Yesterday, I had the opportunity to keynote the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) 2024 Black History Month program. Over 300 people attended the program. While I have given hundreds of keynotes and presentations and spoken at many Black History Month programs throughout my career, there was something tremendously different from yesterday’s delivery.
I did not present on all the ‘good Blacks’ who have been able to master and become recognized through overcoming through adversity and achieving the good ole’ American dream. No! I presented an evidence-based talk on Whiteness and anti-Blackness as psychopathologies; how White people have economized Black pain, suffering, and genocide throughout every American institution, from the inception of slavery, into the present.
After my talk, a Black woman named Gloria was given the microphone to ask the first question. She started crying and stated that she felt I had articulated everything that she had felt during her lifetime but could not articulate. I started crying with her and actually leaped up the stairs to give her a hug. I asked all the Black people in the room to stand if they related to Gloria’s sentiments. Every Black person in the room stood up. I asked all the White and non-Black people to take an inventory by scanning the room to see their Black colleagues. The experience was quite riveting.
Thank you to Ailene Estalilla and Melisa Bautista for their leadership, partnership, solidarity and warrior-ship. Without these two ladies, this event would not have happened. I appreciate Erin Gore’s leadership and support of antiracism work throughout her department. She stood 100% behind this event.
Thank you, Dr. Alejandra Rincon, Dr. Rene Navarro, Dr. Lamisha Hill, Alexis Cobbins, and Klint Jamarillo, and others who are a part of my UCSF family.
See you again soon!
Dante
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