LYNN – The Lynn Community Connections Coalition (LCCC) hosted a discussion on racism and microaggressions at City Hall Tuesday evening — the first event in the organization’s social justice week.
In the winter, the Lynn Housing Authority’s Community Connections Coalition conducted surveys for potential discussion topics and LCCC Director Brandy Rodriguez said that social justice was among the most frequently suggested topics.
Lynn’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Faustina Cuevas led Tuesday’s discussion, which focused on recognizing and handling subtle biases.
“Sometimes, when we think about racism, we think about the old fashioned, in-your-face kind of racism. What microaggressions have taught us is that sometimes it’s not overt, it’s more subtle – it’s sort of in the fabric of our thinking, in the ways we behave, the policies we buy into, so tonight, it’s about unpacking some of that and really understanding our own perceptions of how we participate, we collude, or we witness some of these things, and how we intervene,” Cuevas said.
The hour-long meeting featured a video compilation of microaggressions in film and television, in which Cuevas invited audience members to point out particular kinds of microaggressions on the screen. Cuevas said that many subconscious biases are based in pop culture, and that if they are not questioned, they will hurt people.
“When you stop and say ‘I know where that joke came from,’ or ‘I know why I made that comment,’ across all sorts of identities, once you have a thought, you have to do the work to figure out where that thought came from and unlearn it, otherwise you’re going to continue to behave in that way, and you’re going to continue to cause harm to other people and to yourself,” Cuevas said.
Those planning to attend a social justice week event can find a full schedule of discussions and meetings at lynnccc.org.
“This is an important topic, and we have to continue to educate ourselves,” Cuevas said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
