{"id":29717,"date":"2024-02-08T07:23:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T12:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=29717"},"modified":"2024-02-08T11:33:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T16:33:07","slug":"senior-seeks-sustainability-in-the-beloved-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/senior-seeks-sustainability-in-the-beloved-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior seeks sustainability in the \u2018beloved community\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black History Month at Furman<\/a>
\nRead more stories >><\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n

In the mid-20th century, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took the idea of the \u201c<\/span>beloved community<\/span><\/a>\u201d from Josiah Royce, founder of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In his speeches and writing, King recast Royce\u2019s abstract utopian beloved community as a practical goal that can be built by people of good will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a global community where people will have the right to live and have access to the Earth in all its abundance, the right to not be discriminated against, and to be able to live a fulfilled life in companionship with everybody who lives around you,\u201d said Miles Baker \u201924, who spoke on the subject at Furman\u2019s annual MLK Community Breakfast this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The beloved community may seem distant today, said Baker, the president of Furman\u2019s NAACP chapter<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can feel difficult to talk about the beloved community today with how tumultuous the world has been recently, with all the things happening in Gaza, Sudan and other places around the globe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s important to tell the truth about Dr. King and tell the truth about the situations that happen around us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Start where your feet are, Baker told the audience. \u201cBe present in the community you already have, and do your best to make it more welcoming and inclusive to people who may not feel that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker sees his studies as a step toward making the global community more sustainable as well as welcoming and inclusive. A sustainability science<\/a> major, he is applying to graduate programs in urban planning and environmental policy, with a goal of working in local government.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my draw to the major was tackling the issues of sustaining a world where things are more equal,\u201d said Baker, who is also a member of the <\/span>Quaternion Senior Order<\/span><\/a> honors society and a peer mentor in Furman\u2019s <\/span>Pathways Program<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s the work I want to do. How can we be more just and equitable in how we take care of people, but also how we take care of the planet?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Summer 2023, Baker worked as a research assistant to Matthew Cohen, an associate professor of sustainability science. \u201cI particularly asked questions about how prevalent justice is \u2013 or isn\u2019t \u2013 in climate action planning in the U.S. over the last five years,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, we can continue doing some research on that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Black History Month can be an occasion to reflect the challenges in Black communities, but it\u2019s also critical to remember the positives, said Baker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to celebrate Black joy, Black happiness, Black progress,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should be intentional about spreading positivity through community. And it shouldn\u2019t be limited just to this month.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furman has made noteworthy efforts to engage in difficult conversations about diversity and inclusion, noted Baker, including a <\/span>general education requirement<\/span><\/a> for a course focusing on identities, equity and justice. And while it\u2019s necessary to have these difficult conversations, they can also take a lot out of you, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK to rest,\u201d said Baker. \u201cThese topics can be draining, and it can be really challenging to go through them. Taking the steps to take care of yourself is also important. Rest is resistance; resist the urge to do too much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The theme of Black History Month 2024, <\/span>African Americans and the Arts<\/span><\/a>, particularly resonated with Baker, a jazz fanatic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSonically, Black creativity shines through in jazz music,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always inspiring new generations of people to be creative and not be limited in what art or music is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, the senior shares with his parents and grandparents a love of musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk \u2013 and especially Miles Davis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no accident I\u2019m named Miles,\u201d he laughed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miles Baker \u201924 sees Black History Month as an opportunity to engage in difficult conversations, but also celebrate Black creativity, progress and joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":29720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,37,27,30,55],"tags":[641],"class_list":["post-29717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-student-life","category-top-stories","category-undergraduate-research","tag-black-history-month"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}