Upcoming Diversity Showcase Highlights "White Awareness"

This year the Diversity Showcase, sponsored by the Diversity Initiative, focuses on the role of whites in issues of inequity and discrimination—white awareness.

"The purpose of the Diversity Showcase is three-fold: to recognize the contributions of the Diversity Initiative steering committee members, ‘showcase’ Diversity Initiative accomplishments, and in accordance with a tradition that began three years ago, we choose a topic and feature a speaker to explore and discuss that topic with the Diversity Showcase attendees," says Gloria Bouis, associate director of the Office of Human Relations Programs.

This year’s featured speaker Judith Katz, author of "White Awareness: A Handbook for Anti-Racism Training" and executive vice president of The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, Inc. Katz will address the topic of white awareness with her discussion titled "Being White: Our Role As Agents for Change."

Katz offers the Diversity Showcase more than 25 years of international experience in developing strategic change processes to address systematic oppression and help organizations become high performing and more culturally inclusive. Currently, Katz is focusing on helping organizations integrate strategic initiatives such as quality, leadership, empowerment and teamwork with diversity to create sustainable change.

"I focus on seeing your role and responsibility as a white person as working for change, feeling positive and empowered, and being partners in the change process. I also focus on the role and responsibility of whites as change agents to address racism and the other forms of oppressions—all the –isms," says Katz.

(In addition to the Diversity Showcase at the university, Katz is presenting a workshop titled "What White People Can Do about Racism: in May at Towson University.)

The Diversity Initiative chose white awareness as this year’s topic in order to broaden perceptions about this important issue and begin to explore strategies for engaging more white members of the university community in a proactive approach to ending practices of individual and institutional inequity and discrimination both on-campus and in the larger society.

The following will be recognized at the Diversity Showcase: the Diversity Initiative Award recipients, the recipient of the faculty support award, active members of the Diversity Initiative committees, and the student essay contest and student organization poster contest winners.

Mark your calendars to attend the Diversity Showcase on Tuesday, April 20, 3-4:30p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Nyumburu Cultural Center. A reception will follow this event. For more information, contact Mark Brimhall-Vargas at 405-2840 or mb333@umail.umd.edu.

--JAMIE FEEHERY-SIMMONS