RAARE Conference's real problem: The event seeks profit, not racial equity and change

The RAARE (Radical Action Advancing Racial Equity) Conference, which centers on white women and their relationship with race, has raised several understandable questions in Louisville. Predictably, myopic people are (and will) use this conference, whose focus is admittedly very odd, as a cudgel to bludgeon any true efforts to speak to racial stratification, and specifically anti-Blackness, in Louisville and Kentucky. The blowback from the RAARE conference on Louisville Metro Government Mayor Craig Greenberg and chief equity officer Joi McAtee, who was one of Greenberg’s most outstanding hires, will make their work in this area harder as ill-intentioned critics will cast aspersions upon them.

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Kentucky is the seventh whitest state in the country and its deep-seated racial problems need more mature exploration, not less. The real issue here is not that Louisville Metro provided funding to a conference that purported to help address race. In fact, political leaders should use parts of their budgets to partner with experts to help move education, discussions, policies and strategies to help educate communities and bridge the yawning racial chasm, even if, in some instances, the offerings are from for-profit organizations.

The $20,000 that was distributed to RAARE is a pittance. Similar government contracts that dole out much more money actually happen a lot in areas beyond race. The real question here is, who is best suited to do this particular work? In answer to that query, it is ultimately reasonable and preferable to default to expert scholars who have dedicated their lives to studying race if one wants to have serious conversations and educational experiences centering on it.

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Louisville has expert scholars dedicated to race equity and education

If credible conversations or trainings on race are really desired in Louisville, maybe consult Dr. Tomarra Adams over at Bellarmine University. She’s probably the most skilled institutional diversity officer in the area. She isn’t a Johnny-come-lately to this terrain. She is a terminally degreed scholar and administrator who has done yeoman’s work at the university level for decades, constructing programs and pipelines that have yielded notable results. Ironically, one of her areas of expertise is race, women and gender.

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While the University of Louisville could do better on race, especially in dealing with anti-Blackness, one feather in its cap is the Department of Pan-African Studies. That department is celebrating its 50th anniversary and houses scholars who deal with race, gender and sexuality, literature, ethnomusicology, politics, continental African history, African American history, education, anthropology, religion, and more. Give them a call.

If you’re more comfortable with Cats than Cards, there is a great cadre of scholars at the University of Kentucky. Reach out to professors like History chair Dr. Anastasia Curwood, who recently wrote a powerful book on Shirley Chisholm or the school’s Director of African American Studies, Dr. Vanessa Holden, who has done fascinating work on Nat Turner and the times in which he lived. There are a host of others there, including Dr. Derrick White and the eminent past Kentucky poet laureate Professor Frank X. Walker. Experts all.

It should also be noted that while some regard the RAARE conference that Louisville Metro decided to support (for whatever reason) as suspect, McAtee is a talented, committed professional who is wholly dedicated to the issues in question. Full disclosure, that commitment is what led her to reach out to the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and partner with us in launching our Baldwin-King Project, which will begin programming in 2024. Importantly, all of our offerings will be free to the public.

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Look for experts who did race equity work before DEI was cool

When seeking credible people in this area, it also makes sense to ask and research what individuals and organizations were doing before diversity, equity and inclusion was temporarily made in vogue in 2020 after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The aftermath certainly opened the door for a plethora of pretenders who try to pass themselves off as high-level intellectuals who have been in the vanguard of this work for some time. They are not and have not. That’s problematic because racial problems in Kentucky and beyond run too deep to be left in the hands of dabblers and profiteers who can only offer surface level engagement.

When questioned about the exorbitant price-point of her conference ($750 to $1500), RAARE founder and organizer Nikki Lanier responded, “The price tag is what it is. I’m in business.” It may be true that Ms. Lanier is a fine businesswoman and marketer. However, she is more than likely out of her depth when it comes to sophisticated analyses of myriad aspects of the history and contemporary reality of racial stratification. These issues are too serious to be left to good marketers who are wedded to making a profit; we need great minds who are wedded to making a change.

Serious experts on race won’t offer “fed up” white women or anyone else absolution or encourage them to lean into “white savior” roles in the way Ms. Lanier seems to, but they will offer legitimate information born of solid research, analyses and truth. That’s what we really need to move forward.

Dr. Ricky L. Jones is the Baldwin-King Scholar-in-Residence at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Follow him on Threads, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville race conference deserves criticism for expertise, not money