If the Storm Keeps Raging

“Though the storms keep on raging in my life; And sometimes it’s hard to tell the night from day ….”

These opening lines to the powerful track “My Soul Is Anchored” by Douglas Miller are an apt description of the year that has been 2020. Some have suggested that this year has had way more than its share of experiential storms, as well as literal storms. 

I refer to them as a series of pandemics: a health pandemic, a race pandemic, an economic pandemic, a political pandemic and even weather pandemics. Each is compelling in its own right; however, it is the intersection and overlap of these conditions that exacerbates their existence. Furthermore, the effects they render on higher education are certainly without precedent.

Back in March, the coronavirus health pandemic forced the immediate closure of many of our campuses and spun us into an endless web of virtual meetings. Just as we were settling into the third month of a “new normal” of mask wearing, hand washing and social/physical distancing, a race pandemic was ignited. Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were sadly added to a roster nobody wanted their loved one to be listed on. It is a list that all too often reduces its members to hashtags and t-shirts. They become etched in our collective memories as their unspeakable deaths are often devoid of the true justice they deserve. The true justice that is so frequently denied people of color and African Americans in particular. 

The tragic events have further illuminated the racial divide that exists in our nation. Brutal and often senseless murders of unarmed Black people have continued to unfold with greater frequency. 

However, this time the residual protests and unrest have led to an immediate cry for justice and reform. This caused many of our institutions to review our racist pasts as well as the no-longer acceptable building names and statues. Changes in many cases were immediate and witnessed not only in higher education but in corporate responses as well. America was reawakened to the need to make corrections to historic wrongs and to make real commitments to level the playing field. 

And then comes Jacob Blake. Unarmed, Blake was shot in the back by police as he returned to his car where his frightened children were located.