Posts Tagged: Black

‘It’s okay to be different,’ Lewis advises Black environmental scholars

Undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities visit UC for summer session

Na'Zyia Dowdy-Arnold and Destinee S. Whitaker, both of Spelman College, Christopher Bass of Morehouse College, and Carlos Jackson of Tuskegee University spent the summer getting research experience with UC Berkeley scientists. The four undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities were participating in the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management HBCU Environmental Scholars Program.

“The program aims to facilitate two-way learning while fostering preparedness and belonging for HBCU students interested in graduate school at UC Berkeley,” said co-founder Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel, UC Berkeley doctoral candidate.

Now in its second year, the program, was co-founded by UC Berkeley professor Tim Bowles who also co-directs the program with Fanshel in cooperation with Tuskegee University and Spelman College faculty members.

“After two years as a mentor in the ESPM/UCB HBCU summer research immersion program, I was thrilled to witness the transformation of students,” said Vernard Lewis, emeritus UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist. “This transformation included doing high-level science and increasing the feeling of belonging. The current cohort of four HBCU students have immersed themselves in lab and field sciences that include campus and ANR units. The hope is to expand the program and to increase the talent pool of HBCU students for graduate programs and careers at UC and ANR.”

During their two-month program, the students toured the San Joaquin Valley with Fanshel and Kristin Dobbin, UCCE water justice policy and planning specialist at UC Berkeley. They visited Allensworth, a utopian agricultural community focused on self-reliance in Tulare County founded in 1908 by African Americans, and UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, where they met Houston Wilson, UCCE entomology specialist.

Near the end of their stay, Lewis and his wife, Lisa Kala, who held administrative, research and teaching positions in UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education for over 40 years, hosted a backyard barbecue at their Hayward home for the students to meet Black UC faculty, administrators and alumni.

Lewis assembled African American friends Mary Blackburn, Gloria Burkhalter, Bill Stevens, Bilal Shabazz and his daughter Amani, Fred Logan, Ben Tucker, Elize Brown, Gregory Bradley, Vincent Duncan, Maria Shalita, Carol Chambers-Blockton, Jariel Arvin, Frank McPherson and Charles Clary – some retired and others still enjoying long careers – to meet the young scholars on July 24. Harry LeGrande, emeritus UC Berkeley vice chancellor of student affairs who served in higher education for 45 years, joined the group by Zoom.

McPherson, who retired from UC ANR as UCCE director for the Bay Area in February, cooked up hot links, seafood gumbo and black-eyed peas, served with salad and fresh fruit for the occasion.

“It's okay to be different,” Lewis, the first Black entomologist hired at UC Berkeley, told the students. “You're not alone. We're all with you,” he added, gesturing to the older guests, who had described their professional journeys and how they navigated sometimes unfriendly environments. Some had graduated from college amid the civil rights movement of the 1960s. 

Blackburn recalled being offered one of four coveted spots in UC Berkeley's new Master of Public Health Nutrition – Dietetic Internship program after graduating from Tuskegee University in 1963. It didn't seem feasible to move since her husband owned his business in Atlanta and they had four young children. But when the Tuskegee University president said she had to go, Blackburn understood that opportunity was not just about her and three days later she boarded a plane to California. In 1968, Blackburn became one of the first Registered Dietitians in the U.S. and completed her Ph.D. in human nutrition and health planning and administration at UC Berkeley in 1974.

“Find your allies; find your advocates,” Blackburn, UC Cooperative Extension's community nutrition and health advisor for Alameda County for the past 33 years, advised the students. 

After the barbecue, the students began collecting email addresses and making connections with their new allies on LinkedIn.

“During our feedback sessions with the students, they expressed their appreciation to all those in attendance, especially Vernard Lewis, who orchestrated the event,” said McPherson. “One of the most important takeaways from the event was their desire to have this type of event with accomplished Black administrators and professionals continue to be part of the programming while at Berkeley. 

“They also suggest that these events take place earlier, so that they might take advantage of the knowledge and experience these Black professionals bring to the table, not only as they return to their individual institutions and career paths, but also have access to this network while in the Bay Area.”

A week earlier, during a lunch with Blackburn and Lewis, the students had said they appreciated meeting the two accomplished Black scientists and wished they could meet more. That comment spurred Lewis and Blackburn to organize the barbecue. Despite the short notice, several of their Black colleagues attended. “They showed up because they care,” Lewis said.

They will continue to modify the program based on feedback from the students.

The first year of the program was funded by UC Berkeley's Berkeley Food Institute and Spelman College. The second year was funded by the UC Berkeley Office of Graduate Diversity; Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management; and donations from other campus programs and individuals. Each student receives a $5,000 stipend, room and board and travel.

