Chiluvya Zulu Aims to Give a Platform to Marginalized Groups

Chiluvya Zulu loves her job, but she dreams of the day it’s obsolete.

“I’m hopeful that one day you won’t need my job,” says Zulu, director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for the Borough of State College. “One day, we will just be such an inclusive community that it won’t even be a second thought to talk to certain groups when we’re planning events, or to include certain people in conversations when we’re discussing certain things.”

She has served in the role since November 2022. While the Department of Equity and Inclusion existed prior to that, she is its first director.

Zulu moved to the United States from Lusaka, Zambia, when she was two years old. After graduating from Penn State in 2017, she worked in finance in Philadelphia before returning to State College to work with the World in Conversation program in the College of Liberal Arts.

“I think that’s where I got a lot of my mindset in this work,” she says. “And that is about collaborating. It’s about getting people to have conversations with each other. A lot of times people just don’t have those conversations; we create these clear barriers or these divisions amongst each other. And we’ve never actually sat down and had a conversation with someone who we perceive to be on the other side.”

To help facilitate conversation, Zulu leads programs including a two-part series earlier this year focused on racial healing, part of the National Day of Racial Healing held in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Building community trust is a key to breaking down barriers and promoting healing, Zulu says.

“A lot of the work that I do is with the State College Police Department, and I will say I have been really pleasantly surprised with how open that department has been to my office, to the work that I’m doing and working with me,” she says. “But just building that community trust, letting people know that this municipality building is theirs, that the space is theirs, that the police department is here to work with them and not against them.”

Two big events are coming up this month.

Zulu is part of the committee planning State College Pride. The June 8 event, presented by Centre LGBT+, features a parade at 10 a.m. and a festival starting at noon in Sidney Friedman Parklet.

Then the community will celebrate Juneteenth with an art exhibition opening on June 14 at the Woskob Family Gallery in the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center and a block party from noon to 6 p.m. June 15 at MLK Plaza. The block party will feature live music, vendors, community organizations, and children’s activities.

This October, the borough will again work with Penn State Outreach to commemorate PA Dignity Day on October 15.

“The intention of that day is just to honor the dignity that each and every one of us is inherently born with, regardless of if we agree with each other or disagree with each other,” Zulu says.

Here are more highlights from our conversation:

What do you see as the key mission of your office?

Zulu: I think the most important thing is to give a platform to marginalized groups. I am a big believer that most people are not intentionally trying to exclude people, or trying to act maliciously. But just because of the systems that we have and the ways in which our society operates, some people do end up being excluded. So, I hope that my office and this space can be somewhere that people know, “If I’m feeling excluded, if for some reason something happens that doesn’t sit well with me,” they can come and talk to us. Even if I don’t have the answers, I will go to the community or I will go to the person that I feel might have the answers and I’ll help them find them.

With the Day of Racial Healing programs this year, you emphasized how important it is to be vulnerable when talking about race and racism. Why is that?

Zulu: A lot of times when we think about race or racism, we think about single acts. And the reality of it is we’re talking about a system, things that have been institutionalized. That means that we’re all a part of it. I like to emphasize that I am also a part of the system of white supremacy, and there are ways in which I contribute to being a barrier to racial healing. I wanted this conversation to really be about the individual. And once we can acknowledge within ourselves the ways that we can get better, then we can think about the bigger picture, then we can come together. That vulnerability piece was really important because it’s hard to be vulnerable, especially about race.

Why do you think people have such a hard time talking about race?

Zulu: One of the things that I often think about is that we had a lot of people raising their kids to not acknowledge race, to just say, “We’re all the same, we’re colorblind.” And even if you had a young child acknowledging this difference that clearly exists, they would get scolded or they would be told not to say that. It made people very uncomfortable to talk about it. Something that I like to do is just centering the differences; it is OK for people to acknowledge this thing that’s very visible.

When I walk into a room, I walk into a room as a Black woman. And that does two things; that shapes the way that people are going to see me, but it also shapes the way that I’m going to see people, all of these things that I’ve experienced in my life through that lens. I think having conversations and centering that has been really helpful in transforming those conversations and getting people to be more comfortable.

There are DEI programs under attack around the country. How have you found the reception here?

Zulu: I’m really fortunate to be a part of different organizations across the country that have DEI leaders, whether it’s DEI leaders in law enforcement or different DEI leaders in academia and community groups. And this is something that we talk about often. So, while I recognize that right now my office has been received with open arms and we haven’t gotten a lot of pushback, I know that it’s happening with my colleagues around the country and I know that it could happen here.

Part of my job is to teach people that these words—“diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and “belonging”—truly all that means is making sure that people can feel like this community is theirs, and that every single person within this community helps to make it and therefore deserves to feel as though it is theirs. I honor the words because I think they’re so important and there’s a history and there’s a reason why we use those words. I’m open to exploring other ways in which we can talk about it so that people can be more receptive. That’s why I really love our Dignity Day initiative because most of the work that I’m trying to do is just about honoring the dignity within people.

Centre County is not the most racially diverse place in America. How does that impact the work that you’re doing?

Zulu: I thought that it would have more of a negative impact but I’ve actually had a lot of different organizations recognize that and reach out to me, ask me for help. I did some work with Centre Parks and Recreation; they recognized, “Hey, we’re not the most diverse place, but we want to make sure that we make all of our spaces inclusive.” I just recently did some stuff with the COG [Centre Region Council of Governments], where again, “We’re not the most diverse, but we want to make it inclusive.” I think for the most part, most people want to make our community better and want to make this area more inclusive.

The State College borough has been honored for being one of the more inclusive places on LGBTQ+ equality. What’s gone into making it an inclusive community?

Zulu: I think you’re talking about the [Human Rights Campaign] and our municipal equity index. The way that is scored is out of 100, and then you can get bonus points. In previous years we got ninety-six, and then we got additional bonus points, which pushed us to 100. This year, we just got 100 actual points plus some bonus points. A lot of it is the leadership here, the policies, and the practices that were here before I got here. One example of that is we have very inclusive health care.

What work is left to be done?

Zulu: There’s so much to be done. One example of that is that we just did this community conversation on transgender health and well-being and gender-affirming care. And we have so many people in the trans population that don’t feel that they can be their truest and most authentic selves within our community. So that’s one thing we can be better about.

What would you say to somebody who says, “I feel like I’m a good person, but maybe I’m not doing enough? How could I be a more inclusive, welcoming person?”

Zulu: The first thing is looking at the community around you, looking at the people that you consider to be close to you and your friends. Do most of them look like you? Do they share similar practices as you do? Do you have hard and uncomfortable conversations with them because you might have different perspectives? If that’s the case, if you all are pretty similar, that’s a good place to start. When we diversify the people that we feel close to, we are able to get different perspectives and understand where different people are coming from. And that’s my main job here. It’s not to necessarily say that you’re right or you’re wrong, but it’s to have a better understanding of where people are coming from. T&G

Mark Brackenbury is a former editor of Town&Gown.