Division News & Statements
Social justice workshops engage participants in critical dialogues
March 05, 2020
Original Source: GVNext
Relando Thompkins-Jones, director of Social Justice Education, grew up in Detroit and understood early in life that society was not equitable.
Thompkins-Jones said systems of power and privilege were quite clear to him when, as a teenager, he used to go for long runs along Lasher Road on Detroit's west side.
"The farther I would run away from my community, I would notice the landscape change from small houses and streets with potholes to manicured lawns and large houses with two, then three-car garages," he said. "Then I would run back home and it would be a visual example of the increase and decrease of wealth.
"Later when I learned about the history of white supremacy and its tools like segregation and redlining, I realized that the disparities I was observing in real-time were not an accident, but were by design."
Thompkins-Jones leads workshops and training sessions for the campus community that engage participants in critical dialogues to support them in better understanding their relationship to power, privilege and oppression. Past topics include understanding microaggressions and learning to shift the narrative in how issues are framed from narratives that often blame marginalized people for the oppression they experience, to narratives that focus on the systemic causes.
Upcoming workshops in March and April are "Understanding the Cycle of Socialization" and "Storytelling for Social Justice"; visit gvsu.edu/socialjustice to learn more details.
Thompkins-Jones brings a rich background in facilitating intergroup dialogues and working with marginalized populations to this role. Prior to joining the Division of Inclusion and Equity in 2016, Thompkins-Jones was the coordinator of the Future Public Health Leaders program for the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and taught social work courses at U-M and Oakland University.
"Growing up, I struggled with hearing a lot of negative messages about poor people and Black people, and would have to work hard not to internalize that negative messaging," he said. "It was liberating to learn about systems of oppression, that there was intention put into creating the inequities that exist today, and that institutions can often have invested interests in maintaining those inequities."
Thompkins-Jones said he structures workshops in the way he learns best — engaged in conversations and activities — and hopes workshop participants feel the same.
"I hope that participants feel seen and acknowledged after the workshops, and they have a sense of agency and feel they have the capacity to change something," he said.
For More Information Contact: Michele Coffill in University Communications - (616) 331-2221