今天’s students are standing on the shoulders of those who came before them and paving the way for those to come
2020年8月, CMU Head Football Coach Tremaine Jackson and his players visited Appleton Elementary School in Grand Junction. CMU的第一位黑人橄榄球总教练和他的两名球员, 四分卫亚伦·霍华德和跑卫艾萨克·梅斯塔斯, 是校长邀请的特邀嘉宾吗. The children welcomed Jackson and the players who talked about love, respect and effort. The event was a small reflection of CMU and Jackson’s ongoing efforts to create unity in the community and reduce racism by starting local.
杰克逊那天的演讲是为小学观众量身定做的, 但杰克逊和他的团队最近的经历一点也不简单.
Howard and Jackson made national news in 2020 as images of violence dominated national headlines and social media. 在乔治·弗洛伊德被杀后的一个星期里, Jackson and his players transcended images of violence and replaced them with pictures of peaceful protest. This switch was a result of a chance event that occurred in downtown Grand Junction as Howard shook the hand of Grand Junction Police Chief Doug Shoemaker. 当其他社区成员怒气冲冲地离开会议时, 杰克逊告诉他的球队留下来，让他们的声音被听到. 这一决定引领了CMU致力于解决种族不平等问题的进程.
据苏梅克说, the fact that Howard understood the power of his actions created a bridge between his department and CMU.
休梅克说:“这个年轻人的谨慎是有力量的. “His understanding about what such imagery could do in the face of national pictures representing its opposite shows the leadership being cultivated by Jackson and CMU.”
The positive results that came from that day’s protest resulted in the two being invited to speak at Appleton Elementary, and resulted in CMU President Tim Foster creating a campus-wide task force committee to reduce racism and bigotry on campus. 书名是《扭转种族主义, 委员会是由学生组成的, 教员和职员们正在合作使事情变得更好.
而CMU正在取得显著的进展, current students of color know that today’s progress is made possible largely in part by the Black students that came before them.
回顾
In the 1990s, Ky Oday was among the few Black students in Mesa County Valley School District 51. When he attended high school, Oday was one of the only people of color on his athletic teams. When he attended pp电子极速糖果, he was one of a few Black students on campus. 在他生命的大部分时间里，Oday感觉自己生活在一个“不同的岛屿”上.“今天, Oday is a business leader in Grand Junction and is on the forefront of change devoting much of his time to supporting students of color as CMU’s diversity coordinator. 今天不是第一个感到孤独的人.
在今天之前，贾马尔·麦考伊就读于CMU并踢足球. 1999年毕业后, he enjoyed a brief career in arena football and used his education to build a successful career in the automotive business. 虽然他的事业得到了回报，但他的校园经历却喜忧参半.
在CMU的时候, McCoy and others developed an organization called the African American College Alliance (AACA), 也就是今天的黑人学生联盟. The organization was developed to provide McCoy and others a place to meet and discuss their experiences as Black students. They developed ways to support one another and strategies to recruit other minority students.
“AACA包罗万象, we welcomed whoever wanted to attend but the organization was primarily comprised of Black, 拉丁裔和太平洋岛民,麦考伊说。. “在校园里，我得到了CMU教职员工的大力支持. The administration was approachable and there were a couple of professors that had a profound impact on my career and life in general.”
For McCoy the experience of racism while attending CMU occurred while he was off campus.
One of McCoy’s experiences of racism happened in front of one of his teammates who admittedly had never had a Black classmate. 在看到麦考伊因为是黑人而受到的对待之后, 他的队友“不仅对事件的发生表示遗憾和道歉, 但也因为没有意识到种族主义确实存在的程度.”
麦考伊离开CMU的时候, the Black student population was a few 100 which was many more than in 1969 when Nigerian American Toye Moses graduated.
摩西上CMU时，校园里只有不到15名黑人学生. 他是唯一一个出生在非洲的人.
“作为一名外国学生, 我没有太多不好的经历, 但我遭到了一个和他母亲在一起的男孩的种族歧视,摩西说, 当时谁住在离学校不到一个街区的地方. This happened one day when he went with a couple of classmates to get lunch at a nearby restaurant. “一个大约七岁的男孩指着我说，‘看，妈妈，-----!他妈妈说:“嘘，别这么说。.’ I just walked away but I felt very embarrassed and my classmates were very upset and sympathized with me. 我感到得到了他们的支持.”
对麦考伊和摩西来说，他们的信仰是他们校园经历的重要组成部分. 每逢星期天，摩西都会去圣公会教堂做礼拜. 他与教会和神职人员关系密切, 经常接受邀请去他们家里吃饭.
“I am very happy to see realistic progress is being made and I think that Coach Jackson will do an excellent job,摩西说. “坦率地说，正如全世界都在说的，我们必须从抗议转向政策. 目前由乔治·弗洛伊德之死引发的运动必须确保变革.”
在卡pp电子极速糖果, Moses became a civic leader in northern California serving as executive director of Southeast Community Commission in San Francisco where he advanced opportunities and provided special services to improve the well-being, 健康, 保障城市东南地区居民的福利和安全. Prior to that he also served as the 2016-2017 president of The Rotary Club of San Francisco Bayview, served as a board member of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP and served on several other boards, 委员会和非营利组织. 如今，他和结婚40年的妻子住在旧金山湾区.
未来
今天, Oday and Coach Jackson both believe they stand on the shoulders of people like Moses who attended CMU during an era when racial inequality took on a more overt and visible form than it does today. Oday points to the recent decision by the CMU Board of Trustees to rename Walker Field because of the late Walker’s founding of the regional Ku Klux Klan.
“这些带有种族和文化色彩的决定, 比如重新命名沃克球场, 是复杂的还是有分量的,奥黛说。. “CMU accomplished a major win for equality without violence or hate and I have to believe Dr. 当这个决定做出时，金在上面微笑着.”
Despite the acknowledgment of contributions from other people in the past for rectifying racial inequality today, 杰克逊和霍华德都把他们的信念归功于帮助球队保持专注. 为霍华德, 他的信仰影响了他的主张, 他与杰克逊的爱情哲学支柱相联系, 哪个是足球项目的基础.
对阿普尔顿学校的孩子们说, and shaking hands with Chief Shoemaker and striving for respect isn’t something I have the power to do on my own,霍华德说。. “For me those choices are reinforced by something that comes from a deeper, more powerful place. 对我来说，那就是上帝.”
对校园信仰者和非信仰者都一样, 很容易看出，“扭转种族主义”的努力正在发挥作用.