Sherrilyn Ifill Brings Powerful Message to Vassar College

By Jennifer L. Warren

POUGHKEEPSIE – Sherrilyn Ifill believes we are at a pivotal time in this country, a crossroads, where we need to take responsibility, protecting what we hold close to our hearts.

Whether those actions are directed at becoming involved voters, honing a global, informed perspective, or writing to our local, state and-or federal politicians and holding them responsible, we must shed our passive acceptance of injustice, arming ourselves with knowledge while protecting the principles on which this country was founded.

“We need to get our minds around what we believe are non-negotiables, and really ask ourselves what we believe is right,” affirmed Ifill, who cited such personal “non-negotiables” as believing it is right to ever separate children from their parents-families as well as approval of present-day Nazi regimes in this country.

A 1984 graduate of Vassar College, who earned her law degree at New York University, the civil rights attorney Ifill is the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. A leading strategist and expert of political and civil rights issues as well as litigator in some landmark cases, Ifill was sharing her passionate beliefs on equality and justice, active political involvement and unity as it connects to the present state of affairs in this country at her alma mater, Vassar in the Martel Theater Friday afternoon.

Facilitated by Rebecca Edwards, a Professor of History at Vassar, the hour long dialogue involved a breadth of critical issues, including; voting rights, mass incarceration along with its overall failure, as well as equality in housing and education. Each is an area Ifill has diligently fought to defend for over 30 years. Alluding to “tactics,” in the political realm, and how they are often craftily applied to voting rights, Ifill spoke about the current HR1 Bill she and her team are intensely working on to break down voting barriers that are still very much alive in parts of this country.

In addition to addressing the inequality issues that are increasingly dividing people in our country as well as denying basic rights to many, Ifill spoke about what it means to be an informed citizen.

“I hope we are at a crossroads where we realize it is our obligation to consume information,” urged Ifill. “Most of us are going into voting booths not really full voters; we really need to open our eyes to what is going on.”

For Ifill, that crucial awareness includes an active piece, one where we are not only absorbing information about our political candidates, but questioning them as well as keeping alive an open dialogue with them.

“It is so important to imagine a civic engagement beyond just casting a vote,” challenged Ifill. “You are supposed to hold elected officials accountable, but we don’t; we need to start showing up.”

Ifill also discussed biases embedded throughout the technological world. These prejudices, such as ones laden throughout gang databases, can be even more dangerous, damaging for their subtlety and passive acceptance.

Despite the tenuous times we are living in, where the line of what’s fair, good, and right, has so often become distorted, Ifill remains hopeful about what initially drew her to law back in her Vassar days. She is further inspired to continue fighting for those “heroes” who preceded her, fighting relentlessly to secure those basic rights that allow us to enjoy priceless freedoms we did not all once possess.

“I believe in the code of law and respect, even though the rule of law is now becoming harder and at times so much harsher,” said Ifill. “In many ways, we have lost our way to ideologies, but I desire a world where we are still a democracy; we really need to have a conversation about what we are trying to do here, and what really matters to us at our cores.”