"Overcoming 400 Years of Struggle — and Still We Rise" is the theme of the 2020 MTA Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee Conference.
The 41st annual conference — the first ever to be held virtually — will take place on Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5.
EMAC Chair Sharmese Gunn, senior resource specialist in the Gateway to College Program at Mount Wachusett Community College, said the event will focus on the struggles that ethnic minorities in the U.S. have faced for the past 400 years, as well as those that exist to this day.
Political turbulence and twin pandemics — COVID-19 and systemic racial injustice — have made this an especially difficult year for those from ethnic minority populations, Gunn said.
Shauna Manning, a member of EMAC and the Northeast president of the American Indian/Alaska Native Caucus of the National Education Association, said that two catastrophic periods ushered into the U.S. four centuries ago — the subjugation of Indigenous people as white Europeans arrived and began settling Plymouth Colony and the establishment of the slave trade in Jamestown, Virginia, a year earlier — were on the minds of committee members as they developed the theme of this year’s conference.
"Since 1620, when white colonists arrived in Massachusetts Bay and established permanent settlements, the hegemony of white settler colonialism has determined the lives and fates of peoples of color," Manning said.
Gunn said that like last year’s conference, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of EMAC’s creation, this year’s event will feature inspiring and uplifting moments as educators share their strengths.
"While we want to highlight the struggle we face as educators, we also want to emphasize that we are union strong," Gunn said. "When we work and organize together, we rise!"
Conference workshops and presentations will be free for all MTA members. The event will kick off at 6 p.m. on Friday evening with an Indigenous welcome by two EMAC members and greetings by MTA leaders.
A keynote address and entertainment will follow. Because several details about the conference were still being worked out as MTA Today went to press, those planning to attend are asked to watch massteacher.org/emac for registration information and updates.
On Saturday morning, the conference will open with the inspiring Maya Angelou poem "Still I Rise," followed by greetings from EMAC members and words of wisdom and empowerment.
A roundtable discussion will follow, featuring an MTA ethnic minority leadership panel.
Workshop topics will include ethnic minority leadership, fostering involvement in the union at the local, state and national levels, and specific issues that speak to the theme of the conference.
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