ROCHESTER, N.Y. — One local group is not shying away from the tough discussions about racism triggered by the Buffalo mass shooting.
The organization 540 West Main in Rochester is introducing a new college-level course teaching justice for all.
Founded in 2016, the group is a virtual hub with the mission of bringing people together.
“We don't want to shame people like 'you've been a bad person' or even a person that is a racist," said community educator Paola Betchart. "We really want to go beyond that and really talk about healing and how we can really create this thriving, colorful, vibrant community that we want to be part of.”
Educators like Betchart find that they, and their organization, are needed now more than ever. They're using their work to create conversations around social injustice.
“When COVID happened, we realized how we have to take care of the community and how we really like to do our part for others, so we don't get sick," said Betchart. "So because then it affects me anyway. And so this is like racism, racism. This is a public health issue we have to really work on as a community and we have the tools and we have the expertise and the personal experience to really guide people through that and to do it with that.”
The organization envisions a world free of racism.
“We really want to engage people in and guide people and coach really making sure that people of color, especially Black people, especially Black women, are being made visible, are lifted up," Betchart said.
Educators hope to broaden participants' horizons through a 15-week anti-racism college-level course.
“This introduction to anti-racism practice course does ... it offers sort of a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know in regard to anti-racism education to be the best practitioner of it," said Julia Monica, a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant.
Through their course, educators tie in current social issues and popular material found in media — also drawing on their own personal experiences throughout their lessons.
“I was adopted and I was growing up in New York. I was actually growing up in predominantly white spaces," said Monica. "My adoptive parents are of Caucasian descent. I am an Afro-Colombian woman. So I have, you know, descendants from the sub-Saharan part of Africa. Growing up in a space like that where I was not being culturally introduced to my own culture.
Monica uses her personal experiences as an example of how racism can be found at personal and institutional levels.
“I'm not just a woman of color, but I also have an invisible disability, and I'm also queer and X, Y, Z, right?" said Monica. "All of those things play a factor into how I show up in the world, but also they play a factor and host to the way that the systems are receiving and treating me.”
Understanding there is still a lot of work to be done, the organization hopes it's taking a step closer to a progressive future.
“Those things that have been covering us for so many years, some so many years, even our ancestors," Betchart said. "It's not something that we're doing for someone else, but it's because it's our, our own life, our, our in the line.”
Enrollment is still open with several spots available. The class is online every Tuesday beginning Feb. 21. They run through May 30.
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Rochester organization introduces anti-racism course - Spectrum News
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