to have the most comprehensive database of racial data in the country,” says Elaine O. Nsoesie.
The Racial Data Tracker, a key project of the Racial Data Lab, expands on that research, collecting, curating, and analyzing massive data sets of historical and real-time racial and socioeconomic patterns in six major areas. And that’s just in its first year. The findings have already revealed racial inequities, including significant disparities in homeownership and the unemployment rate between Black and white Americans.
“So many people have contributed to the development of the tracker,” says Nsoesie. “We wouldn’t be where we are with it now without all of the Center’s support.”
The data is presented in accessible, downloadable visualizations, tables, and infographics. Users can interact with the findings by simply clicking on particular segments to reveal breakdowns by date, racial and ethnic group, and more.
We ask for your support to continue developing groundbreaking tools like the Racial Data Tracker and turning our research findings into action. To learn how to support the Research Office and its many projects, contact Ron Gray at rongray@bu.edu or 617-599-8065.
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POLICY When we change policy, we change the world.
How does society reinforce racial inequity and injustice? At the Center, we believe racist policies uphold racial inequity and continue to give certain groups greater access to social goods as well as economic and geographic mobility. So our Office of Policy does the essential work of using the Center’s research to craft accessible, evidencebased antiracist policy proposals.
The Office of Policy has made important strides forward in its first year. In collaboration with the Office of Research, it has formed and funded six Research and Policy Teams since fall 2020. The office will soon interpret the teams’ research findings and share them, accompanied by compelling personal stories and photographs, with policymakers and their staffers.
We also bring together diverse stakeholders to develop and share antiracist policies, narratives, campaigns, and movements. And we partner with them to train the next generation of antiracist policymakers, advocates, scholars, and teachers.
The office has also served as a key collaborator on the COVID Racial Data Tracker (CRDT). Using the CRDT’s findings, we have made significant progress on a policy report, to be published by year’s end, on racial demographic data erasure. In June
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Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
2021, we also filed our first amicus brief before the Supreme Court of the United States. (See sidebar at right.) And we are hosting the Center’s first Antibigotry Convening, in September 2021. Next year, we will continue to move forward. The office is dedicated to sharing a continuous stream of policy products and amicus briefs, as well as leading a variety of law, policy, and justice initiatives. These include model legislation, continuing legal education for lawyers and judges, and a project on evidence equity.
An antiracist ‘friend of the court’ On January 15, 2014, Larry Thompson was arrested when he refused to let New York City police officers into his Brooklyn home without a warrant. After three court hearings over about three months, the charges were dismissed. Seeking further justice, Thompson sued four officers, saying their baseless charges violated his civil rights. But the Second Circuit Court said Thompson’s case could not go forward because it did not meet a widely used standard that allows such suits only when a criminal proceeding ends with an “affirmative indication” of innocence. The case is now on the Supreme Court’s docket for November. Our amicus brief urges the court to reject this “indications of innocence” standard—a standard that is nearly impossible to meet when false criminal charges are dismissed. The indications-of-innocence standard perpetuates racial inequity. It ignores the realities of the criminal legal system that make it especially difficult for people of color to prove their innocence. Rejecting the standard will help ensure that police are held accountable for disproportionately targeting people of color with false charges and deter them from future racist misconduct.
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POLICY
Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose, the Center’s deputy director of Research and Policy, joined the BU School of Law faculty in July 2020. Her nationally recognized work focuses on the intersection of race and language in two areas of law: juries and evidence. She’s committed to the Center’s consistent focus on the connections between academic research and public policy. “At the Center, we have amazing researchers and policy people who can really start challenging and changing seemingly race-neutral policies,” she says. For Gonzales Rose, the Center’s first amicus brief “epitomized the unique endeavor that the Center has,” as well as its intersectional approach to eradicating racialized policies.
