Hello amazing beings of light, my name is Trent Day Hall and I hope this message finds you in happy, healthy, and high spirits.
Since we have all been stuck in the house I have noticed that people are more critically examining the things around them…AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL!
I truly believe that the silver lining to this difficult time is that it gives us the ability to identify and change things that harm or no longer serve us. There’s no better time than now to examine or reexamine structural/institutional racism so that we can fully understand how we have arrived at this reality.
I have had the honor of being trained on tours, breakdowns, presentations, and discussions on the “Undesign the Redline” exhibit. This exhibit breaks down America’s jaded history with race and the systems created after slavery to repurpose the outcomes of slavery for African Americans and other minoritized groups.
The primary focus is on the process of Redlining in 237 major US cities which dictated African American exclusion to fair housing, community resources, wealth, and achievement.
The material, the context I can give with my lived experience, and my sociological background help to connect the dots for many societal ailments that seem to exist inherently as opposed to being created by design to intentionally exploit and subjugate. For example living in a food desert vs. having an academic understanding of its yields different yet valid context; being able to draw on both presents the reality of lived experience.
I have had the opportunity to expose over 1,200 people to this information via discussion, tour, or presentation.
As a result, I have been asked to speak to how important it is for us to truly understand our history so that we may refine our present for the betterment of our future in the Baltimore Sun newspaper as well as on NPR (kojo Nnmadi show).
Hopefully this post will inspire you to give a bit more critical thought and energy to an inequity that was intentionally created and never remedied.
