‘You can’t see the forest through the trees’: Anti-racism panel discusses childhood experiences with race and racism
‘You can’t see the forest through the trees’: Anti-racism panel discusses childhood experiences with race and racism
Panelists reflected on their experiences with race in childhood and how it shaped them and their current perspectives on race in the final “So You Want to Be Anti-racist?” session of the semester.
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Director of Counseling Services Courtney Boddie said his early childhood experiences were based heavily around assimilating to a white culture. His family moved around the area often, but when he was in third grade, they settled in Troy, Illinois, which is where Boddie said he considers his roots having grown from.
“Many people who pass [Troy] on the highway think about it as a truck stop that then leads into a quiet rural space. So, if you were wondering if I may have been the only person of color in my classes, and in my residential space, and all those sorts of things, never having a teacher of color until college, you would be right,” Boddie said. “One of the things that was so difficult about that experience was that I go to school, and I’m asked to speak, sit, think, interact, et cetera in a specific way. But I go home, and the types of things we talk about at home, and the way we talk about them, the references, the movies and things, they were never there as part of the experience.”
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Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Director of Counseling Services Courtney Boddie said his early childhood experiences were based heavily around assimilating to a white culture. His family moved around the area often, but when he was in third grade, they settled in Troy, Illinois, which is where Boddie said he considers his roots having grown from.