Former 暗网吃瓜 professors Valeria Sinclair-Chapman (left) and Anthea Butler (right) were the featured speakers at the University鈥檚 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address. Held on January 20 in the Feldman Ballroom, the address was billed as 鈥淎 Conversation Highlighting the Intersection of Social Justice and Religion,鈥� with Jeffrey McCune Jr., the director of Rochester鈥檚 , moderating the discussion.
Butler, a professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, noted how the injection of religion into politics has created division in the United States鈥攁 historical legacy that continues to this day. 鈥淲hat I want people to understand is that while people are talking about moral issues, they鈥檙e also talking about race, and you can鈥檛 escape that in America,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have to start realizing it鈥檚 not about good or bad religion, it鈥檚 what people are doing with religion.鈥�
Sinclair-Chapman, a professor of political science at Purdue University, added that institutions like universities play crucial roles in the movement against racism and oppression. 鈥淲hat kinds of questions do we need to ask? Where should we put our money that can bring these brilliant minds into leveraging against the questions that we鈥檙e actually facing in our local communities and frankly in the world?鈥� she asked. 鈥淭his is the work that we can do, and I think that it can begin鈥� that it ought to begin鈥攁t a place like Rochester. This is exactly the place where it should begin. It should be like a beacon.鈥�
Watch the 2023 MLK Commemorative Address
