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Mackenzie Glaser

Conference Reflections

March 9th 2019

Pre-Conference Film Screening and Discussion

When reflecting on the experience of watching this Documentary as well as discussing it

afterwards with one of the key members of the Black Panther Party, I could only describe it as a

perfect warm up to this entire conference. Learning about the Black Panthers and their

movement definitely opened my eyes to how little I actually knew about this particular

movement and the progression they wanted to see in the world. When starting the video, I

realized I knew very little about the Black Panther Party such as its origins and mission. I was

extremely surprised to know about the humanitarian projects they did and honestly made me

realize how whitewashed education systems are. When looking back in school I remember only

learning of the names of the movements and not this side of the Black Panthers, let alone all the

positive impacts they made in the community. I also was extremely pleased to find out that they

were working to promote equality in a lot of different ways not expressed in the education

system. This also made me think about how institutional racism plays a role in the attempt to

resist solidarity in the African American community. This lack of education among youth in the

education system is extremely troubling to me due to the fact that it was made clear that

knowledge is power and that is exactly what we are lacking. The other thing that really got me

thinking was the fact that the struggles that the Black Panther Party was trying to fix are still

happening today. It made me think about how the movements that are either still in place today

or that have surfaced such as the Black Lives Matter Movement are similar in the goal of having
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equal rights and continuing on what the Black Panthers and other revolutionaries of that era

started.

Hyper masculinity: The Silent Killer of the Black Man

For this concurrent session, I heard about how much hyper masculinity affects black men

especially. While hyper masculinity is a huge issue in general, I thought it was interesting to see

how it can have serious health issues on black men as well as have an effect on behavior and

decreased sensitivity as time goes on. The things I did not think about was the pressure to

support the family and being discouraged from showing emotion in order to do that. This has to

do with the limited resources available in the lower class and the increased probability that black

people are a part of this group. This has to do with the fact that institutions make it harder for

black people to achieve the same things as white people. This session also pointed out that it

makes black men more likely to suffer from health problems due to the increased amount of

stress due to the expectation of providing for your family and others and that pressure to succeed.

The black man also has to deal with the whole stigma to not be “soft” or show emotion so

dealing with emotions can be dealt with in unhealthy ways as well as leads to desensitizing of

emotions which can lead to a bad stereotype for black men. This concurrent session led me to

think about how institutional racism plays a huge part in stereotyping black men. The fact that

institutions make it harder for black men get better opportunities and force them into a role of

being hard and hustling all the time, got me thinking how ingrained in society these ideas

actually are. One thing that made me think was the benefit of showing black men how to

properly deal with emotions instead of just bottling them up and eventually having them lead to

desensitization. The fact that some of the panelists and people in the audience are teaching young
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boys this as well as being aware and knowledgeable about this subject makes me hopeful for the

future generation.

Closing Brunch Speaker: Leslie Redman

For the closing brunch speaker Leslie Redman, the youngest president of the Twin Cities

NAACP, came to speak to us about how, now more than ever, we need to speak up against

inequality. During the course of the speech she explained how communication, collaboration,

and compassion are essential in order to address racial inequalities. She explained how not

remaining silent, especially while in situations of oppression, is essential of both allies and the

people experiencing it. The second thing she mentioned was how collaboration is important due

to the necessity to create solidarity and help each other out and be on the same page to make a

difference to the current system. Lastly, she told us about compassion and how we need to foster

love with more love and not hate. This aspect of compassion and communication really hit home

for me. I thought about how it is really important to be able to talk to people that are different

from you and how easy it is to hate or be afraid of them. This is especially true if you don’t make

the effort to educate yourself on the issues of others or try to get to know people on a personal

level and understand their struggles. This featured speaker definitely was inspirational due to the

fact that she was the youngest president ever of the NAACP Twin Cities. I thought it was great

that she as a younger person seeks to address the institutional problems especially in the law.

This made me think about how people always see problems such as this as a large problem that

isn’t easily solvable and that young people can’t do a whole lot. This made me reflect on how I

want to apply these aspects of change to my future in the criminal justice system. I believe that I

definitely need to do a lot more to be able to help marginalized people in corrections but this is

definitely a good step.

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