Bowles and Fanshel have applied for a UC-HBCU initiative grant from UC Office of the President to continue the program for another three years.

Black History Month webinars available online

LeChé McGill and the UC ANR Black and Allied Employee Resource Group organized an outstanding, thought-provoking series of virtual events for Black History Month. 

Shelley Jones-Holt, Imani Mitchell, Sonia Lewis and our own Mary Blackburn delivered presentations for ANR employees about the history behind critical race theory, the complexities of Black representation in film and the ongoing struggle to secure voting rights. The first two webinars are posted on the Learning and Development Website and the third will be posted soon.

Black History Month webinars:

Feb. 9, 2022 – Critical Race Theory (video) - Shelley Jones-Holt
Feb. 16, 2022 – Black Representation in Film (video) with Imani Mitchell
Feb. 23, 2022 – Voting Rights & History (video) Sonia Lewis; resources included in the recording:  What Trauma Taught Me About Resilience, Dear Black Women Let's Talk About Healing, Frederick Douglas and the Right to Vote, Voter Rights and Voter Suppression: Election 2020 

Join Black History Month events Feb. 9, 16 and 23

The Black and Allied Employees affinity group has organized a series of events to celebrate Black History Month.The events will be held on Wednesdays from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Feb. 9 through Feb. 23.  The purpose of the events is to learn more about the legacy of systemic anti-Black racism in our country, as well as celebrate Black culture and the progress that has been made. 

On Feb. 9, Shelley Jones-Holt, Founder/CEO of Leadership Legacy Consulting, will give a presentation on critical race theory. 

Jones-Holt has served the educational field for over 20 years as a pK-Adult teacher, principal, district office administrator, superintendent, college faculty and executive leadership coach. Her emphasis on cultural and racial historical literacy is foundational to engaging in a restorative approach to uncomfortable conversations about controversial topics such as race and identity oppression. She believes that adults and children can become literate in history, culture and academics simultaneously by focusing on what we read, how we build empathy through cultural proficiency development and change the future for all through our understanding of the past. Jones-Holt earned a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley, a Masters from Sacramento State and a doctorate from USC. She has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for her work in equity leadership including being named the 2016 Equity Administrator of the Year by ACSA (Association of California School Administrators).

She is now serving as a racial and educational equity consultant providing training, facilitation, coaching and support to equity driven teams and organizational, legislative, and educational leaders across the nation. She is the founder of Leadership Legacy Consulting, LLC and of the nonprofit Family Legacy 5 focused on providing technical, adaptive and educational support to educators and leaders at all levels. She has expanded her reach to also empower families through family leadership training for all and establishing apprenticeship and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth to thrive in their areas of passion and interest. She has written articles on culturally responsive equity leadership and the five pillars of generational family leadership to support individuals, leaders and families taking strategic action against all forms of oppression through our understanding of systemic racism, developing cultural proficiency, being intentional in our equity leadership and raising culturally proficient families. Jones-Holt's belief is that anything is possible with a focus on your vision, your leadership, your legacy and our support. The real work can only be done by looking inside ourselves first without shame, blame or victimization!

On Feb. 16, filmmaker Imani Mitchell will speak about Black representation in film.

Born and raised in Sacramento, Mitchell was introduced to the performing arts through theater and has performed professionally within Northern California for the last 10 years. She has appeared on stage at B Street Theater, Capital Stage, and Celebration Arts. Most recently, she directed a production of PIPELINE at Celebration Arts and currently serves as a member of their board.

Outside of the theater, Mitchell is dedicated to the art of filmmaking and developing her craft as a writer and director. In 2019, she founded her film company IAM Studios and wrote and directed her first film, “Whirlpool” (soon to be available on Amazon Prime). Mitchell created IAM Studios with the mission to employ and support talent of color and showcase stories that represent the diversity and complexity of the Black experience. Currently, her second film, titled “I Remember Yesterday,” is in postproduction with a plan to be released in April 2022.

On Feb. 23, Sonia Lewis, founder of ASCRIBE Educational Consulting, will speak about the history of voting rights in the U.S.

Lewis is a California native. Her educational background includes degrees in history and psychology from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, a Secondary Teaching Credential in Social Studies and a master's degree in education from San Francisco State University. 

After spending nearly 20 years in the traditional classroom teaching History/Social Studies and managing a small magnet program, she founded ASCRIBE Educational Consulting. Their focus has always been geared towards educational/racial equity and resource distribution. Since 2009, ASCRIBE Educational Consulting has centered the development of programs and writing of curriculum for marginalized and vulnerable student populations. In addition, her work involves speaking and training around the topics of equity, race relations, and social justice. When she is not working, you will find her loving, nurturing, and advocating for six boys, seven bonus children and two granddaughters.

To register, visit https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=36589.  

