By Julio Sanchez
Adelante First Year Experience Program held its final Social Justice Platica with its sixth guest speaker, Dr. Daniel Solorzano and his presentation on the impact of racial micro-aggression.
Adelante FYE student ambassador, Joe Gama who was a part of organizing the event mentioned that the presentation with Solorzano will be closing the series which was started in the fall semester of last year.
The presentation covered how to identify racial micro-aggression, how to respond to it and what impact it has on a person.
Solorzano also made it clear that the presentation is intended to focus on the victim of micro-aggression and how it has been directed towards race, gender, class and sexuality.
Solorzano wanted to answer two questions throughout his presentation. “What are micro-aggressions and why do they matter?”According to Solorzano, many people of color who deal with some form of racial micro-aggression suffer from racial battle fatigue which is the feeling of being stressed and angry from having to deal with racism. Many people of color tend to do more poorly in their academics and start to doubt themselves which leads to them suffering from Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome is when an individual starts to police themselves by deciding to avoid certain areas and spaces because they feel as if they don’t belong there.
Not only did the presentation inform the audience about the different ways to identify racial micro-aggression, but it also focused on how to respond to it in a progressive manner.
The presentation mentioned how dealing with racism may discourage some people but it also mentioned about how racism has sparked resistance against the concept of white supremacy and all the hate that it perpetuates through a racist mentality.
Solorzano talked about how throughout the years many groups have created spaces and organizations that aim to help people of color with academics, health and with social networking.
Solorzano concluded his presentation with key notes that he tried to convey throughout the presentation.
“We need to educate ourselves to understand the nature of executional and everyday racism,” Solorzano said. “We need to acknowledge and disrupt the disports of racial micro-aggressions in the everyday and in every space you find yourselves.”
Adelante has other events coming up in the near future with the first one being on April 23 to April 26, which is the pride week where they will advocate for LGBT on campus and provide workshops on how to become an ally.
The second event is happening in May which is a hip-hop summit that connects hip-hop and social justice advocacy as one.
The event took place on Thursday at noon in the multi-purpose room located on the second floor of the F5 building.