Working together to change policy
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We have amazing researchers and policy people who can really start challenging and changing seemingly race-neutral policies. Jasmine Gonzales Rose
“We truly worked together on the amicus brief and collaborated widely with BU’s Law School, the Center’s Affiliates Program members, and the Center’s Office of Narrative, she says. Our social science briefing and social media campaign to raise awareness of the indications-of-innocence standard will educate both the court and the public before the Thompson v. Clark case is heard in the fall.” Gonzales Rose, who came to BU Law after winning multiple teaching awards at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, said she finds the Center’s intersectional approach particularly salient as she prepares for this fall’s Antibigotry Convening. Bringing together more than 30 advocates and scholars, this event will give them the opportunity to work collaboratively to define structural bigotry. They will also examine 18 different categories of bigotry that entrench power in the elite. “There is great connection between racism and bigotry,” says Gonzales Rose. “The Convening will address the intensifying manifestation of bigotry, develop new understandings of antibigotry, and motivate an antibigotry movement.”
Help drive change: You can work toward a more just and equitable society, with a gift to support our research and the policy changes it will inspire. To learn more, please contact Hank Geng at hgeng@bu.edu or 617-921-2133.
ADVOCACY Everyone is an advocate. That’s a core assumption of the Advocacy Office at the Center for Antiracist Research. Anyone can acquire the skills that engaging in antiracist action requires—and learn how to organize, motivate, and mobilize other committed people to join in that work. But no one can do it alone. That’s where the Advocacy Office comes in. Led by Associate Director of Advocacy Rachael DeCruz, we are working to build partnerships; mobilize partners to take action; and provide those partners, other advocates, and policymakers with research, policy, and narrative support. Our goal: an interconnected ecosystem of racial justice advocates, working together to build a society that meets the needs of everyone. Here are the steps we’ve taken in our first year.
The American Antiracist Society
Government support
The Advocacy Office is currently directing much of its energy to one of the overarching priorities of the Center: to conceptualize, develop, and launch the American Antiracist Society. This society, which we plan to take public in early 2022, will connect local, regional, and national partners—organizations, institutions, policymakers, and individuals—to work together on antiracist initiatives. (Learn more on page 19.)
Working closely with the Policy Office, the Advocacy Office connects partners with tools, resources, and technical assistance in order to support governmental progress at every level. This work, still in development, will include sharing antiracist policies that emerge from the Model Legislation Writing Project and other initiatives; offering antiracist research and policy support to government partners; and sharing success stories and best practices of governments tackling racial inequity.
Antiracist Campaign Tracker
Advocacy research
Just as the Antiracist Society will serve as a central hub for partners working to abolish racism, so the Antiracist Campaign Tracker— another core Center initiative—aims to construct a centralized database of antiracist advocacy campaigns. Ultimately, the database will include a map that’s searchable by location, issue, and sector and will enable usable research into campaigns’ effectiveness and impact. We are working successfully toward our goal of building and launching the tracker later in FY22.
The Advocacy Office will also focus on conducting research on pressing questions related to movement building, social change, activism, organizing models, and other topics that will support racial justice advocates across the country. This work will emphasize learning from our history and documenting lessons from current racial justice practitioners, so that the research can inform how we think about our current moment and what strategies will help build power for communities of color.
Bringing individuals and organizations together to abolish racism
Putting grassroots knowledge to work
Moving policy forward
Learning from leading practitioners
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ADVOCACY
Photo: Dan Watkins
Creating “an interconnected ecosystem”
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“There’s so much that excites me about the Center,” says Rachael DeCruz, associate director of advocacy. “Given the current political moment, we have an opening and a window to be able to enact real change.”
That’s the goal of the Office’s forthcoming American Antiracist Society. “As we grow, we’ll be building an interconnected ecosystem of racial justice advocates, an organizing mechanism for us to get to greater impact.”
DeCruz comes to the Advocacy Office from the multiracial racial-justice nonprofit Race Forward, where she was chief of staff. With a background in multiracial coalition building, policy, and communications, she’s particularly looking forward to building partnerships with advocates nationwide.
DeCruz grew up around Boston, and she’s energized, rather than disheartened, by the city’s complex relationship to race. “There’s a long and storied history related to abolition,” she notes. “Boston is also a place where deep disparities exist, and it’s extremely segregated.”
“I’m really interested in figuring out how we build an antiracist society that’s rooted in relationships,” she says.
