In collaboration with the law, justice and society and women, gender and sexuality departments, the Center for Civic Engagement and the A&S Dean’s Office hosted the third annual diversity, equity and inclusion lecture, this year featuring Dr. Anansi Wilson, who is a legal scholar, justice advocate and policy expert.
The lecture offered an exploration of the systemic political and cultural attacks on Black, queer and trans people throughout history, as well as an analysis of how immigrants, anti-genocide protesters and people seen as political opponents are targeted during the current political administration.
Drew started hosting these lectures as an opportunity for students and faculty to learn about the impacts and developments that diversity, equity and inclusion can have on a community.
The first DEI lecture that Drew hosted in 2023 was prompted by the goal of “creat[ing] a more systematic rethinking of how we teach, who we teach, who we are [and] who teaches.” (Read more about the first lecture here.) It involved the same moral components that the most recent lecture shared, to share and educate people on how political movements impact minority groups of people.
Even as challenges prevail for colleges involved with DEI, Drew has remained committed to embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, especially as it welcomes more and more diverse populations of students.
Dr. Wilson, who uses they/them pronouns, is a legal scholar who has expertise in critical race theory, constitutional law, criminal procedure and racial, criminal, gender and social justice, which were the focal points of the conversation.
Explaining the historical and cultural significance of being a person of color outcast by the law, Dr. Wilson spoke mainly about furtive blackness. A term that they coined, furtive blackness refers to the historic association of how black lives have constantly been constricted by the law and how legal actions taken against those lives continue to replicate the white supremacy of the age of the founding fathers. To read more about furtive blackness and other works done by Dr. Wilson, check out their website, www.anansiwilsonphd.com/.
The connection of racism and the cultural norms created by racist legal systems is still prevalent today, however hidden it might be.
An example of this would be the topic of artificial intelligence and its connection to racism and transphobia.
A question asked during the open discussion portion of the lecture prompted the conversation towards the advancements of A.I. technology in security and police work, asking if the new systems have been proven to show racist tendencies.
A.I. is built based upon the personal experiences and biases of the person who is creating the code and programming the system. Dr. Wilson spoke on the fact that the human who is creating the program is still attached to it; therefore, cases have been found where these new A.I. security systems have been faulty, misgendering and misidentifying dark skinned people because they had not been programmed to pick up their features. For more information on this topic, read about it on the sites from Penn State.
The message that Dr. Wilson wanted to convey is that people can treat other people horribly all day long, but as a society, we must talk about our past and how we can improve on it to make our world a better place for more than just the most powerful, rich white people.
Allison Cannon is a sophomore majoring in psychology and double minoring in Spanish and law, justice and society.
