It’s hard to capture the fire in Alex Bernadotte’s voice when you hear her describe our country’s urgent need to reimagine higher education.

Her anger is righteous, she is impossibly sure, and it’s clear she’s undeterred by any obstacle she encounters in her fight for the young people she serves. What’s even more evident is that her clarity and fuel come from a place that is both incredibly communal and deeply personal.

As our country mourns with Asian and Pacific Islander American communities across the country, as we grieve with the families of slain Black and brown children, women, and men, and as we attempt to enact policies that attack the racism underlying this violence, we must also take time to define what a different society could look like for those most affected by this brutality. At the center of this work is an urgent need to reimagine the concepts of integration and coalition building.

On Monday, February 22, the second cohort of our Nexus fellows started their year-long journey together by (virtually) gathering for their first residency week. At a time in our history when leaders and organizations are desperate for equity-centered connection that fosters true and lasting change grounded in humanity, focused on equity, and rooted in liberation, these 28 fellows and their organizations have made the commitment to take bold and deliberate action — investing the time, resources, effort, and reflection that will intentionally shape their post-pandemic future. 

Today, The Equity Lab is proud to announce the 28 leaders who will make up the 2021-22 cohort of the selective Nexus Fellowship. The 2021-22 Nexus Fellows represent 14 organizations and now join a growing network of non-profit, philanthropic, corporate, and civic leaders looking to address race and equity issues in their communities.

Across the world, we’ve witnessed uprisings over a range of human injustices; in the United States, we have struggled to reconcile the legacy of race and racism in our own country. At the heart of this awakening is a deeper understanding about how the language we use and the history we teach either upholds or helps to undo the injustices in our society. Once we allow ourselves to examine the factors that distance us from the oppression and pain of the people around us — once we shed the barriers those words erect — we are freer. Language drives our behaviors, and it is an indication of what we value — both individually and collectively. 

Talking about race is challenging. Talking about race is arduous. Talking about race requires bravery. Talking about race necessitates preparation. And we start each of these hard conversations with an invitation to each person. We invite them to examine how they are showing up with love.

If we have any hope of living up to the promise of this incredible moment of social upheaval, we must address the violence in schools with the same fervor we’re directing towards the violence in the streets.

You can see it in the weary, glazed-over looks of your friends’ children on Instagram. Or in the hilarious quotes parents post about homeschooling on Twitter. Children, too, are tired of sitting in the house each day looking at their siblings, learning from their parents and their disembodied electronic teachers, and being unable to see their friends.

You can see it in the weary, glazed-over looks of your friends’ children on Instagram. Or in the hilarious quotes parents post about homeschooling on Twitter. Children, too, are tired of sitting in the house each day looking at their siblings, learning from their parents and their disembodied electronic teachers, and being unable to see their friends.

In every part of our country where COVID-19 data is being recorded and disaggregated, racial disparities have emerged that look eerily similar to those at play in 1918.

As the world we thought we knew unravels around us, our place in that world — our privileges, our abilities, and our limitations — become abundantly clear. Without functioning schools, a viable health care system, or news and leadership we can trust, the cracks in our systems widen, revealing not only the dysfunction, but also, finally, allowing the light in.

At The Equity Lab, we are actively working to both support our community as they grapple with current challenges and to anticipate and prepare for future needs.

“At The Equity Lab, we talk every day about combating white supremacy culture and systems of oppression, and when I do that work I do it from a place of love. I am not inadvertently replicating systems of oppression by trying to come in with a narrative of dominance, scarcity, or a tale of (intentionally or unintentionally) perpetuating oppression. I'm coming from a place of love, growth, and openness.”