That’s a challenge, but not a bad one, she says. “As a country, we have to get better at holding multiple truths.”
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
The American Antiracist Society: Building a network to build a better world Established in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society at its first meeting issued a “Declaration of Sentiments” written by its founder, Boston’s own William Lloyd Garrison. The American Antiracist Society is using this model to create its guiding vision and principles. Our vision is already clear. The Antiracist Society will activate a vibrant, diverse network of partners aligned in a common purpose: to abolish racism.
Part of the work of the Advocacy Office will be to weave those truths together, to work with partners to research and share new truths, and to develop a mutual relationship in which the Center provides research and support to the partners, who in turn help shape the Center’s policy and future research. “It’s mutually supportive,” DeCruz says. “We recognize that no one organization can do this work alone.”
With the generous support of the Raikes Foundation, we are in the process of hiring an assistant director who is charged with developing the society and partnering with its members once it’s built. We are on track to meet the society’s first-year goal of building 100 relationships.
Now, we are identifying the key themes and ideas that paint a compelling picture of the world we’re trying to build and the kind of partnerships that are needed to get there. Next, we will put that vision into action.
In fact, we already are. Here’s what we’ve done in our first year:
We are working to identify a set of founding members of the Antiracist Society, who will support the Center in developing the society and help position the network to fill an important gap in the broader racial justice field.
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We recognize that no one organization can do this work alone. Rachael DeCruz
Take action: Our partners across the nation need our support. And to help us provide it, we ask for yours. To learn how to support the Advocacy Office and the American Antiracist Society, please contact Hank Geng at hgeng@bu.edu or 617-921-2133. 19
OUR SUPPORTERS Why I Give: Sékou Dilday
3,053 individual donors in FY21
105
gifts from foundations and corporations in FY21
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Sékou Dilday, who currently leads procurement for the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, is a 2010 graduate of the Questrom School of Business’s executive MBA program and the son of two BU School of Law graduates. He has supported DEI initiatives at Questrom and the Center for Antiracist Research. This interview has been edited and condensed. I was the only African American in my business school class at Questrom. When I spoke to one of the directors of the program at the time, she said there was very, very low African American participation. So that convinced me that something should be done to create better access for all folks. I mean, there’s plenty of people like me.
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
I know them. I work with them every day. Do they not know about the program? Are they not getting admitted? Is there something about the application process that pushes people away? So I thought that was something that they could use a little more funding to look into, to figure out why not enough African Americans are enrolling in BU’s executive MBA program. So that’s number one. And number two: the Center for Antiracist Research. At least until recently, most Americans thought it was enough to just not be a racist and go about your business. But I think it’s been made clear to us over the past couple years that this is not enough. We need to train antiracists to try to
counteract the remaining racism that still exists in America. We need to do more, and the Center is a great opportunity to try something different from what we’ve been doing in this country for decades and decades. And I think it’s great that Dr. Kendi came to Boston. There couldn’t have been a better city for him to come to. The reputation of Boston nationally is horrendous. I mean, I’m a Bostonian born and raised, and I defend the city as much as I can. It’s got a lot of issues, but it’s not even remotely as bad as its national reputation. So I think it’s a great place for Dr. Kendi to be. We have a lot of work to do here, and I’m hoping he can help us make some progress.
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We need to do more, and the Center is a great opportunity to try something different. Sékou Dilday
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OUR SUPPORTERS DONOR SPOTLIGHT: CHI KIM
“This is an inflection point” As a former school administrator and teacher, Chi Kim had an up-close look at inequities in education. “It’s clear from my experience what communities gain and don’t gain depending on things like residency lines,” she says.
Gifts to the Center came from
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states and countries outside the US
1,141 alumni donors in FY21
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Chi now serves as chief executive officer of Pure Edge, Inc., a private operating foundation that offers curriculum and resources to school districts, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations that are focusing on stress reduction and well-being. Pure Edge also directly funds organizations that focus on whole child development and social-emotional learning. “We work to serve as many communities as possible, and our resources are all free,” Chi says. “We’re trying to contribute in ways that create no financial barriers for access.” When she learned about the Center for Antiracist Research, she found herself quickly drawn to its approach. “The structure of not blaming people, and instead taking a look at policy, really struck me and really connected to our work. “I know that for leaders of color, it’s very hard to get first-round funders to buy in. They usually wait for other folks to contribute,” she says. “And that was something I wasn’t going to do.”
