PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Drexel University has established a center to advance anti-racism, unique in its approach of bringing together activists, researchers, and community residents. This week, they're hosting the first of many teach-in events.
The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements and Population Health Equity was created to bridge groups like community members and researchers in the process of advancing racial equity. It was made possible through a $9 million gift from philanthropists Dana and David Dornsife.
"We're trying to build what we can imagine is justice in Philadelphia," said Jennifer Ware, the center's deputy director and a North Philadelphia native.
"The Ubuntu Center is a co-learning space for scholars, organizers, activists, and community residents to truly advance racial equity, advance anti-racism solutions, and bridge connections of knowledge and experiences for everyone to truly live out the spirit of Ubuntu: 'I am because we are.'"
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One way of doing that, Ware indicated, is through the teach-in series they're hosting through June.
"The teach-in is an invitation to people who are either organizing in Philly or across the nation, and who have ideas or lived experience about these topics and forms of oppression, and then come together and talk about what you've been through ... pain, power and possibilities," she explained.
The two-day sessions will be online Thursday and Saturdays, with a different discussion topic each month.
"March will be segregation and dispossession. April, we will be talking about state-sanctioned violence and the carceral state. What does that mean? What does it look like? What are our experiences living through it? Who are the people fighting to dismantle it?" she noted.
"We'll be talking about environmental racism in May. And then in June, we'll bring folks back together to then make sense of everything that we've discussed over these these two-day sessions, and talk about what's missing."
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