by Dominique Harrington
When I’ve attempted to explain to people what I’ve been doing this summer, I’ve gotten a few typical responses. First, I get the generic, “That’s so cool! Good luck!” The next one provokes more of a conversation, “That’s interesting, but what’s the point?” However, the response I’ve received most frequently is, “Wow, that must be pretty depressing!” When I explain that I am grappling with the University of Richmond’s racial history, I think they probably thought that I would be faced with more violent instances of racism during the Jim Crow era. However, I’ve mostly gone through letters to President Modlin and Academic Departmental Reports; I haven’t witnessed anything as egregious as one might expect in the former capital of the Confederacy from 1946-1971. Still, I’ve found myself quite disheartened more times than I anticipated — not because of what I saw, but because of what I didn’t see: progress.