Truman Hudson, Jr., outreach coordinator for the College of Education in Teacher Education, quoted on Click on Detroit, “MLK Day: New Detroit on why we need to talk about race, how to move forward”
Click on Detroit, 1/17
MLK Day: New Detroit on why we need to talk about race, how to move forward
By Ken Haddad
As we commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., it’s important to remember the issues Dr. King fought to resolve, and how problems continue to persist today. In a special video presentation from New Detroit, titled ‘Conversations on Race,’ a group of local voices discuss the way forward on race relations, and share some of their experiences with racism. Truman Hudson, Jr., lecturer and outreach and marketing specialist in the division of teacher education at Wayne State University’s College of Education, is a featured speaker. Hudson says it’s important to talk about race, and structural and institutionalized racism. “…I’m always fighting for positionality that I work with and work for. Not just Black men, but Black women, brown men and brown women, red men and red women. It’s like there’s these racially perceptions of what we can’t do, and when we show up and show out, that can’t be,” he said. “We’re the anomaly – no, there are more of us. You’re just not opening up the doors for us to participate in the conversation. And when you do open up the doors, you want us to speak a certain way, look a certain way, and have a certain tonality when we deliver our presentations. And, don’t let me come across too forceful…so I have to temper my delivery, because if I don’t temper my delivery or firm up my look, there’s a perception that I’m coming across too aggressive…So, I’m always on guard…”