The vision of CDOR is to achieve racial, social, and environmental justice. The program’s mission is to promote and facilitate social and environmental change by engaging a diverse range of individuals, communities, and viewpoints to explore the impact of racism and its intersections with all forms of oppression.
Students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community members will present and attend programs that relate to racial justice and its intersections with all forms of oppression and resistance. View the full calendar and more information here.
This year’s Dialogue includes a Saturday, Nov. 7 virtual Book Talk 11 a.m. and a keynote address by author Claudia Rankine at 2 p.m. in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read. HSU is one of 84 organizations nationwide to receive a NEA Big Read grant. An Arts Endowment initiative in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read facilitates ways for communities to share a good book.
Claudia Rankine’s award-winning book Citizen: An American Lyric helps readers come to terms with the continued realities of racism in the U.S. The book demonstrates that anti-Black racism and white supremacy remain widely unexamined and unchecked. More than a dozen local organizations in Humboldt County have committed to reading this book and to working for systemic change in our community. More information is available on the program’s website.
CDOR also welcomes back Lawrence Ross, who presented during Black Liberation Month earlier this year. Ross will be presenting a virtual follow-up on the talk on the politics of race on America’s colleges on Monday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. Ross has written a total of seven books on the African American experience, including Blackballed: The Black & White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, which explores the present and historical issues of racism on hundreds of American college campuses, and how that ties into today’s #BlackLivesMatter. You can watch his February talk at HSU here.
Bettina Love will virtually present for the “So You Want to Teach” event on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Love is an award-winning author and Associate Professor of Educational Theory & Practice at the University of Georgia. She is one of the field’s most esteemed educational researchers in the areas of how anti-blackness operates in schools, hip-hop education, and urban education. Her work is also concerned with how teachers and schools working with parents and communities can build communal, civically engaged schools rooted in intersectional social justice for the goal of equitable classroom.