 Okay, welcome everyone. Today. I have a truly inestimable honor Good, I got that word out. Yeah Of having with us and not only Sandra Sam's one of my favorite people in the whole entire world It retired judge from here Neither shy nor retiring in any mental emotional spiritual sense of the word a true truth teller truth seeker And Dean Danielle Conway of Penn State Dickinson law Formally of a whole bunch of places Which i'm going to let you look up on your bio because I don't want to take any time away from letting these two incredible women share their thoughts their insights and perspectives So Sandra, do you have access to Danielle's letter? I do I actually have it in front of me and We thought that might be a good way to start And yeah, you don't want to read it I was going to let you do that Okay, I will read it then. I'm honored to read it. It just I read it last Fortunes of it and it just brought tears to my eyes. I'll tell you This is a piece that Danielle wrote for the Dickinson Dickinson school of law community and it ended up being published in the I guess in the local papers in Pennsylvania as an opinion piece and it sort of spread around And this is what she wrote I will disclose to you what I am experiencing as a black woman Living through a pandemic that is killing our brothers and sisters and yes Disproportionately killing our black brothers and sisters I will disclose to you what I am experiencing as a wife to an African man and mother to a black son Fighting the peril paralysis that handcuffs me when they leave my sight I will disclose disclose to you what I am feeling as a veteran Who has served her country for 27 years because I am a patriot But hearing a president discount me for my race and my gender I will disclose to you what I am feeling as the daughter Of a dead father who was a police officer who bed blood blue and perpetrated many of the ills we rebuke in this very moment I will disclose to you what I am experiencing as a black woman Leading at Penn State Dickinson law where students, staff, faculty and administrators are working at this very moment to act to support vulnerable members of our community Today, I am a member of that vulnerable group and while I would do anything to shield you from this pain It is likely that you may one day be vulnerable too I am exasperated Disconsolate and infuriated by seemingly never ending acts of overt and covert racism As well as near impenetrable institutions in American society that build their foundations on the defundation of black bodies and psychies Racism is an incessant malady and a scourge to all of humanity In this way, I am a member of that vulnerable group and I will disclose to you what I am experiencing in this very moment Not one of us is safe All of this said I stand on the right side of justice knowing who I am and from where I come I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors who are also your ancestors The Emmett Till's the Stephen Bicoats the Polly Murray's the Frederick Douglass's the Ida B. Wells And so on and on I stand with allies who use their privilege To place a human shield between justice and injustice I stand up and speak out Knowing that it places me and my beloved family within the sights of those who have lost their humanity I stand and persevere because to do otherwise Would be to give up on humanity and the power and the promise of the rule of law I disclose this last truth I believe in each one of you and your individual and collective abilities to use this moment And the skills you are learning as law students to banish injustice inequality racism and sexism You are the reason I can compartmentalize my fears and bracket my breaking heart We have the power to stop killing people We have the power to stop weaponizing white privilege against black people We have the power to protect black mothers From the constant assaults on their psyches that come from knowing their black son's bodies can be snatched from their arms We have the power to love one another To respect one another and to be decent to one another We now need the will I remain always in service to you To my country And to the rule of law Please reach out to me for anything. I'm sorry Me too, right Oh my gosh Okay, okay, what that letter does and what it makes me ask you Peniel and thank you so much um My late grandfather from a small town in northern Louisiana I have once said Tears are just the heart overflowing Maybe that's a good thing What that letter I think does and leads me to ask you is How do we as you did so eloquently in that letter connect The vulnerability and humanity that should bond us not divide us Well, just what you did it's to tap into each other's hearts and souls and you know, I learned that absolutely completely in hawaii just the outpouring of love and respect for ohana And to open yourself to vulnerabilities That many of which are not your own but the vulnerabilities of others And to tap into your authenticity and your honesty And those things are are just fundamental for understanding how we Regain and accelerate our humanity How do we get people to share that? authentically I think the approach to use is to To sit with yourself I don't think we spend enough time sitting with ourselves. So when I wrote that I had to really closet myself I had my son in one room I had my husband in another and I had to literally Go away from them so that they would not see me crying Trying to get this out and also knowing I had to speak to the community that I'm leading You had to speak I had to had to speak I had to and so I went Somewhere by myself And really pondered each and every word of that letter Because I had to tell them as a leader That I was vulnerable that I was hurting That I was scared That I was angry But I had to tell them in a way that they could feel hope Toward the end of it that they could help me And I was fortunate in spending that time alone To actually believe what I was writing Because if I didn't believe it They would know I mean it was it was I mean it was easily to know that it was so deeply from your heart I said when I read it to chuck last week just we just did a portion of it and you know, I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of a mess here right now, but actually when I read it at home I felt I felt that that intensity and what and getting to chuck's point an important piece of it is also that you are in A