Race, Ethnicity, Religion, and Cultural Practices

We are one for all in Albemarle.

It’s our ongoing commitment to recognize, educate and break down barriers of inequity and exclusion regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, socioeconomic status, and more.

The 21-Day Equity Challenge is designed to bring awareness to the challenges and opportunities of equity for groups within our community. Thank you for exploring this topic!

You'll find the Watch/Read/Visit resources below. Not sure where to start? Spin the wheel!

Challenge Items

Item Action
Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race Read
American Hijab: Why My Scarf is a Sociopolitical Statement, Not a Symbol of My Religiosity Read
UVA and the History of Race: Property and Power Read
Monacan Indian Nation preserves a proud heritage for the next generation Watch
A Brief History of Religious Freedom in the United States Read
James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen (2022)

If you've ever eaten macaroni and cheese, French fries, or ice cream, you've enjoyed the contributions of America's unknown culinary founding father, James Hemings. James Hemings was the first American to train as a master chef. He was also the brother-in-law and enslaved property of Thomas Jefferson.

Learn more about his story explored by food historians, celebrated chefs, experts on race and the African American diaspora.

 Watch
On Location with the Arab American National Museum Watch
Embracing Multilingualism and Eradicating Linguistic Bias Watch
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Visit
B.F. Yancey Community Center Visit
Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia Visit
River View Farm at Ivy Creek Visit
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center Visit

Our Stories
Native Hawaiian filmmaker Conrad Lihilihi presents a four-part historical Docu-series examining the 1896 Hawaiian Language Ban from public education. This series approaches the subject culminating in a rich and diverse panel of academics in language, history, and politics.

 Virtual Tour

¡Presente! National Museum of the American Latino
Explore the interactive map to learn more about the features in the Molina Family Latino Gallery and content from the ¡Presente! exhibit.

 Virtual Tour
National Museum of American Jewish History Core Exhibition
Beginning in the 1600s when the first permanent Jewish settlers came to the New World from Brazil, this exhibition flows chronologically as it highlights the diverse backgrounds, expectations, and experiences of Jews who first came to these shores and the generations that followed. The exhibition illustrates the choices they faced, the challenges they confronted, and the ways in which they shaped, and were shaped by, their American home.		 Virtual Tour


Terms to Know

Race: the social construction and categorization of people based on perceived shared physical traits that result in the maintenance of a sociopolitical hierarchy (APA, 2021b). The dictionary’s definition of race is incomplete and misses the complexity of impact on lived experiences. It is important to acknowledge race is a social fabrication, created to classify people on the arbitrary basis of skin color and other physical features. Although race has no genetic or scientific basis, the concept of race is important and consequential. Societies use race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression. (Race and Racial Identity | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu)

Ethnicity: A characterization of people based on having a shared culture (e.g., language, food, music, dress, values, and beliefs) related to common ancestry and shared history. (APA, 2021b).

Religious Liberty: a right to personal religious beliefs and to worship in a sacred place. This right also encompasses religious observance and practice.

Racial Equity: the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicts one's life outcomes. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address the root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes the elimination of policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them. Race and Social Equity Definitions | City of Alexandria, VA (alexandriava.gov)


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