Be Grateful, Build Community, Fight for Justice: Tips for 2021 From the Experts

At the Batten School, we teach leadership skills. We try to sharpen students’ tool kits, to equip them how to analyze social challenges, to determine which level of government – or the private sector – can best address the societal challenges, and then to weigh with facts and science the best, most realistic, achievable policy solution.

This work is doable. I am optimistic we will succeed. My late father, Felix Warburg, was a veteran of both World War II and Korea. Born in Europe, he returned to Vienna with troops as a skinny 20-year-old U.S. Army intelligence officer in 1945. No one in his mother’s neighborhood survived Hitler’s madness. Dad’s takeaway was simple: “Every day is a gift.” He returned to Harvard with a new career direction: architecture. He dedicated himself to building homes for people. His indefatigable optimism in the face of unspeakable tragedy inspires us. It is a well of confidence to draw from in difficult times.

We must hew to first principles. We must recognize that public policy challenges are difficult because public servants’ words and decisions are so consequential. We can do the hard work. Our nation is strong and the vast majority of our citizens are determined to work together for the common good.

Anne Coughlin, Lewis F. Powell Jr. Professor of Law and expert in women’s issues, School of Law

To achieve gender justice, feminists must identify – and strenuously oppose – the connections between patriarchal ideology and white supremacy. To say the least, it will not be easy to dismantle the patriarchy. But, if we are to do so, our only hope is to work in solidarity with anti-racist scholars and activists.

Let me be less abstract. My students and I are working to reform Virginia rape law so that it no longer puts women on trial for having sex. The authors and enforcers of this archaic law were quick to defend the system on the ground that it protected women’s honor. When you scratch the surface, you see that, for women, “honor” meant “chastity.” This seemingly antiquated notion – that women are honorable only if they are chaste – still is formally inscribed in the Virginia penal code, which says that sex “defiles” women. That is why core elements of the crime of rape – proof of physical violence by the man and/or physical resistance by the woman – put women, but not men, on trial for having sex. It is not enough for a woman to say “no” to sex, because she is expected to do more than register a verbal objection when her very honor is at stake. Unless she pushes back physically or the attacker uses something that amounts to force, the sex will be treated as lawful. It is no wonder, then, that “I believe her” has become a rallying cry for gender justice advocates around the world.

If you scratch the surface a bit more deeply and you will see that the formal law was suspended in cases involving African Americans. Over the centuries, women of color have been defined as unchaste, so that they could not expect to receive – and, tragically, have not received – even the feeble protections that rape law afforded to white women. As important, the kind of sex that was considered to be the most defiling was any sex – no matter how consensual – between a black man and a white woman. As Ida B. Wells-Barnett explained in “The Red Record” of 1895, her study of lynching, this “peculiarly” American crime was justified across the board by the excuse “that Negroes had to be killed to avenge their assaults upon women,” even when no assaults had occurred. She documented “numerous instances” where African American men were treated as if they had committed rape –and were lynched for it – although “it was positively known at the time of lynching, and indisputably proven after the victim’s death,” that the sex “between the man and the woman was voluntary.”

This is just one example of the ways in which sexism and racism are inextricable and mutually defining, of the ways in which white supremacy has constituted as adversaries women and men who should work in solidarity to defeat it. Thus, for my students and me, the challenge in the coming year is to develop a rape reform strategy that dismantles the collusion between patriarchy and racism.

Kevin McDonald, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Partnerships

Note: The following is an excerpt from a piece McDonald wrote for The Daily Progress.

A year like no other in recent memory, 2020 has reminded us how important it is to stay supportive and connected during difficult times. To be a “weaver.”

In my role at the University, I’m reminded of the Social Fabric Project, which starts with the idea that “America’s social fabric is being ripped to shreds by distrust, loneliness, alienation, inequality, racism, spiritual emptiness and tribal enmity,” but with the recognition that there are everyday people in local communities across the nation, called “weavers,” who are fighting these challenges and having a transformational impact. These weavers recognize the importance of putting any notion of hyper-individualism aside in favor of relationalism and the ultimate goal of weaving together inclusive communities. The Charlottesville-Albemarle community is full of “weavers” who are committing their lives and their talents to centering relationships, to being selfless and not selfish, and to eradicating scourges that have served to the detriment of so many of our community members for far too long. From poverty to chronic homelessness, to food inequity and insecurity, weavers in our community continue to strive to create a better tomorrow, today.

The question is: Are there others willing to join the “weaver” movement in our community? There’s room for so many more who are eager to put their different perspectives, ideologies and personal interests aside to better our community. We need weavers now more than ever. With so many things dividing us, if we don’t all come together as a community to fight these pressing issues, we’ll have no hope of ending them. This idea is analogous to President Jim Ryan’s consistent suggestion that we look for ways to build bridges among us. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my UVA and Charlottesville-Albemarle communities every day, and this coming year, I commit to joining the weavers within our community to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our present and our future. How about you? Are there any new weavers among us? It will take people with willing hearts and a love for humanity who will join others in identifying root causes instead of symptoms and committed action that matches committed rhetoric.

As we all continue to reflect both personally and organizationally and move to heal and repair our future, we must understand and embrace how connected we all are. It’s up to all of us to center relationships at the core of what we do and how we serve. We must continue to understand the historical separation that has been here for generations and the value of repairing that bridge, and we must commit ourselves to continue working together to build new bridges that create a better future for all.

Theresa Carrol, Senior Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Services, School of Nursing

Just keep laughing.

We used to have a painting right outside my office door that repeated over and over, “Just keep swimming.” It was an appropriate place because there were a lot of folks who came down that hallway feeling like their head was barely above water. I always hoped that when they left my office and saw those words, it would be a good reminder that as long as they kept their head above water, as long as they kept swimming, they would make it to the other side of wherever it was they were paddling.

When my girls were little, they took dance classes. While rehearsing for the annual big show, they would repeatedly hear their instructor remind them to “just keep dancing.” If they missed a step: just keep dancing. If their costume fell off (heaven forbid!) or came undone: just keep dancing. I say a version of these words to my staff before any of our big ceremonies: Family Weekend, pinning, hooding, graduation. If we have to move the event inside due to rain, just keep smiling. If we stray from the program, just keep smiling. If we look like everything is going as planned, there is no reason for anyone else to think it isn’t.

Although either of these mantras are worthy of the current times – and I highly recommend them to you – I would like to add, “Just keep laughing.” Find the fun in the moment, even when it seems that we don’t have a lot to laugh about. Seek books or movies or entertainment that takes you to that place where you cannot hold back a hearty guffaw. Giggle uncontrollably until bubbles come out your orifices. It will make you feel better, I promise.