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F O C U S L AW
a responsibility to address racial injustice. As a histori-
cally white organization, we also have a responsibility
to change and to lead change."
In Maine and elsewhere, the reality of racism is
often cavalierly dismissed, says Marcelle Medford,
an advisor to the fund and a Bates College assistant
professor in sociology, whose research focuses on
immigration and race.
Overdue recognition
"One of the things that emerges in my research, quite
often, is the active refusal to contend with race and the
presence of racism, and the role it plays in perpetuating
the state that we're in," Medford says. "Even the emer-
gence of the grant itself was a response to the protests
and to the murder of George Floyd. e sad reality is
that these things aren't new. ey've been happening;
they continue to happen."
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C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E
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We need
to have real
discussions.
— Marcelle Medford
Bates College
P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F B AT E S C O L L E G E
The reality of racism is
often cavalierly dismissed,
says Marcelle Medford,
an advisor to the fund and
a Bates College assistant
professor in sociology.