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
After learning more about the Center and its proposed initiatives, Pure Edge gave a gift to support The Emancipator. Chi was particularly drawn to and excited by the publication’s open-source approach: it will draw much of its content from contributors in the community. “I know from my own experience that data analysis is important to drive decision-making and impact policy, but if you don’t have a narrative or story to share, people don’t pay attention. Getting to the heart of an issue begins when we focus on the humanity of the issue,” she says. Continuing political turmoil and pervasive misunderstanding of antiracism and its aims can be frightening and frustrating, Chi says. But she sees reason to hope. “I feel this is an inflection point in our society,” she says. “There’s no more looking away. We serve thousands of educators across the country who are tasked with educating young people. I also have three daughters. My hope is that, when they go into the world to launch as adults and contribute to society, that it won’t be a question that people will get equal access to education, housing, medical care, clean water—all of it.”
DONOR SPOTLIGHT: JOAN AND BOB MURRAY
“Everyone wants their gift to expand” Rev. Joan Murray (Questrom’82) was putting her BU business degree to practical use in a career in product management when a mission trip to Nicaragua changed her life. “When I came back,” she says, “I just thought, ‘I don’t want to do what I do.’” Soon after, she enrolled in divinity school and went on to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. Before retiring, she spent much of her time with common cathedral, the outdoor congregation on Boston Common, ministering to unhoused people. Along the way, she also became increasingly involved in feminist and antiracist learning and practice, closely following the work of writers like Peggy McIntosh and, later, Ibram X. Kendi. “Kendi’s way of presenting antiracism as a behavior one can choose seemed very refreshing to me,” she says. “It puts things in very practical terms. I thought, ‘I can do this.’” She and her husband, Bob, began supporting BU’s School of Theology in 2017. When they heard about the launch of the Center for Antiracist Research, they knew the time was right to become even more closely involved with BU. Bob, who has spent his career in tax services and investment management, had become concerned with racial
disparities in income. In deciding to support the Center in its earliest days, he drew upon his experiences in VISTA, a domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps, in Boston in the 1960s. He used his business skills to support Black business owners as they negotiated with banks to obtain Small Business Administration loans. “The Center also needed that strong early support, to get off to a good start,” he says.
in place this fall, and the Murrays look forward to seeing what they achieve. “Because of who he was, the name will attract people, I think, and I was inspired by his faith-based way of being,” Joan says. “All the people at the Center seem very excited about their work. We are excited, too. They are a very competent and dedicated group.”
In late 2020, the Murrays made a generous gift to help launch the Center’s internship program, through which BU undergraduates and graduate students spend a semester in paid positions in its various divisions. Because there will be interns every semester, year after year, the Murrays had a sense of the potential long-term ripple effects. “Everyone wants their gift to expand, and the more people involved, the more impact we can have,” Joan says. “It will have an impact on the individual interns’ lives and work, as well as on the total work of the Center—potentially, I think, to change the world.” The Murrays also knew that they wanted to honor a leader of color. They considered a few options, but it didn’t take long to arrive at the decision to name the program for the late Congressman John Lewis (Hon.’18). The first class of John Lewis interns is
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OUR SUPPORTERS DONOR SPOTLIGHT: JOHN SOBRATO
Helping antiracism take root As John Sobrato tells it, he had been waiting his whole life for the book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi. His interest in understanding the history of racism in the United States began in college when he wrote the thesis for his BA in history on how Native Americans became racialized over time. And it grew stronger in his 10 years as a teacher of world history and current events at an underfunded charter high school in East San Jose, Calif., where most of his students were Latinx. “Dr. Kendi does such a masterful job weaving through this historical narrative, showing how these inequities have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and the ways they got embedded in laws and policies and systems,” says John, who grew up in a wealthy white family in East San Jose, dedicated to philanthropy. “This was the first book that provided me with the full story of what race has meant in America, and how concepts around race have evolved and changed and gotten recycled,” he says. “Since I was in my 20s, I’ve been on a journey analyzing my own racial identity and what it means for my contributions to the world. Stamped kicked that into
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overdrive. It took me to a new level of understanding.” As soon as John learned about the Center for Antiracist Research, he knew he had to support it. “I wanted to help keep that level of scholarship and discussion advancing across the country,” he says. A self-professed “history nerd,” John, with his wife, Andie, made a generous gift to establish the Emancipator Fund. “We liked the idea of resurrecting a strong standard-bearer, an abolitionist paper that is going to fight for antiracism,” says John. “I think American society equips us so poorly to have conversations about race. People don’t discuss it with any sort of nuance or complexity. So the idea of a combined scholarly and journalistic paper with people debating these issues and debating solutions and how to implement them in different contexts—to me that’s what our country needs. I see it like planting a tree and hoping it takes root.”
