Kathy Obear remembers being driven through Washington, D.C. as a pre-teen after hearing about the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. She was told that blacks were rioting and to lock the doors as National Guard trucks rode through the city.

“My parents enforced the racist attitudes that were just normal,” she said. “I never questioned them.”

This experience seems to have had an effect on her academic pursuits as a youth.

Growing up in nearly all-white Cheverly, Maryland, Obear remembers writing about King for her senior year report. In college, she wrote about Abraham Lincoln for her senior thesis.

“The irony was that I didn’t look at myself as a white person or the racist attitudes I had,” Obear said. “I had a lot of knowledge about race and racism but no concept about white privilege or white supremacy.”

Obear has worked with many universities on the topics of privilege, inclusion and diversity. Now, she is teaching Syracuse University about them.

The Division of Student Affairs brought Obear to campus to host a keynote address last Friday and the Student Diversity Summit on Saturday. Over the summer, Obear facilitated a retreat, in which Chancellor Kent Syverud, deans of SU’s schools and colleges, vice chancellors and other university leaders met for a three-day retreat focused on diversity and inclusion.

The administrative retreat led to the creation of the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion. The workgroup was created to “develop solutions on how to further create a more diverse and inclusive climate,” according to an SU News release.

Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz helped organize the retreat. The event allowed attendees to break into workgroups to discuss inclusivity and diversity policies, practices and programs.

“It’s a skill you have to build and you have to keep doing it to stay strong,” Kantrowitz said.

Working with students

For six hours on Saturday, Obear met with a group of students — mostly residential advisers — to teach them about inclusion and diversity at the Student Diversity Summit.

One of the first exercises at the event was for students to rearrange their chairs into concentric circles. Every participant was given a partner and was asked to describe a time when they felt they mattered.

“I want everyone to feel like they matter,” Obear said.

At this point, Obear opened up about being a teenager with 50 additional pounds on her body. She was given the nickname “Kathy Obese” by her classmates.

Feeling like an outsider contributed to Obear’s desire to help other students when she was attending Washington College in Maryland. In the 1980s, campuses were just beginning to talk about issues of diversity. As a lesbian and someone who dealt with body image issues, Obear was interested in the discussion.

“I wanted to create a world and training for people where they realize what it’s like to not fit in and not belong,” Obear said.

Obear said some of her passion stems from being privileged to some extent.

To teach members of the group about this, Obear had students look at a piece of paper labeled with the phrases “privileged group” and “marginalized group.” Students were asked to check off what aspects of themselves gave them privilege and which did not.

Having the label of consultant for 30 years, having a doctorate, being white and using English in a certain way all contribute to her privilege, Obear said.

“I have a lot of passion today to help people recognize most unconsciously that when we are not paying attention to our privileged identities, we may say and do things or create policies or decisions that may benefit folks like us,” she said.

Plans for SU

On one of her PowerPoint slides, Obear asked students to think about, in a nutshell, how supportive the current campus structure was toward supporting all students, and how effective leaders on campus were in terms of cultural competency. The crowd was to respond on a scale of 1 to 10.

Most of the ratings were from 3 to 5.

At the Student Diversity Summit, Obear spoke about eliminating microaggressions, which are everyday actions committed by people who — without any intent or malice — leave other people feeling negatively impacted.

Obear said her strategy through her work at SU is not to blame people, but to enable students to grow.

“Let’s just help each other improve this place together with humility, commitment and with passion,” she said.

She acknowledged that she herself is still learning about the oppression transgender people, people with disabilities and those with unique immigration statuses face.

“I don’t believe anyone is ever done,” she said.

Director of the Office of Residence Life Terra Peckskamp attended Obear’s keynote lecture on Friday. She said creating lasting solutions from Obear’s talk is something that can be done by students, faculty and staff by interrupting microaggressions.

Obear’s is not part of the university’s upcoming Diversity Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion. However, Kantrowitz said she would anticipate that Obear will be back for future workshops at SU.

At her keynote address in Hendricks Chapel on Friday, Obear spoke about the path to making SU a more inclusive place for students of all identities, and not just a university with a diversity committee.

Published on October 5, 2015 at 10:18 pm

Contact Rob: rromano@syr.edu