FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Kamau Chege doesn’t necessarily consider himself to be much of an activist, but when it comes to diversity in higher education, he has been a fierce proponent for change.
“Like any college that is predominantly White, there is a history of racism,” says Chege, a rising senior at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. “Whitworth is not an exception.”
Chege joined more than 3,000 like-minded students, faculty and staff from 900 colleges and universities from across the country at the annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) in American Higher Education.
For more than 30 years, NCORE has become the destination space for progressive students, faculty and administrators who want to engage in a candid conversation about everything from racism to White privilege.
Dr. Belinda P. Biscoe, the interim vice president for university outreach, public and community services at the University of Oklahoma and the administrator for NCORE, said that in this current political climate, there has been an effort by some to “reverse the gains of social progress over the last five decades.”
She said that the proliferation of racist incidents on college campuses, as well as the spate of police shootings of unarmed Black men and efforts by some states to engage in voter suppression are reasons why NCORE still needs to exist.
“Our collective energy is power,” Biscoe told the participants in the opening session. “Together we will transform our institutions.”
