The latest episode in the Inclusive Excellence podcast series, presented by the Department of Inclusion and Workforce Diversity at Cornell, shares thoughts from Black faculty and staff on “Blackness at Cornell.”

Recent weeks and months have shone a bright light on systemic racism in the U.S., with high-profile killings of Black people at the hands of police and the resulting protests. The special series will features a number of Black faculty and staff discussing how they define Blackness and Black identity.

The first episode in the series features Jeremy Stewart, a nutrition and general health outreach educator for Cornell Wellness. Stewart begins his story by describing what Blackness means for him: “Strong, resilient, powerful, culture and sacred.”

Stewart recounted his early years and the struggles he and his family faced, and became emotional toward the end: “That’s why Blackness to me means ‘resilience,’ ‘strong,’ ‘powerful,’ because my father, family and friends all made it out of that situation, and changed a lot of people’s views while we did it.”

Each episode of the special series – hosted by diversity and inclusion specialists Anthony Sis and Toral Patel – will feature the stories of Black faculty and staff members in their authentic voice. The goal is to recognize their voices and elevate their experiences through the Inclusive Excellence Podcast.

The podcast is available on SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

– Tom Fleischman