Title: WinC Co-Director
How do you identify yourself? Mostly, I identify myself as “white” because that is the category most significant to this culture and to my work with race relations. But if I’m traveling abroad, I identify myself as American. And, if I’m with white people and we’re discussing our heritage, I say I’m half Irish, a quarter Polish and a quarter “mostly unknown.”
What’s your background? I got my B.A. from Rutgers College in English, a major chosen simply to get me out of school as quickly as possible. However, by the end of college, I became intrigued by the blending of psychology and sociology. So I attended Rutgers School of Social Work for a master’s degree. To this day, I think that was one of the best things I ever did because my studies there completely shifted my understanding of the world. Once I had completed that degree, I felt far from “finished” learning. So I came to Penn State’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies to pursue a Ph.D. Though this formal education charts the course of my intellectual and personal explorations, I now view it simply as a measure of my discipline. My truest, most unforgettable and transformative learning comes when I open my eyes, roll up my sleeves and experience whatever lands in front of me—and that could be anything from a bee to a teardrop.
Have you always thought about race and culture? I was raised from a young age to be very aware of race differences, but not from a “celebrate diversity” perspective—from an “us versus them” perspective. So I have traveled a long road from the misinformation and biases of my upbringing to a deep sense of honoring the different shapes of people’s lives and cultures. As a result, I understand that “good people” can have terribly biased ideas about others. And I understand how that apparent contradiction between being “good” and being “biased” can be maintained in someone’s mind and heart. This understanding of people is essential to the conciliatory work I find myself doing. So I embrace completely the limitations of my past (and my present), at the same time that I am grateful for the way my mind was finally blown open to a larger vision.
What do you get from working with the World In Conversation Project? I get the opportunity and the challenge to put into practice “the inner work” that I discussed in my book, Making Peace between Our Colors. And I get to do it with some of the most dynamic, inspired, and open-hearted people you can imagine.
Why do you spend so much of your life dealing with these issues? I honestly don’t know…because I never deliberately chose to be involved in this work. I have simply followed the doors that opened to me. And that doorway metaphor is not meant to imply that I have taken the easy road—because I have not. Many times I have found this work to be so excruciating that I am frantically looking for another doorway. But something…something larger than me…has kept pushing me into the struggle rather than away from it. So I’ve finally stopped asking why I do this work. I just ask, “What’s next?” But I often smile to myself about how unlikely a candidate I would have been back in the day to be so deeply involved with race and culture issues. If you read my book, you’ll understand what I mean…
What are your other interests and activities? I love to watch things grow (people, plants, and hearts), to create handmade gifts, to be near the ocean, to watch the moon, to take my dog swimming, to have conversations with loved ones, to bake bread—and to sing.
What is your philosophy of teaching? We are all teachers and we are all students. And since I can’t predict or control who is going to be whom at different times, I work to establish a classroom culture where the participation is open and the focus is exploration.
[...] been through and how they are a part of this and how they have been forgotten,” said sociologist Laurie Mulvey ’94g, Richards’ wife, who teaches the class with him. “And we also want to recognize the people in [...]