position that you can share That perspectives and that is one of the things that we actually can do chuck Being in those positions where you can bring that perspective and that viewpoint of You know a black woman a lawyer a mother a wife A veteran and all the other and all the other titles and things that we carry and helping people to understand That we're basically all in this together. We're talking to you. We're talking all human beings. We're not separate You know from each other. We're all connected and so the success of our society is going to depend on all of us because we all wear all these different hats and different perspectives It's important for us to see each other that way rather than just seeing you standing off in the corner as the dean right, you know or the lawyer or the judge or whatever position is and not I'm not allowing people to see past that right to see past that wall that separates Granted, we still have our roles to do and our things things to carry out But we're still human and we're still human beings and so the humanity That we all share together Has to come out and and the more we have situations that allow for that Like in what you've done. Chuck what you're doing with this with this program We have those situations and opportunities for people to share that humanity. I think it helps us to connect better and understand each other better and see each other as Together as all of these things right off and all of these things. Yeah made up of so many experiences And so many attributes. We are not all just one thing Yeah No, none of us. None of us none of us Yeah And I think one of the things daniel that I especially want to thank you for the first two people in the world That I sent your letter to when I read it My daughter in Boston my son here To share with their children And to talk to them about it what it means where it comes from To give those Families those children the chance to connect their vulnerability To their humanity to each other Because maybe you have the heart of the matter. Maybe it is through our vulnerability Acknowledge respected honored understood that we can best connect with each other Absolutely and no better place to have this letter land Then in hawaii with so many people I consider family Who nursed me through so many? Miscarriages and finally to come up with my son born at capi alani women's and children I mean Yeah, and we call him the last egg because that's true. He was the last egg Mine too Right and all of you got me through that And so what better place than this letter to wind up as as in a figurative letter in a bottle A lot of that was a love letter to hawaii Yeah We felt it Danielle, can you tell us a little bit? about your Project your anti-racism reaching out project So everything's born out of necessity and also pain So I was together on a zoom call with four other black women law deans And we were really trying to nurse one another through the drafting of our various Letters to our communities And I showed them a picture of A collage of the black men and women and children Who were killed by police impunity And I said I can't get this these pictures out of my head, which is why it's called pictures in my head Because I transposed those pictures of those people who had been killed by police Up against the 40 plus law deans who identify as black Or african-american And I said but for the grace of god Allah Your spirit whomever you pray to but for the grace of that that could be us and so We said we have to do something about this. We have to stand up as as Sandra said we're in these positions And so if we're in these positions, we are required to stand up and speak And so the a al s law deans anti-racist clearinghouse project was born out of that despair And the need to stand up in these positions of leadership And I can tell you I mean it just came pouring out. We we got that site up and running in less than two days really I've looked at some of the work there. Yeah, and it's it's phenomenal And it's a process, right? It's not just a list of solidarity statements It's a process of listening of learning of leading of auditing our institutions To see if we are active as anti-racist And then the one of the important last steps of that process is the iterative process to just do it all over again because You don't just become anti-racist by saying it No, you become it by action and constant vigilance And it's all of us All of us even black people have trained been trained That institutional racism Is a construct that we must operate in And one has to ask oneself why Why do I have to operate in a institution that is racist So that's what it was born out of Yeah Wow, that's powerful. That's I read some of the pieces that they're that are included there and it's I am I am I'm so pleased that first off that you are there and in that position One of the things that we talked about at the last session was you know the importance of a diversity in the positions That make a difference in our society. We talked about it from the perspective of You know for for for judges for For those in the legal profession for lord that that perspective is so Necessary for a society That is diverse Because each of us brings just like we talked about the different Titles and places that you hope each of us brings All of who we are to that position And it is it is impossible to Almost it's you can you can certainly compartmentalize but those perspectives and those viewpoints and those life experiences coupled with your With your education and training Bring an entirely Necessary perspective to all that we do as society and it's that's the thing that's going to make it so that we can bring our humanity to To practice and so we can do it that I remember This was years ago one of the Some of you you probably remember him chief chief police Michael Nakamura And I knew him from Many years I was working with the city and I the police department says one of the agencies I've worked with at corporation council and so I knew him from those days when he was not the chief But here was a person who actually at least to me just from that experience Who brought that sense of the humanity to what he did as chief of police? And I think those of you that got to know him you kind of knew that when he retired One of the things that he used to do Because he had He came to a point where he was not able to walk and