Last year, the Orange County Board of Supervisors declared racism a health crisis. One way to combat racism? Educating young people about the ill effects of biases, stereotypes and dehumanization—and empowering them to do something about it.

The UC Irvine Center for Racial Justice, approved in 2022, is working to do just that as a campus hub for various programs happening at UCI and beyond.

"We have a number of active social justice programs and research projects in the School of Social Sciences that are now collaborating under this new center structure," said founding co-director Teresa Neighbors.  “These activities, which aim to empower people to dismantle patterns of racism and injustice, work with a variety of constituents who wish to counter racial divides in favor of thriving communities.”

Advancing inclusive communities

The Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Healing Ambassadors program has been going on since 2017. It was established in response to widespread community unrest across the country, as witnessed in the events surrounding the Charlottesville protest. Primarily, DIRHA works with high school students and teachers to shed light on assumptions they may have about race and other identity points and to reduce intolerance. In addition to furthering participants' understanding of the effects of prejudice, the program gives them tools to better address equity and to promote greater inclusion in their communities.

"We now have a grant to expand that program and to place it in an online format that high schools outside of the Orange County area will be able to access and implement," said Neighbors. DIRHA's curriculum has also been expanded to incorporate anti-extremism.

Fostering dialogue and action

Then there's the Deconstructing Diversity Initiative, which has been going strong since 2015. The yearlong travel program meets weekly, with undergraduate participants going to various cities throughout the U.S.

"The program broadens participants' understanding of the role of race and all of its intersections, and gives them tools to better discuss and address issues of race in America," said Neighbors. "Following their travel experiences, their dialogues and academic enrichment, students create their own community change-agent projects to improve equity, inclusion and racial justice."

Promoting healing and belonging

Furthermore, UCI serves as a campus center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation. It hosts events on TRHT themes and applies the methodology to programs that fall under CRJ's purview.

"These TRHT efforts support people in transforming our campus and community through humanization, dialogue, and belongingness," said Neighbors.

Collaborating to create change

In all CRJ programming, community collaboration takes center stage. CRJ strives to amplify voices that are too often quieted and to actively engage with and support grassroots efforts in the Orange County community, instead of treating the community as a research subject. After all, CRJ is not a typical research center.

"We promote and include faculty that have related research,"  said Neighbors, but, "it's more of a collective."

In 2020, Neighbors—then a lecturer in the social sciences—pitched the center with global studies faculty member Long Bui.

"We found that a lot of our work and our passions aligned in terms of racial and social justice, and as our school is growing, there are a lot more faculty that are focused on racial justice and social justice, " she said. The two had co-directed a summer program together and saw a need for more organizational structure for the various efforts that were happening around racial justice.

Now run full-time by Neighbors and a faculty board headed up by Mamyrah Prosper - also from the global studies department - the center is developing new initiatives as it continues existing ones. This year, students who have already participated in these programs can now work with Neighbors and the faculty on a student board. There's also an inchoate program for advocates of racial and social justice; it will likely certify participants who have taken a certain number of courses, with opportunities for them to participate in a variety of development events.

On November 20, CRJ will host the first event of a three-part series called Let's Talk about Race. The fall event will feature a lunchtime panel with members of CRJ's faculty advisory board, who will share their experiences and insight. In the winter quarter, CRJ will have a grad-student-oriented event, and one in the spring will focus on undergraduates.

But first, Neighbors is excited for an October 28 event called People Talk, Music Speaks. Faculty, staff and students can all apply to attend the healing workshop, where they will discuss what an ideal UCI community looks like. Facilitated by Atlanta's Music in Common, the small group will then write song lyrics to convey what they come up with, followed by a jam session in the evening, called FodFest + UCI Jams with a chance to hear their lyrics performed.

"This is the first of several events sponsored by the Center that focus on healing and connecting–on bringing people together across the campus, particularly in light of the dividing events of last year," said Neighbors. "We're focusing on building community belonging and reducing fear and hate."

-Alison Van Houten for UCI Social Studies
-pictured: DDI students on an experiential learning trip to the Bay Area.