by Princess Bernard-Oti, ’18

The Triangle Diversity Alliance conference is hosted by a local Independent school every year. This year, C.A. students attended the conference on October 25th at Carolina Friends School, with a theme of “Allies and Activism”. CFS Head of School Karen Cumberbatch began the conference speaking on what it means to be an Ally as a verb. She explained that being an ally is about taking action. During workshops we discussed constructive ways to take action as an ally, focusing on personal relationships, social media, civic engagement, and peaceful protest. Before breaking out into individual groups we listened to the guest speaker, C.J. Suitt, a poet, author and performer, talk about how society is conditioned to ignore or accept injustice and how it is afraid of change.

Afterwards, students participated in a session dedicated to their Affinity group, ranging from African American Females to LGBTQ. Then, workshops were held to provide different perspectives on social issues currently taking place. There was a workshop on Black Lives Matter, in which students explored the history, current impact and controversy around this modern day civil rights movement. There was one on the Aftermath of Charlottesville focusing on understanding white supremacy, racism, and anti-Semitism. A workshop on being undocumented in America was also held and discussed what life is like for an undocumented immigrant. In addition, there was a workshop on Muslims and Middle Easterners in the Media which explored the effect that Western media has on Muslims and Middle Easterners, as well as the Western media’s hyper fixation of the idea of the “Muslim terrorist”. These were just a few of the workshops held, but there were so many more.

To end the conference all participants engaged in a Quaker practice of Silent Reflection. This was a time to reminisce about all that they learned during the conference and think about the steps needed to go forward with the mission of diversity and inclusion. Overall, the Triangle Diversity conference is a great way to get students to start thinking about how they can generate change in society.