Please take a moment to watch this important Town Hall event.

The foundation of Metropolitan College of New York is deeply rooted in social justice. And as such, it is part of our responsibility as an educational institution to provide forums where the voices of our community can be heard.

On July 8, 2020, MCNY hosted “Town Hall Webinar: No more! Black folk are done with the bowing and meek obeisance” moderated by Associate Professor Dr. Lessie Branch. 

With the utmost respect and gratitude, we extend special thanks to our panelists who helped make this a historic event and brought to light the injustices that plague our community today. We hope that this important conversation has given us all food for thought and the courage to carry forward the momentum to finally bring about permanent change.

The original thought-starter for this event came from the viral opinion piece, “Why White Fragility Is, And Has Always Been, The Roadblock Towards Real Change” by Lessie Branch, PhD on Blavity.com.

Moderator:  Lessie Branch, Ph.D.– Associate Professor, Metropolitan College of New York, Racial Policy Scholar and a Fulbright Specialist in Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Politics, and Senior Research Fellow at the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College.

Panelists:  Joey Jackson, Esq. – Principal at The J. Jackson Law Firm, PLLC and CNN Legal Analyst, Rahsaan Harris, Ph.D. – CEO of Citizens Committee for NYC and, Malynda Rascoe, M.P.A. – Political Influencer, Chair-Brooklyn Young Democrats Women’s Caucus, and MCNY Alumna

Topics covered:

  • The concept of citizenship, its privileges and protections just never seem to catch on substantively for Blacks.
  • There is great collectivism in the push to usher in racial equality and equity. We’ve been here before where the issue of racism was politicized and displayed.
  • The most leverage one has is when an accord or deal is being “struck.” We arguably have the most leverage now. What is the ask?