IC News

On Friday, June 5 at 11 a.m., the college will host an Honors Program Rapid Response Salon conversation that focuses on black bodies, racist rhetoric, and violence in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Co-sponsored with the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights, the panel will feature a pair of Ithaca College faculty members: Nicole Horsley, assistant professor of African diaspora studies in the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (CSCRE) and affiliated faculty in women’s and gender studies; and Christopher House, associate professor of communication studies.

Also included in the panel are Travis Brooks, deputy director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center; and Kenneth I. Clarke, director of the Office of Human Rights in Tompkins County.

House believes that these panels are critical given the current environment.

“In this social and political moment we’re in, where the world has seen the shootings of Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and now the murder of George Floyd, I felt it was important to have this discussion,” he said.

And although the discussion is taking place in the context of Floyd’s murder, Horsley says that the issues run much deeper than that incident.

“I think it’s important that we return to this moment, because it’s a moment that non-black people needed to see,” she said. “But thinking about anti-blackness, and anti-black violence doesn’t start with George Floyd. Those of us who know, understand that it didn’t start with him.”

Horsley added that although conversation is important, it’s critical the college moves beyond discussion.

“I think that it’s courageous as an institution that we’re coming out against this,” she said. “It can encourage students, faculty, and staff who want to be a part of change to be in part of that. But I also think about the changes that we can make as an institution, when we say we’re committing to an anti-racist framework, what does that mean? How are we going to do those tasks?”

House also hopes that this panel serves as a stepping stone to larger, more structural changes.

“Conversation alone won’t change this,” he said. “The question is, what are we going to do past this, as an institution? I’m hoping that we’ll move to an action phase where we can be part of the solution in a concrete, tangible way.”