2025 National Day of Racial Healing

Today many organizations recognize a National Day of Racial Healing, held annually on the day following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and coinciding this year with the presidential inauguration. The past week has also brought news of additional state-level restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion, legislative action regarding transgender athletes, and vacating Title IX protections for pregnant, parenting, and LGBTQ students. Dedicating space for healing is critical in this context. 

There is a creative component to healing that calls us to imagine the circumstances that we want to build. In The Four Pivots (2022), psychologist Shawn Ginwright wrote, “Addressing racism, fighting sexism, and reducing violence are all important, but reductions in these things are not victories in and of themselves because eliminating things that harm us is not the same as creating things that heal us” (p. 7). It is important to name and have clarity about what we want to fight and eliminate - and in order to heal, we also need the energy that comes with building communities where each of us matters, belongs, and feels worthy. 

Whom we heal and build with also matters. On days when it seems hard to escape the negativity and despair that pervade news and social media feeds, I find myself retreating to virtual and in-person spaces with like-minded friends and colleagues. This kind of closing of the ranks feels safe and necessary, but I wonder sometimes if I’m contributing to the judgment, partisanship, and alienation that characterize politics and social movements these days.  

Healing requires empathy, working to understand and believing in the validity of others’ perspectives. But why should I trouble myself to be curious about others’ perspectives and needs when it seems that this orientation isn’t reciprocated? My grandmother used to say “practice makes progress,” reminding me that habits build character. From Shawn Ginwright again: “The new-world view of change is not simply about winning but more importantly involves focusing on how we make change and who we become in the process. In our journey for justice, how we get there is just as important as the destination; the two cannot be separated” (Ginwright, 2022, p. 101).

Regardless of the actions of others, who do I want to be, and how do my actions consistently demonstrate my work toward that end? How do I hold myself accountable to demonstrate curiosity about others’ experiences, humility that I don’t know everything, and grace in recalling that none of us is one-dimensional? Healing doesn’t come through dominance but through a mutual commitment with and for others, grounded in empathy, compassion, and reflection. We can’t heal if we aren’t seen and heard and if we don’t see and hear others. 

On the wall behind me in Zoom meetings hangs a poster created for an event series my office hosted when I worked at Saint Joseph’s University. The events commemorated a visit by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to campus 50 years earlier, and the poster features a quote from Dr. King’s remarks during that visit: “Our destinies are tied together.” Even in a divided world, what happens to each of us affects all of us. We ignore this mutuality at our collective peril. 

My energy on this National Day of Racial Healing will be focused on two questions: 

1. What characterizes a more loving and inclusive future, and what am I doing to build toward that future? 

2. With whom can I develop and deepen relationships for the journey? 

I invite you to join me in reflecting on these questions and on what racial healing means for you and your communities.