26th Annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit postponed

The 26th annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit that was set to take place this weekend has been postponed due to the weather and covid concerns. A new date has not yet been announced.

The Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit was founded in 1998 by volunteers of the Black & White Reunion in response to the killing of Jonny Gammage, a Black motorist who died after a confrontation with white police officers during a traffic stop in Brentwood in 1995. Since the start of the summit, it has always been the weekend after MLK Day and held at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. The formal partners of the summit are the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh and WZUM Radio.

Kevin Jarbo, program coordinator on the planning committee, discussed some aspects of the summit prior to the news of its postponement. Jarbo has been involved with the PRJS since 2019 when he was in graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University.

How was the theme of othering chosen for the summit this year?

This year we arrived at the theme “From Othering to Bridging: Reconnecting for Social Change.” The theme was inspired by the work of John A. Powell, executive director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at The University of California, Berkeley. We want to address the divisiveness in society that has undermined the ideas of collective action.

What will the conversations and panels at the summit be like?

We wanted to be able to engage people in some conversations about this experience of othering. Othering — meaning a way of treating other people who are different from you as being so different that they are essentially alien to you — can lead to discrimination, abuse, and inequities, especially if other people become dehumanized or thought of as inferior.

What questions do you want people to think about during the summit?

We want people to think about how othering shows up in your interpersonal life, work for social justice, or even in your professional world. Like are you being othered in your workplace, are you the only one with your identity in the space? What work does it take to survive, let alone thrive in those sorts of environments? How can we promote a sense of belonging when we have to contend with those structural and systemic kinds of othering in terms of segregation? And especially segregation that leaves some people with opportunities and some people impoverished.

Why was it important to use the word justice rather than equality?

One thing we want to inspire every year at the summit is how can we get people politically engaged, so we change laws and policies, that will shift people’s behaviors. Subsequently, we hope this will also shift their attitudes and beliefs in ways that will help us achieve racial justice to resolve inequities in our societies. We stand on the side of the oppressed no matter what they face. In the pursuit of justice versus equality, of course, we want to approach a world where everyone is treated equally but given that we are all at these different levels not everyone needs the same thing to approach an equitable experience for everyone.

For more information and to stay updated on the rescheduled date, click here.