Farmers of color share their contributions, concerns in UC SAREP webinar series

When agricultural advisors came to the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico during the 1940s, they lined the irrigation ditches with concrete, in the name of boosting efficiency and productivity. But in single-mindedly focusing on water delivery, they neglected to consider how the previously inefficient seepage sustained nearby fruit trees. 

Their actions, as well-intentioned as they might have been, disrupted the local ecosystem and killed the trees that had fed many generations, according to A-dae Romero-Briones, who identifies as Cochiti and as a member of the Kiowa Tribe.

“In my language, we call the extension agents ‘the people who kill the fruit trees,'” said Romero-Briones, director of the Food and Agriculture Program for the First Nations Development Institute, a nonprofit that serves Tribal communities across the mainland, Alaska and Hawaii.

The historically tense relationship between Indigenous peoples and government-affiliated programs is one of the many complex dynamics discussed in a six-part webinar series, “Racial Equity in Extension,” facilitated by UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

“As extension professionals, we really need to know about the people we want to work with – what are their worldviews and what's the knowledge base that shapes their decisions,” said Sonja Brodt, associate director of UC SAREP, a program of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. “And this is especially important to pay attention to when those people are from cultures or segments of society that have a history of being marginalized or oppressed by mainstream society, and because their significant knowledge has often been made invisible.”

Making communities of color in the agricultural sector more visible is a priority for Victor Hernandez, a sociologist and outreach coordinator for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Hernandez, who has organized “Growing Together” conferences for Latino and Black farmers, is trying to get more farmers of color to participate in the upcoming 2022 Agricultural Census.

“If we cannot quantify the demographic, we cannot justify the need,” emphasized Hernandez, explaining that his office uses the data to direct resources that advance equity in service, program delivery and distribution of funds.

A legacy of mistrust

At the same time, however, Hernandez also acknowledged the challenges in registering growers of color for the census, conducted by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. (According to Brodt, USDA's most recent agricultural census, dating to 2017, counts approximately 25,000 producers of color among 128,535 total producers in California.)

“Many of us that are considered socially disadvantaged or historically underserved…a lot of times our peoples come from [nations with] oppressive governments,” Hernandez said. “And so when you come to the United States and you begin to build your life here, to go and engage with the federal government is not the first knee-jerk reaction.”

On top of government mistrust and fears of deportation or detention, other immigrant groups have seen mainstream agriculture – borne by the “Green Revolution” wave across the globe – replace deep-rooted cultural practices, said Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm in Winters.

“It just makes these small farmers distrust our own knowledge, the knowledge that's existed for centuries – before the kind of current iteration of agriculture that we're situated within right now,” said Leach, who works to preserve the agricultural heritage of her Korean ancestors, and facilitates a farmers' collaborative called Second Generation that adapts Asian crop varieties to climate change.

According to Romero-Briones, a collective memory of supplanted culture also lingers in Indigenous communities. In the Cochiti Pueblo, “primarily a subsistence agriculture community” with a long history of corn cultivation, their practices are distinct from those in the mainstream – including regenerative and sustainable agriculture.

“These practices are not really rooted in Indigenous agriculture,” she explained. “They're actually meant to displace Indigenous agriculture and food systems.”

Building relationships takes commitment

Given that legacy of cultural displacement and appropriation, how do extension professionals and other agricultural advisors slowly rebuild trust with communities of color? For Romero-Briones, it begins with a genuine respect for Indigenous practices, and she urges interested people to contact their local tribal historic preservation officer to begin strengthening those connections and understanding – beyond a couple of phone calls.

“As someone who works with Indigenous people all day, even I need to recognize sometimes I have to meet with people up to 12 times before we actually start talking about the work that I initially wanted to talk to them about,” Romero-Briones said.

In a similar vein, Chanowk Yisrael, chief seed starter of Yisrael Family Farms, encouraged listeners to reach out to members of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative – an organization striving for a fair food system while challenging racism and centering farmers of color.

“To use a farm analogy: we've got this ground, which is the farmers of color who have been neglected for a long period of time,” said Yisrael, who has grown his farm in a historically Black neighborhood of Sacramento into a catalyst for social change. “It's not just going to be as simple as just throwing some seeds and things are going to come up; you're going to have to do more – that means you got to get out and do much more than you would do for any other community.”

Investing time in a community is one thing – and backing it up with tangible resources is another. Technical expertise is only the “tip of the iceberg,” Leach said, as historically marginalized groups are also seeking land access and tenure, more affordable cost of living, and access to capital.

“All of those things are actually much bigger burdens to bear for most communities of color than not having the knowledge of how to grow the crops that we want to grow, and not knowing how to be adaptive and nimble in the face of climate change," Leach explained, highlighting California FarmLink as an essential resource. (“Understanding Disparities in Farmland Ownership” is the next webinar in the SAREP series, set for Nov. 19.)