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
Jamieson Family gift supports internships Internships will be an important part of the Center’s programming, providing more support for its operations while exposing as many students as possible to its work. To support these efforts, Kristine and Duncan Jamieson, PhD (Parents CAS’21), their daughter Heather (CAS’21), and Wendy Crocker, PhD, made a generous gift to establish the Crocker-Jamieson Family Endowed Internship Fund, in honor of Wendy Crocker, a dynamic and beloved teaching professor at Northeastern University long committed to issues of social justice in education. Kristine is being mentored by Dr. Crocker as she pursues a doctoral degree at Northeastern, and they collaborated to establish a community of active change agency in social justice by supporting the Center’s internship program. The fund will be used to provide internship stipends to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at any BU school or college, with a preference for students with financial need.
We are grateful to our corporate supporters, including: Peloton
Deloitte
Stop & Shop
Deckers Outdoor Corporation
The TJX Companies, Inc.
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THE TASK AHEAD So where do we go from here? This report is a snapshot of a moment in time: the first year of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. But, like all living things, the Center keeps moving forward, and the picture may well look quite different a year from now. Here are a few highlights of the developments you can expect to see by the end of 2022:
Policy
Narrative • Full launch of The Emancipator • 3rd Annual National Antiracist Book Festival
• Dissemination of this year’s completed research findings to scholars, policymakers, and the public • Development and distribution of model legislation, policy recommendations, legal briefs, and other ways to put our research findings into practice
Research • Full report on racial demographic data erasure demonstrated by the COVID Racial Data Tracker • Development of the Racial Data Lab and Antiracist Tech Initiative
And that’s just the next year. Beyond that, each of these pillars of our work will keep growing stronger, building on the firm foundation you have helped us establish at the start. Thanks to the widespread recognition you have already helped us attain, in coming years the Center for Antiracist Research will become nationally known as a vital nexus of the work to create an
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antiracist society. Scholars, students, and community leaders will come from around the world to join BU’s Antiracism Studies program—which will be the first of its kind—and to join our work as affiliates and advocates in residence. Our national network of partners will share knowledge and strategies to create an organized, effective response to racism wherever it crops up. Our research will inform
Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021
Advocacy • Launch of the American Antiracist Society and first convening of its members • Full development of our partner mobilization strategy, culminating in our first day of action policies, legislation, and legal decisions that help eradicate racist institutions and structures. And our brilliant storytellers will share all of this progress with the world. An antiracist society still lies in our future, but we can see it from here. We hope you can too, and we hope you will join us in continuing to make that vision real.
Thank you for what you have already done, and for what we will do together. Thank you for supporting antiracist work. WHY WILL YOU GIVE? We are grateful to everyone who has helped the Center for Antiracist Research start strong. You can join this visionary group and help us continue to grow. To learn more, please contact Ron Gray at rongray@bu.edu or 617-599-8065, or Hank Geng at hgeng@bu.edu or 617-921-2133.
For further information, please contact: Boston University Development & Alumni Relations Special Initiatives Ron Gray rongray@bu.edu 617-599-8065 Hank Geng hgeng@bu.edu 617-921-2133
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Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Donor Impact Report 2020–2021