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Two nationally renowned speakers will be coming on campus next week to discuss an issue of great importance: racism.

Nathan Rutstein, author of “Healing Racism in America” and Dr. Joseph Feagin, author of “White Racism” will deliver several speeches on the topic of “Dismantling Racism: Building Community.” They will be speaking in the Grand Rapids area before several different audiences next week, appearing before lawyers, K-12 educators, clergymen, higher education educators and the community.

The speakers will make two appearances at Calvin, both on Tuesday of next week. Rutstein and Feagin will appear before a community crowd on April 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the Calvin FAC. “The purpose,” said McWhertor, “is to continue to whittle away at this pernicious racism that affects our lives.”

They will also address members of the West Michigan higher education on Tuesday from 3:00 - 5:00. According to Tom McWhertor, vice president for enrollment and external relations, plans call for representatives and educators from 10 area colleges to attend. Among these will be professors and administrators from Hope, Aquinas and Grand Valley.

According to Bob Reed, a counselor at the Broene Center, part of the reason for this is that there is significant economic and geographic segregation between blacks and whites in Grand Rapids: “Grand Rapids is statistically speaking considered to be fairly segregated – the black community is significantly poorer than the national average for blacks and the whites are significantly richer than the national average for whites.

“Geographically, the blacks are fairly segregated – you have an island of poor black people living in the centre of the city surrounded by a sea of well-to-do white people,” he said. “There isn’t a whole lot of outright racial violence, but the economic disparity is striking.”

McWhertor explained that Bob Woodrick, Chairman of D&W Foods, was at the Board of Trustees’ annual fall meeting last year. “He spoke on issues of racism and diversity and suggested that these speakers come to our campus. He also offered to provide them to the campus sometime when it might work,” said McWhertor. When Woodrick once again approached McWhertor several months ago telling him that the speakers were coming to town, McWhertor agreed to have them come to Calvin.

Economics and Business Professor Scott Vander Linde, who attended one of a series of seminars set up by Rutstein, described Rutstein’s philosophy. “He’s written several books that really address up front the whole notion of white racism and how to begin a process of healing from it,” said Vander Linde.

“In ‘Healing Racism in America,’ the punch line of the whole book is that we need to as communities address racism, and that has culminated in The Institutes for Healing Racism.”

Vander Linde went through one of these Institutes himself. “Basically [going through an Institute for Healing Racism] is an 8-12 week commitment for two-hour meetings once a week. The environment they try to create is an environment of trust between people of colour. There’s an explicitly integrated group of people where people can talk openly and honestly about their racism or how racism has affected them.

“In the context of a small group it was really about engaging each other to feel the racism that we sometimes want to hide under a bushel. It’s a pretty powerful experience,” said Vander Linde, who also noted that Director of Multicultural Student Development Michael Travis is an approved facilitator for these Institutes.

Looking ahead to next week’s seminars, Vander Linde expressed hope “that our community will be deeply challenged by this issue. I hope that it will start kind of a snowball effect for the campus to really confront and address issues of racism here.”

According to Reed, Feagin and Rutstein are “both stimulating, exciting, engaging and provocative speakers.”

“I’m pleased Calvin is going to do this,” added McWhertor, “because it demonstrates our commitment to dealing with racism straight on.”

The general public is invited to attend a free speech geared toward the entire community on Tuesday, April 27 and 7:00 p.m. in the FAC.