he was in a wheelchair And so one of the things that he would do And this is the chief of police and he knew who he was retired chief of police Who's riding around on a scooter with a bouquet of roses? In downtown Honolulu along Bishop Street And if you saw someone that you know, you knew or maybe somebody he didn't know To say hello and present them with the rose now he's in Bishop Street everybody, you know, this was Wait, isn't that chief Nakamura? You know But it was just his way of you know, it was a person who cared a person with demonstrating humanity from a place where You know, he had obviously considerable authority and ability To carry out the work that he did as a as a chief of police But again, there was the humanity that he expressed in doing that and I always did always touch me. I was like Make you can't do you can't keep just riding around giving out roses to people people. You can so police don't do that But but again, I mean, I'm not minimizing, you know, the work of police but Again, we're talking about the humanity that needs to be expressed in all that we do And understanding that we connect with each other because we're all connected in that way Yeah That's my two cents So where do we go from here? There's so many ways to go from here and that's what I'm excited to actually talk about There's not one way to solve this problem That's that in itself is a strength There are so many ways to come at this There is educating ourselves all of ourselves right, one of the things I tell people is that in High school and middle school and Undergraduate school, I was never taught this history right I was fortunate. I had great Teachers who taught me other people's history. Elie Weisel Other important writers and authors Hannah Arendt. I was very fortunate And I'm able to transfer that knowledge now with what I'm teaching myself About those who came before me So the things that we can do are to really immerse ourselves In all people's origin stories again, something I learned in hawai That being here 15 years and doing a full bright in australia And in autearoa with the Maori with the aboriginal and tori straight islanders with the the People in micronesia and macronesia and everything I learned in japan and china and mongolia and keep going Those were training grounds for me to learn about other people's origin stories And then I was able to approach my own After learning about all of those other important stories And so that's been the beauty of it and we can we can educate ourselves About so many histories Yeah, I think yeah those points The essential critical importance Of putting diversity equity and inclusion at the front At the foundation Honoring those building on those welcoming Mm-hmm I think you're exactly right the vulnerability and humanity connect best When those elements diversity equity and inclusion are served as It's absolutely it's absolutely important. It's absolutely necessary. It's just absolutely necessary Yeah, and I really want to say the conduit of that came from The host culture, you know being able to even Learn that and accept that came from the immersion in the native hawaiian culture And that's not to romanticize it, but it's to say These are are people who are justice warriors Yeah, they have a lot to teach About learning your own history And absolutely thank goodness I had that exposure And that's a really important point Because I think it brings to mind a phrase a friend once shared That really registers now. He said check What's the difference between humanity and equality? One vowel and a couple of consonants We need to get past that we need to see that those come from the same room Mm-hmm And we need to do exactly what both of you are talking about Which is not to try and pretend we're a melting pot and we're all Converging toward some Model of sameness. It is exactly that diversity rep reppling your foot. It's so well Hawaii the salad bowl Dicon cucumbers cilantro everything everything has a value. Everything has a place Mm-hmm We need to learn to do exactly what you are talking about which is to honor exalt Cultivate nurture that diversity that equity that inclusion In each of us and among us How does your project Danielle proposed to do that So we propose to do it by first standing up and and leading and understanding the power of our own voices So we actually did do that so many of our lauding colleagues were standing and writing in solidarity We said hold on Hold on. We're not doing this to see who writes the best letter About george floyd's killing We're doing this because We have humanity to save And we needed our colleagues to listen to their black dean colleagues to first Feel our pain As we were talking earlier. There are so many ways to tap into that pain to begin to understand someone's journey And so our our colleagues listened to us. It was fabulous. They said you're right. That's a first step Acknowledgement That there is a pain and that pain It's coming from irrational behavior called white supremacy Called white hierarchy And that is not humanity so that acknowledgement is the perfect place to start Hey Yeah, sundra I think we're seeing that kind of acknowledgement beginning, you know, with so much occurring around the country so many incidents It's starting with that and I think there is this collective Acknowledgement that there is a serious Issue in this country in this society in this world That absolutely has to be addressed at its core It we cannot just put you know icing on it and just cover it up and just you know Do some reform kind of things we are talking about the need to acknowledge what we have and then from there to begin structural change structural change basically starting Some places starting all over again And I'm acknowledging the humanity of all of us as we began to rebuild and now with this statement a faulty foundation Will always collapse Yeah, thank you both so much It's a shame that we're out of time today, but we will continue this in a couple of weeks And let's leave us. We are joined at the heart and the hip in music as well Let's leave this with a tribute and image to that incredible young 12 year old man Who has shared his song and it's gone worldwide? About exactly what you're talking about joining humanity through our shared vulnerabilities and hope Thank you both so much Let's do this again Aloha And mahala dania it's good to see you both again