By 
What is racial healing? Today, during a conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival, NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s La June Montgomery Tabron discussed the growing impact of racial healing and explored how this practice is at the heart of our journey to racial equity.
They candidly discussed recent headlines of racialized violence in many communities and the need to speak the truth about past harms created by individual and systemic racism and address their present-day consequences.
Alcindor and Tabron started the conversation by learning the meaning of each other’s name using a tool called Conocimiento – a Spanish word meaning “knowledge or conscience,”— demonstrating the kind of intentional listening and learning that’s so critical in racial healing work.
Alcindor’s questioning gave Tabron an opportunity to highlight the foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation work and illustrate the role that racial healing plays in transformative community change.
“Truth is about storytelling, bringing people together in a community to share their experiences. Racial healing is connecting everyone. Transformation – let’s work together and change systems for the better."
During this 45-minute session, Alcindor and Tabron explored what’s happening across the country – in communities like Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Flint, MI; Buffalo, NY; and New Orleans, LA – to advance racial equity through racial healing, replace destructive belief systems that fuel racism and transform societal structures into ones that affirm the inherent value of all people.
The discussion also kicked off a year-long editorial collaboration between the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the NBCUniversal News Group to promote dialogue around racial equity issues, help advance racial healing, and celebrate the National Day of Racial Healing on January 17, 2023.
To learn more about this exciting collaborative initiative, see the press release about the announcement, follow the conversation on social media using the #HowWeHeal hashtag, or visit the National Day of Racial Healing website.
Comments