BY ANGELA KOENIG

This idea led to the formation of the UC faculty group BRIDGE — Building Racial Awareness and Insight through Dialogue and Education — in spring 2019, long before current racial tensions spilled over into the streets. The group of 11 women — faculty and support staff, near evenly Black and white — meet regularly to talk about issues of race and gender in academia specific to UC, but more importantly about the academy at large, say BRIDGE co-founders Keisha Love, associate vice provost for faculty affairs and special initiatives, and Karen Faaborg, professor emeritus and former vice provost of academic personnel.

And what they have hit upon with the group, they say, is a means and model to address these tensions: open, raw, heartfelt dialogue that reveals their true selves and their experiences as women, especially women of color, at the university level. They say what research bears out is that women, specifically minorities, are often overlooked, unheard and undervalued by both administration and students, and the UC group is a way to address and remedy issues of bias and racism. So much so that they are already in talks to implement the group model to others across campus.

Their first meeting was a casual lunch, when the two talked about a mutual interest: what it meant to be a woman in academia and the racial divides. But they quickly realized they connected in a way that they knew was powerful. The conversation was so “rich,” Love says, that they decided they wanted to invite more women to the table.

Approaching these discussions with vulnerability is key, Love says, which is echoed by other members.

“Before this group I can’t remember the last time I had an open, honest, vulnerable conversation about my experiences. It’s a huge win,” says Whitney Gaskins, assistant dean and assistant professor in UC’s Office of Inclusive Excellence & Community Engagement.

There have been multiple initiatives and actions with respect to equity and inclusion at the university, Faaborg says, “but I think what we have done in our BRIDGE group is create a safe space for the kind of painful discussions that will lead to truly meaningful change for both the Black and white women. Those kinds of discussions are not possible in more formal settings.”

Love says the group is designed to be a safe place to engage in discourse that reveals true feelings, an environment where participants can be heard without fear of judgment. “We put two rules in place: You have to respect the experiences of the other person and we won’t talk in generalities [i.e. all white women act this way or all Black women do this].” 

That doesn’t mean that what gets expressed doesn’t “sting” on occasion, Gaskins says. “We are talking in real time with our feelings, out loud, but we still very much want to make sure that we are all OK afterward.”

“The women in this group are successful Black and white women…and what we are realizing is that we can serve as sponsors to other women and start to close the divide,” says Faaborg.

“There has to be a catalyst for change, and we are those people,” says member Littisha Bates, an associate professor of sociology and associate dean for inclusive excellence and community partnership, College of Arts and Sciences and co-founder of the Black Faculty Association. If the model can be replicated, she says, “We will be able to see institutional change happen.”

Photography by Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative + Brand

Photo illustrations by Margaret Weiner/UC Creative + Brand

Digital design by Kerry Overstake