Doing the work

16 | www.columbiatribune.com | OUR TOWN 2020

Doing the work

Program educates Columbia about range of disparities

BY ELENA K. CRUZ Columbia Daily Tribune

Since March, we have heard it in email openings, phone greetings and casual conversations: a shared expression of care, hoping people stay well during “these unprecedented times.”

Since 2017, three years before the coronavirus pandemic began, Journey Toward Inclusive Excellence has been in place to care for community members facing inequalities that are, however, formed by historical and systemic precedents.

These precedents have also led to inequalities involving comfort and safety within the pre-COVID-19 world. As summer hit, the local program kept working to mend the gaps and improve Columbia’s future through education about disparities in race, gender, class, ability, ethnicity, sexuality and more.

“We wanted to provide opportunities to address our biases, which is a difficult topic for any human being, but recognize that we all have privilege, there's oppression, and those things impact our community,” Inclusive Impact Institute Director Nikki McGruder said.

“So, if we truly want to create a community where everyone feels like they still have value and they can thrive, then this work is necessary.”

Organized by the Inclusive Impact Institute, the program focuses on having difficult conversations about people’s positions among social power structures. The institute collaborates with community organizations to set up meetings, conferences, conversations and events that immerse locals in activities that educate them about others’ experiences. Its next big summer event, the State of Inclusivity Conference, was set for Aug. 6.

The Journey Toward Inclusive Excellence also shares public discussions on Facebook, which have been viewed by hundreds of viewers.

“Equity can't just be a checkbox, and it's not like you just attend an event and magically you have mitigated all your biases, and you are crowned as equitable,” said Kari Utterback, Inclusive Excellence committee member and senior administrative supervisor of the City of Columbia.

“It has to be uncomfortable, and it has to be an ongoing process.”

However, the process has been stalled due to stay-at-home orders and safety precautions. To replace in-person events, McGruder has held virtual conversations with community leaders and an American Sign Language interpreter every other Wednesday.

In past years, the institute has worked with Columbia Public Schools to set up a black history mobile museum and with Public Health and Human Services to discuss health disparities, Utterback said.

It has also partnered with Daniel Boone Regional Library to offer workshops about religion, and with other groups ranging from the Central Bank of Boone County to the City of Columbia. Participants are asked to attend many events to better learn about the community, Utterback said.

“It’s important to understand that there are systems that have been put in place and have been operational for centuries, and they're working as

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they were designed, which is the problem,” McGruder said. “They were designed centuries ago to hold people in certain places, and if we don't change that, then they're going to continue, and that's what we're seeing.

“So we tell the individuals, it's not about pointing the finger at you, but it is about creating awareness that you know what activities that you are participating in that keep the system operational.”

McGruder said now is the right time to administer change.

“I think about my brothers and sisters in this disability community, my fellow humans with disabilities, whether visible or nonvisible, that have been asking for accommodations for forever,” she said. “Then we have this global pandemic, and all of a sudden, we can get the software, the technology, in people's homes to allow them to continue to work.”

McGruder added that what the public considered normal before the pandemic “needs to be redefined, and it needs to be considered through the lens of the most disadvantaged.”

The State of Inclusivity Conference was designed to offer outlets for conversations with community organizations and leaders. It also offers access to data to provide hard evidence of inequalities.

There are 14 committee members who work to put together the events; one member, Kristin Commons, is also program manager of the Boone County Community Services Department. She hopes to reach rural communities through the larger scope of a virtual platform.

Commons, Utterback and McGruder said they have learned from their experiences leading the program, and hope more community members will follow. Utterback said she has privileges involving race, ability, class and sexuality, and it’s important for people like her to identify these privileges and learn how to apply them to help others.

“It is the job of the privileged to talk to other people with privilege,” she said.

“It shouldn't be the job of black mothers everywhere to talk about their high rate of miscarriages,” Utterback added.

“I should just be able to say I've never had that experience, and I know what the data says, and the studies show that is happening because of racism here in America.”

Other events will continue to be available, but organizers are still developing them in a rapidly changing environment.

“What disparities have been made even more clear? What do we need to do differently going forward that we didn't think about or didn't give ourselves time to consider pre-pandemic?” McGruder said. “Those are the conversations that we need to be having now especially as we're re-opening the country.”