UNIVERSITY PARK –- Penn State and the Borough of State College partnered for a day
of discussion and reflection in honor of Global Dignity Day, created to inspire and
educate people about shared humanity, at the Hintz Family Alumni Center from 11:30
a.m. to 5 p.m on Oct. 15.
State College government leaders, community members and Penn State staff gathered
for the half-day conference that included keynote speakers, workshops and breaks for
questions and interactions between attendees.
Karen Armstrong, direction of inclusion, equity and diversity at Penn State Outreach,
said that collaboration with the Borough is crucial for an event like this to ensure every
person understands their value.
“It really means community and togetherness,” Armstrong said. “Although we’re
separate entities — we intermingle, we function together, we live together. The whole
purpose of coming together is to get mutual understanding and to value one another.”
As part of Dignity Day, Armstrong connected on Zoom with Dr. Donna Hicks, former
deputy director of the program on international conflict analysis and resolution at the
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, for a conversation
on dignity and its connection to safety and self-worth.
Hicks discussed ways that people can keep their dignity protected, which she learned
from conversations with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“One thing that helped not only (Tutu), but everyone he worked with, get through
apartheid … the most dehumanizing, undignified times, was the fact that he knew his
dignity was inside him and that no one could take that away,” Hicks said. “It could be
assaulted, people could injure his dignity. He said ‘they can do all that, but at the end of
the day, nobody is going to take my dignity away from me.’”
Another strategy Hicks shared with attendees was shifting the mindset after a dignity
assault from “what did I do wrong” to “something bad happened to me, I’m not bad.”
She said that finding a “dignity buddy” to share experiences with and help after
violations is a highly recommended method to stay protected.
State College Borough Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Director Chiluvya Zula
said her reasons for attending the event were rooted in her identity.
“When people first see me, the first identity you see is a Black woman in America,” Zula
said. “But there are a lot of other identities that I hold. One of them that guides me
strongly is my identity as a mother… I want to be a part of creating a more inclusive,
united world for my children.”
Zula added that Dignity Day is an important way of reminding people to treat others with
respect, even amidst disagreements.
“It’s really hard to go into spaces where you may disagree with someone, or someone
may have violated your dignity and honor the dignity within them” Zula said. “If more
people recognize their own dignity and (the dignity) within others… it’ll help change the
world that we live in.”
State College Mayor Ezra Nanes said that he was first introduced to the concept of
Dignity Day at an event a few years ago, and it had a transformative effect on his life
and work as mayor.
According to Nanes, it’s more important now than ever to understand what dignity is and
how to protect it because dignity violations are occurring at the highest levels of power
in the United States and are quickly spreading globally.
“Dignity is not flashy, it’s work that must be sustained over a long period of time, but it
has great power,” Nanes said. “The more we learn about it, honor our own dignity and
honor that in other people, the more the work itself will spread.”
