Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor
The VCU School of Social Work Radical Alliance for Anti-Racism, Change and Equity, or R.A.A.C.E, was formed in 2020. Their mission is to address the racial injustices that exist in the field of social work, in the past and today.
It is a focus of RAACE to level the playing field of academia, according to Lisa Borntrager, Ph.D. student and co-chair of R.A.A.C.E. They hope that the organization can bring about a more diverse and equitable environment.
Check your bias
To do this, the board hosts different events that break down the barriers of these conversations. Just this last month they have hosted three of their own events. “Check Your Bias,” by Ra-Twoine “Rosetta” Fields, challenged participants to confront their own biases.
Fields challenged students and faculty to acknowledge their own biases and confront them. He brought different hypothetical scenarios to the crowd surrounding different racial, social and religious groups and asked participants to answer honestly what they thought.
“Y’all are being nice,” Fields claimed, as the group danced around what they wanted to say, scared that they would say the wrong thing. However, in this room, there was no right or wrong, just honest. As more people joined in the conversation the more honest people got and that is where the real work began.
As the session progressed, Fields broke everyone into groups of four and tasked them to openly talk about their biases. The groups were given dice and a list of categories such as age, disability, religion, ethnicity and social class. Group members took turns rolling the dice, and based on the corresponding numbers, told a member of the group what they thought their race, age, disability, etc. was.
The night ended in a conversation between all the participants about what they learned, how they can use this information to move forward and challenge biases they have.
“Check Your Bias,” was necessary to the mission that R.A.A.C.E. strives for, according to Shamayah Nutifafa, the Association of Black Social Workers’ R.A.A.C.E. representative.
“Bias is one of those things that heavily impacts the way people treat each other and while we’re trying to deconstruct some of these inequities in the school social work, we think it’s very important to address that and make it known,” Nutifafa said.
Connecting campus
Nutifafa sees the organization as a bridge between students of the college and the faculty behind it. With a mix of undergraduate, graduate and staff members, everyone is at a different level of their social work journey, but R.A.A.C.E. leads the way to collaboration between all levels.
In tandem with the VCU Association of Black Social Workers they hosted “Cultural Awareness Day” on April 11. The organizations were able to create a space where members and interested community members could gather and talk about different issues that are affecting Black students on campus, according to Aya Caballero, Ph.D student and co-chair of R.A.A.C.E.
Caballero is in her second year as a graduate student within the school of social work. She joined R.A.A.C.E after hearing about it and feeling like the work they do lines up with the work she is trying to accomplish.
“A lot of the work that I do is surrounding race and inequities that stem from colonization,” Caballero said. “As I learned more and realized there’s funding put back behind this. We could actually do real work because a lot of the barriers when you’re trying to do programming and be in with the community comes with, you know, going to have to have the money to back it up.”
VCU R.A.A.C.E reach expands further than the bounds of campus as they invite speakers who are experienced in social work and social equity programs. They are holding a racial sensitivity class led by Gene Cash, the CEO and executive director of Counseling Alliance of VA, on April 23.
In alignment with their commitment to community building, they provided transportation to Southside Contemporary Art Gallery on April 10 for the opening day of their exhibition, “Keep it 1000.” Curated by Fields and Jax Causey, the recurring exhibition features work from nine emerging artists from a plethora of visual art mediums.
VCU R.A.A.C.E is dedicated to breaking down the barriers within academia and the greater Richmond community — looking to cause a positive shift and open people’s ears to the issues affecting everyone.
Information on VCU R.A.A.C.E. and their events can be found on their instagram page @vcuraace.