When confronting the past, the question becomes: which parts of the past will represent the 真理?
There are five principal components to our university’s plan for racial reconciliation: 1) 研究, 2) report, 3) dissemination, 4) discussion, and 5) determination. 我将 一次写一个.
从 研究 may sound obvious, but it is not obvious unless it is noticed.
Consider this recent interaction with my students:
我走进教室. It is the first day of classes, and after a long break, many students are impatient, anxious to navigate the final major obstacle of the spring 暑假前的一个学期在向我们招手.
Now, there is some pressure, as many of the students are here in this classroom solely
依靠口碑的力量. Many have been told this is a class that they absolutely
do not want to miss; that this class will always deliver something unexpected and
非传统.
睁大眼睛他们被告知.
我吸收了这个压力. 我全部吸进去，然后慢慢地呼出来. 我庄严地走着 到教室前面去. I survey the multicolored faces looking at me with 怀疑和期待交织在一起. 请原谅我的陈词滥调，但我几乎听得见 一根针掉下来. Once the silence reaches a crescendo, I measuredly place a hand into my 口袋，同时眼睛盯着课堂. 我让学生们看到我做到了 抽出一支墨水笔. I extend my arm and hold the pen several feet off the ground.
我张开手，让笔掉了下来.
After the pen hits the floor and rolls to a stop, I finally speak and say, "A pen 就掉在地上了. 告诉我发生了什么事."
接下来发生的事情简直令人惊叹. 我指示学生们结对 and work together to write a brief history of what has just happened, preparing it to share with the class, and the buzz in the room becomes palpable. 也许是这样 the pressure to perform; as I walk around the room I hear exasperated chatter over 我们如何才能把故事写对!"
As each pair of students takes turns standing before the class, several revelations 变得明显. 首先，历史可以把我们联系在一起. 互动的程度相当 high —perhaps because this exercise takes a group of perfectly good strangers and helps them 看到 that they have shared something in common: a memory. 笔尖变成了 the 时刻 in time that bonds the students in memory and in sets in motion a future bond for a group that will come together twice a week at the same time each week.
I observed how my innocuous question appears to spark an innate sense of 真理-看到king as each pair took hold of the recent past and described how it came to be in the present 时刻. 每个小组都想把事情做好. 准确性是他们追求的核心. I marveled at how history means something different to each of us.
In other words, we can 看到 同样的道理, but not 看到 同样的道理. 我是什么意思??
As you may have guessed, no two pairs presented the same story. 事实上，每个人都是 历史是不同的. There were different starting points of the historical recap, there were different points of emphasis and there were different versions of the facts 提供.
We are required to 研究 using more voices if we dare to tell the whole entire 真理.
It was fascinating to 看到 how the same historical 时刻 the group experienced simultaneously 却经历了不同的经历. 尽管所有人都出席了，但并不是所有人都出席了 在同一时间看同样的东西. 换句话说，我们共度了一段时光，但是 did not necessarily share the same specific memory.
This story encapsulates many of the challenging questions we must confront as we contemplate how to create a 研究 plan for exploring our past as an institution.
We want to conduct as thorough a survey as possible, however, even in our 研究 plan, we must consider the potential limitations of our attempts to approach the past 准确地. Not everyone will remember shared historical 时刻s in the same manner. This is why a multiplicity of voices will be helpful. 就像掉笔一样 one person's account — while not necessarily inaccurate — simply cannot 准确地 传达整个教室的经历. 各种各样的重叠， distinct voices provide a more comprehensive picture.
Thus, we are required to 研究 using more voices if we dare to tell the whole entire 真理.
作为 研究奴隶制的大学, an international consortium of more than 60 schools coming to grips publicly with the darker chapters of their past, TCU is somewhat unique in that enslaved labor was not directly responsible for our school’s construction and therefore has a more attenuated 与奴隶制的联系.
But our school is no stranger to the fissures of racism. 我们是为数不多的机构之一 among the consortium reconciling with contemporary history (student protests and demands as recent as January 2020) in our public report. 大多数其他学校都没有 他们最近的历史. 通过虚拟市政厅会议，比如 “评估Allyship & Whiteness” held in January 2021, TCU indicates not only its willingness to grapple with the past, but a preparedness for engaging multiple perspectives 如何建设一个新的未来.
因此，任务摆在我们面前. 去发现真相的所在.