Bringing diverse voices to the table

Another key is ensuring that farmers and farm workers of color are represented in management and decision-making processes. Samuel Sandoval, a professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and UC Cooperative Extension specialist in water management, develops outreach programs in English and Spanish for everyone from farm workers to the “boss of the boss of the boss.”

Sandoval said there are often gaps of communication between the decision makers and the people, most often Spanish speakers, who implement those measures. He remembers, for example, talking with water resource managers about their plans for a water treatment plant or new irrigation system – and then discovering that the irrigators and farm workers had no idea those discussions are happening.

“It has to be changed,” he said, “because at the end, the person who is going to operate the irrigation system and turn on or off the valves, the person who is looking if there's a leak or not – that's the person who's not being informed, or has not been informed on purpose.”

That exclusion of certain groups can lead to a loss of invaluable knowledge. Leach said there is a real danger in ignoring the wisdom of communities that have contributed so much to the foundation of food systems in California and around the globe.

“These really kind of amazing, sophisticated and elegant agroecological systems that we don't often legitimize through the scientific language and perspectives aren't seen as being really technically proficient – but, in many ways, they're more dynamic and more resilient than the things that we're perpetuating right now,” she said.

As a concrete example, Sandoval said that while extension advisors and specialists conduct studies to remedy a plant disease, farm workers might be developing – separately and in parallel – their own solutions by asking for advice from their social networks via WhatsApp, a phone application.

A reimagining of collaboration, Sandoval said, would include (and compensate) people working in the field for sharing their perspectives – bringing together academics and farmers, integrated pest management experts and pesticide applicators, irrigation specialists and those who do the irrigation.

A need to look within

Concerns about inclusion and validating alternate sources of knowledge apply also to the recruitment process in extension. Leach said that she has seen listings for advisor jobs that would require, at a minimum, a master's degree – which would automatically disqualify her, despite her extensive knowledge of Asian heirloom vegetables.

“When you look at a job description and you see ‘Asian crop specialist,' only required qualification is a master's degree, and then somewhere down the long list of sort of secondary desired, recommended things is some knowledge of Asian crops or communities…you know that just says a lot in terms of what  has weight,” Leach explained.

Before organizations can authentically connect with communities of color, they should prioritize diversity in their own ranks, said Romero-Briones. First Nations Development Institute had to ensure that they had adequate representation across the many Tribes that they serve.

“Before we start looking out, we have to start looking in,” she explained, “and that means we have to hire Indigenous people who know these communities.”

For extension professionals and other members of the agricultural community in California, the UC SAREP webinar series has helped spark that introspection and a meaningful reevaluation of institutional processes and assumptions.

“These discussions have been tremendously illuminating and eye-opening,” Brodt said. “But hearing and learning is just the start – it's incumbent on us, as an organization and as individuals, to take action to ensure that farmers of color and their foodways are truly respected and valued.”

Black and Allied Employees affinity group advocates for equity and safety at UC ANR

Since June 2020 and the aftermath of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade, several efforts have been underway within UC ANR to make our workplace safer, more equitable, and more welcoming to Black employees. These efforts have included UC ANR's partnership with UC Davis Harassment & Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program for reporting instances of harassment and discriminatory practices or behaviors, as well as the virtual Black History Month and Juneteenth events that took place this year. Though these efforts have been endorsed and supported by UC ANR higher leadership, the newly recognized Black and Allied Employees affinity group has been spearheading these efforts behind the scenes since 2019.  

Black and Allied Employees, also known as BAE, began as a small group of coworkers – present and past employees – who discussed patterns of anti-Blackness within the UC ANR workplace and what changes could be made to address them. When the uprisings of 2020 began, the group requested a meeting with UC ANR leadership, and began to meet with them on an occasional basis to bring attention to these patterns and to advocate for substantive, systemic changes to make UC ANR a safer and more welcoming environment for Black employees.

The group continues to advocate for accountability, parity, and fair and equitable recruitment, promotion and retention. BAE members also aim to provide a safe space for Black and African Diaspora employees to obtain support around workplace concerns, as well as professional development and growth opportunities.

Since BAE has been formally recognized as an affinity group at UC ANR, the group has been accepting new members. Non-Black allies are welcome to join under the condition that the space remains safe and supportive to Black members. The group currently meets once per month on Friday afternoons.

If you would like to join BAE, please fill out this interest survey. We look forward to connecting with our colleagues throughout the state.

If you have any questions about Black and Allied Employees, feel free to contact Ron Walker at rlwalker@ucanr.edu, Shyra Murrey at smmurrey@ucanr.edu or Esther Mosase at enmosase@ucanr.edu.  

 

 

Read more