"Combating Ignorance with Councilwoman Lynne Kennedy " by Zhenwei G.

 

It is no secret that there is racial unrest in America. Anti-immigration fervor, the killing of George Floyd, and even anti-Asian sentiment brought on by the COVID 19 pandemic have fueled this tension. To Lynne Kennedy, Mayor Pro Tem of Rancho Cucamonga, the battle of combating prejudice and bigotry starts young.

Kennedy grew up hearing her father’s experience in a segregated army during the Korean War, though, she did not fully comprehend the concept of racism as a young girl as her parents have always disaggregated and minimized racist comments as just comments that are “rude, insensitive, and sometimes humiliating.” However, her naiveness was quickly changed: Kennedy was one of the first African American students bused to an all white school in San Bernardino City Unified School District in 1966, as a 7th grader. Reflecting back to her experiences in middle school, she says “Junior High is hard enough. But now I got this whole other layer that I'm the only black kid in the whole school. So the type of behavior that I experienced, my mom and dad never said they're going to hate you because of who you are and the color of your skin.”

The many discriminatory behaviors and comments experienced by Kennedy taught her to be more resilient, brave, and willing to utilize her voice to fight against hate, not just for herself but also for her group of friends she categorized as “misfits that nobody liked.” Furthermore, she learned how to deal with racist aggressions and comments intellectually: from analyzing the perpetrator's purpose in being discriminatory, to asking the questions such as “Why and what makes you say that? “What does that mean? Explain it to me,” and expressing trauma and rejecting the nebulous response “I was just kidding.”

After college, Kennedy became an educator, then an administrator, at the Rialto Unified School District, where she worked with young people of color and prioritized teaching other educators how to approach racial misconceptions. “I was in a position to truly ensure that the school environment was going to be safe for all students. And so I dealt with teachers collectively in terms of educating them, and what it means by their behavior, and what they were doing and how they were going to interact (with students),” Kennedy said.

She then passionately added that with proper encouragements from educators and opportunities for advancements, students of all backgrounds are equally intelligent and capable of learning. She also made sure that she is accessible for all students for conversations, whether on academics, student mental health, or discussions of uncomfortable comments made by peers and teachers, stating that “if students came to me, and I said, I'm available to you, you tell me anything anywhere. And you can't get in trouble.”

Kennedy further educated students at school by promoting diversity through speeches and activities during assemblies, school forums, and lunches. During her administration, Kennedy created the Socially Together & Naturally Diverse club on campus. Wanting students to learn about cultures of various different ethnic roots and to make students of all ethnicities feel included and embraced, Kennedy said that students from Socially Together & Naturally Diverse club organized celebrations of different cultures with the rest of the student body every month at noon-- from food, dances, to traditional clothing and more. “You don't just talk the talk, you walk the talk, and you make sure that what you say is represented, so that students understand what you mean by embracing diversity,” Kennedy said.

After retiring in 2012, Kennedy returned to work as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Education for San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. As she worked with school districts across the county to build partnerships among business, labor, government, community and education, she continued to emphasize the vitality of collaboration through a collective impact model to students and teachers of all backgrounds and cultures. Kennedy retired again in 2019,  culminating a 40-year career in education. As a firm believer that life is defined not only by one’s professional accomplishments but also giving back to the community, Kennedy is now dedicating her time serving as the councilwoman of Rancho Cucamonga and as member of the Hillside Community Church’s Board of Directors and Guests Services ministry team as she continues to utilize her voice to assist citizens of all background.

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I interviewed Mrs. Kennedy for an upcoming journalism production Unmasking Discriminatory Microaggressions, a topic that is both relevant yet neglected. So, for those who are not familiar with the term “microaggressions,” I hope you can get some additional insights from my research.

Microaggression was coined by Harvard professor Chester M. Peirce in the 1970s to describe the ways in which hate speech and bias could be veiled in everyday conversation. They have always been around, though it has not always been defined this way. The most recent categorization of microaggressions was done by Columbia professor Dr. Derald Wing Sue, in which microaggressions were organized into three categories:

Microassaults: explicit attacks marked by racial epithets and slurs

Microinsults: implicit negative racial stereotyping and generalization such as the questions “Where are you really from?” “You are xxx race, you must be xxx” etc 

Microinvalidations: communications that negate and nullify emotions, feelings, or experiential realities of people of color

 

Last but not least, I want to end my piece with this powerful statement from Mrs. Kennedy.

“I think we have to continue to educate people. And we have to stand up when we hear something in a way that's respectful so that people can know. And maybe asking, do you want to know why that hurt? Do you really want to know how that impacted me? And whether you would feel the same way as I do if I said something against you.” -- Lynne Kennedy