RBHS hosts 'Racial Healing Circle' event to encourage discourse on institutional, structural racism

Last Tuesday, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) held a virtual event called the "Racial Healing Circle" with the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center (TRHT) facilitated at Rutgers—Newark.

The event is part of a series and has a main focus of opening up conversations around race and identity and encouraging individuals to share their experiences with racial trauma.

"The goal of the center is to design programming to create the next generation of leaders — to dismantle institutional and structural racism through a shared humanity perspective," said Sharon Stroye, director of the TRHT at Rutgers—Newark. "One of the tools that we use is called the Racial Healing Circle."

Stroye said before the start of the pandemic, the event was conducted in an in-person, 3-hour format. In 2020, it was moved online due to concerns surrounding the pandemic and was condensed into a 90-minute format.

Sangeeta Lamba, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at RBHS, said the event was especially important during the pandemic and created a rise in awareness of issues surrounding race in America.

Lamba also said a focus was placed on having these conversations within the biomedical and health field specifically in order to better serve the community inclusively. The circles hosted by RBHS are conducted four times per year due to the ongoing need for this type of open conversation, she said.

"It was very important for (RBHS) where our mission is to serve the community, and the community looks different to the provider at any given time," she said. "There was this thing of 'How can I be better? How can I do better? ... I want to learn more. I want to do better.'"

Additionally, Lamba said the event also provides a space for medical workers to reflect, which many did not have during the height of the pandemic. The Racial Healing Circle allows them to discuss matters they typically do not get the chance to talk through in a professional environment.

Stroye also said while the Racial Healing Circle creates conversations about larger issues, such as microaggressions and biased research, institutions must also do more to solve core issues and create ongoing processes toward finding solutions.

The Racial Healing Circle is conducted in a format that begins with an introduction to acclimate participants into understanding the concept of having an open conversation and to establish a sense of community where individuals can be vulnerable, Stroye said.

Then, with the guided prompts, pairs are sent into breakout rooms and are asked to discuss topics of identity and then return to the rest of the group in order to reflect with a series of questions, Stroye said.

Though, Stroye said the virtual format of the event has created some barriers to its efficacy, such as the time reduction limiting the number of topics that can be covered as well as the engagement of participants.

"When we’re in person, people are willing to share their stories," Stroye said. "In Zoom, they are not. The stories that they shared in the breakout rooms, that's where they stay, and that’s okay. People are invited to share — they don’t have to."

Lamba said the organizers of the event have considered whether using the word "racial" in the event’s title drives individuals away from wanting to partake in the event. But she said it also prompts the question of whether those individuals would engage in the event even if the language is altered, she said.

Stroye said the goal is to get individuals to participate regardless, and if the title causes any individuals to refrain from partaking in the event, then the organizers would be open to changing some of the narrative.

"We have opted to keep the name Racial Healing Circle because this is what we're doing," Lamba said. "(Changing the name) is not just a 'this session' conversation. This is a dialogue which is even broader for us in higher education: How do you engage everyone?"

This topic of engaging everyone, especially those who are not willing to discuss core issues of race and identity is one that needs to be addressed on an even grander scale in higher education and should not be limited to the Racial Healing Circle, Lamba said.

"We need to have a conversation around humanity ... Those conversations, as (Lamba) mentioned, have not historically happened amongst diverse communities," Stroye said. "(This allows) for people — regardless of title, role — to be able to share for a few moments who they are. When you create that level of comfort in being able to connect with the people who you work with every day, now we can have more of those difficult conversations around policies that may be creating barriers for particular groups of students."