On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Ericka Hart came to campus and gave a workshop in the Chapel on racial and social justice. The event was organized by the Feminists of Color Collective (FCC), the Black and Latinx Student Union (BLSU) and the Womxn’s Center, in collaboration with the Queer Student Union, La Vanguardia, the Days-Massolo Center (DMC), the Dean of Students, the Dean of Faculty and the Chaplaincy.
As described on their website, “Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a Black queer femme activist, writer, highly-acclaimed speaker and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master’s of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Ericka’s work broke ground when she went topless showing her double mastectomy scars in public in 2016. Since then, she has been in demand at colleges and universities across the country [and] featured in countless digital and print publications […] Ericka’s voice is rooted in leading-edge thought around human sexual expression as inextricable to overall human health and its intersections with race, gender, chronic illness and disability.”
Hart’s racial and social justice workshop explored the ways individuals in their personal and professional lives could support marginalized groups — especially Black people and Queer and Trans people of color (QTPOC).
Bringing Hart to campus as part of the DMC’s Black History Month programming, which included movie screenings, a Black History Month trivia night and BLSU’s Black History Month Talent Show. As explained by BLSU and FCC co-chair Saphire Ruiz ’22 in their closing statement, Ericka’s workshop “grew out of a want and need to have conversations about the work some of the organizations and centers on campus are doing, the work we as individuals are doing, and whether that work is helping folks and challenging the status quo and bringing actual change, versus just finding temporary remedies and never actually ending the systems of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy that are oppressing us.”
Hart began their workshop with a guided meditation, urging everyone in the audience to look into the eyes of a partner for five minutes without speaking, as they read out prompts and questions. They then dove into the history of Utica, Clinton and Hamilton College.
They presented maps showing redlining — the practice of marking areas of a city as “high risk” to deny predominantly Black communities loans for housing, businesses, etcetera — in Utica and went over the anti-Indigenous origins of the College. Hart discussed the racist and violent actions of Samuel Kirkland and other settlers who strategically stole Oneida land to establish Hamilton and the implications that history has on the College today, especially given that there is no recognition of this history on the College’s website or in its promotional materials. At the end of this segment, they clarified that addressing the racist history of Hamilton was intentional and the first part of the workshop.
Hart then presented an image of a “white supremacy iceberg.” The iceberg categorized acts of white supremacy into “covert” (socially acceptable) and “overt” (socially unacceptable) actions; a “covert” action being something such as celebrating Columbus Day, and an “overt” action being something such as committing a hate crime. Throughout this process, audience members actively participated in the lesson, asking clarifying questions and answering questions Hart posed.
The latter half of the workshop consisted of audience members taking part in an activity. Around the Chapel, there were different identity category cards placed on the walls, including “race,” “class,” “religion” and “gender presentation.” Hart went through a series of questions, and everyone would go to the identity card that best applied to the posed question. For instance, if Hart asked for people to go to the identity they feel most discriminated against, they would walk to the corresponding card. Then the individuals under that card would discuss why they went to that identity, and at the end Hart had a few people share before moving on to the next question.
To close out the entire event, Hart held a short Q+A, where they answered questions about their work and life experiences.
Overall, the workshop revealed how much work is left to be done, and what work needs to be undone, on Hamilton’s campus to create an empowering community for everyone. Hart’s very presence on campus highlights the need and importance of bringing more radical Black non-binary voices to Hamilton. Their beginning remarks on the discomfort of being in the Chapel and seeing the Alexander Hamilton statue indicated that this campus is not a healthy or safe place for Black femme, which, Hart explained, means that it is not safe for anyone.
Additionally, Hart’s recognition of the history of Hamilton College and the Oneida land we reside on pushes conversations of land acknowledgments to discussions on how to give the land back. Speakers and activists like Hart disrupt what we have come to consider as the “norm” on campus.
By challenging our idea of a “Hamilton community,” Ericka encouraged us to listen to and care about one another while centering Black femme voices and experiences.
