Dr. David Stovall advocates for collective commitment to anti-racist work

Photo by — Adriana Briscoe

The U.S. is battling not just one, but three pandemics: white supremacy, capitalism, and COVID-19, and the first two have been largely ignored, according to Dr. David Stovall, a faculty member in the Department of Criminology, and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago. 

Stovall gave a speech called “Now is the Time for Critical Race Theory: Chaos, Community and Radical Propositions for Education,” at Elmhurst University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Intercultural Lecture on Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. in the Founders Lounge.

Stovall investigates critical race theory, the intersection between housing and education, and the intersection between race, place, and school. In addition, he works with community organizations and schools to confront challenges regarding equity, justice, and the school-prison nexus. 

In his lecture, Stovall argued that a collective effort to confront America’s racist history head-on, rather than running away from it, is needed.  

He addressed current events regarding debates over critical race theory, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ criticisms of the theory being taught in schools and the College Board’s ban of its A.P. curriculum for African American studies, noting that, “the folks in Florida are running from something.” 

In an interview with The Leader, Stovall emphasized the importance of openly talking about America’s racist past. 

“We need to talk about enslavement, we need to talk about genocide, we need to talk about wrongful land appropriation, we need to talk about the resistance to those things,” Stovall explained. 

He continued, “So, for me, those are the things we shouldn’t be running from, but we should be going right into them and actually getting a deeper conversation about.”

In addition, he talked about the importance of listening to what young people have to say about the issues that are affecting them, and junior Le’Tavia Hill, president of Black Student Union, resonated with this point.  

“We are definitely living in different times where I think it’s key to listen to not only the younger kids but for the younger kids to also listen to the adults so that we can have a nice balance of knowledge.” Hill wrote in an email to The Leader. 

Freshman Varun Sekar felt that the lecture taught him the importance of advocacy for critical race theory.  

“My takeaway from this is that it’s [critical race theory is] a very dense topic with a very simple premise and that the more we advocate it, the more we can understand perspectives of race and how we can make it a safer place for everyone — students and everyone included.”

Sophomore Bobby Zita felt drawn to the opportunity to learn more about critical race theory. 

“It’s definitely a topic that has a lot of controversy around it, and I feel like any time that it gets brought up, nobody ever addresses what it is,” Zita said. “They just use it as a method to argue about, so I thought it would be interesting to get some clarification and hear a professional talk about what critical race theory really is and what it means for all of us.” 

In regards to addressing racial inequities, Stovall believes that attentiveness and commitment are essential during this time. 

“We have to pay attention to what’s happening,” Stovall said in an interview with The Leader. “We can’t fear it, but we have to be willing to resist and also commit ourselves to doing the work of justice in a time where that may not be thought of as good or approved.”