Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now…[there are] complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.

— Barack Obama, from his speech ‘A More Perfect Union’, March 2008

Our American experience is intertwined with the legacy of slavery and the discrimination it fostered. Barack Obama’s election in 2008 sets the struggles and abuses of this legacy into fresh relief — giving us an opportunity for new conversations. There is much to learn, to acknowledge, and to heal. Our public programs this semester offered some places from which to begin.

Our symposium began on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when we viewed Obama’s 2008 speech on race “A More Perfect Union,” with a conversation cafe to follow. As the semester continued, we welcomed speakers including Tim Wise, author of Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Clark alumni Shelia McCann ’71 and D’Army Bailey ’65, who reflected on issues related to race during their time at Clark and in the years since. In addition to these and other events, DD will sponsored several practice groups in which to explore deeper dialogues around the issue of race — among them The Dialogue Seminar (facilitated by Dean of the College, Walter Wright, and our two DD fellows). We are grateful to a number of faculty, staff and students who are joined to help develop these conversations.

Barack Obama, "A More Perfect Union" screening and conversation cafe

Inauguration Day television screening

Race: The Power of an Illusion (part 1 of 3) film screening and conversation cafe

Race: The Power of an Illusion (part 2 of 3) film screening and conversation cafe

The Education of a Radical: Civil Rights in the 1960s D'Army Bailey

Conversations on Race, Then and Now: A Clark Perspective panel discussion

Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

A Great Cry of Soul a musical program for African American History Month

Race: The Power of an Illusion (part 3 of 3) film screening and conversation cafe

Evolutionary Momentum in African American Studies Winston Napier honorary conference

Way of Council workshop

Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism AAICS event

A Sense of Belonging: A Photographic Journey through Nigeria exhibition opening

The Specter of Sex: Gendered Foundations of Racial Formation AAICS event

Sexual Genocide and American Indian Genocide Andrea Lee Smith

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Barack Obama, "A More Perfect Union"
Martin Luther King Jr. Day event

In commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we offer a public screening of President-elect Barack Obama’s seminal speech (originally delivered in March of 2008) on race and the American experience — A More Perfect Union. We revisit this speech as a catalyst for conversation. How have issues of race changed, or remained the same, since Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech? What does this moment mean for our collective American experience, especially in the context of Dr. King’s legacy?

The screening will be followed by facilitated conversation. The entire campus is encouraged to participate.
Cosponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College.

Monday, January 19 @ 3pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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Inauguration Day, television screening

Join us as we watch the inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States; big screen coverage, comfortable chairs and quiet conversation. Refreshments provided.

Tuesday, January 20, beginning at 11am
Dana Commons, second floor

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Race: The Power of an Illusion | Part 1 of 3

Ask 10 people to define race or name ‘the races,’ and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. Few issues are characterized by more contradictory assumptions and myths. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a three-part documentary that examines the myths, misconceptions, and assumptions that we hold surrounding issues of race. It attempts to shift the conversation from discussing diversity and respecting cultural difference, to building a more just and equitable society.

Part one, The Difference Between Us: Everyone can tell a Nubian from a Norwegian, so why not divide people into different races? That's the question explored in part one of this series. This episode shows that despite what we've always believed, the world's peoples simply don't come bundled into distinct biological groups. The film begins by following a dozen students, including Black athletes and Asian string players, who sequence and compare their own DNA to see who is more genetically similar. The results surprise the students and the viewer, when they discover their closest genetic matches are as likely to be with people from other "races" as their own. It looks at several scientific discoveries that illustrate why humans cannot be subdivided into races and how there isn't a single characteristic, trait - or even one gene - that can be used to distinguish all members of one race from all members of another.

The screening will be hosted by Professor Ousmane Power Greene (History) and will be followed by a facilitated Conversation Café.

Thursday, January 22 @ 7pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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Race: The Power of an Illusion | Part 2 of 3

Ask 10 people to define race or name ‘the races,’ and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. Few issues are characterized by more contradictory assumptions and myths. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a three-part documentary that examines the myths, misconceptions, and assumptions that we hold surrounding issues of race. It attempts to shift the conversation from discussing diversity and respecting cultural difference, to building a more just and equitable society.

Part Two, The Story We Tell: It's true that race has always been with us, right? Wrong. Ancient peoples stigmatized 'others' on the grounds of language, custom, class, and especially religion, but they did not sort people according to physical differences. It turns out that the concept of race is a recent invention, only a few hundred years old, and the history and evolution of the idea are deeply tied to the development of the U.S.

The screening will be hosted by Dean of the College, Walter Wright, and DD Fellows Hannah Caruso and Abhishek Raman; followed by a facilitated Conversation Café.

Thursday, January 29 @ 7pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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The Education of a Radical: Civil Rights in the 1960s

Tennessee circuit court judge, D’Army Bailey ’65, will join us to discuss his forthcoming book The Education of a Black Radical, A Southern Civil Rights Activist’s Journey, 1959–1964, part of which recounts his work as a community and civil rights activist while a student at Clark.

Thursday, February 5 @ 12:00pm
Dana Commons, second floor

READ MORE
Lifelong fight for civil rights: ’60s Clark protester recalls the struggle
Civil rights fight recalled at Clark: Alumnus tells of 40-year struggle, and warns that racism still exists

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Conversations on Race, Then and Now: A Clark Perspective

Join us for a panel discussion with Clark alumni D’Army Bailey ’65 (who orgainzed a speech by Malcolm X while a student at Clark) and Shelia McCann ’71 (founder of Clark's Black Student Union), who will reflect on issues related to race during their time at Clark and in the years since.

Thursday, February 5 @ 7:30pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

Race is, and always has been, an explosive issue in the United States. In his timely new book, Tim Wise explores how Barack Obama’s emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels. For many whites, Obama’s rise signifies the end of racism as a pervasive social force. But is this true? After all, in housing, employment, the justice system and education, the evidence is clear: white privilege and discrimination against people of color are still operative and actively thwarting opportunities, despite the success of individuals like Obama.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S. His recent publications include White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. Cosponsored by the Office of Intercultural Affairs

Tuesday, February 10 @ 7pm
Atwood Hall

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A Great Cry of Soul

A musical program for African American History Month, A Great Cry of Soul is a one-hour journey from the beginning days of the Negro spirituals through the gems of the Harlem Renaissance to rarely performed classical art songs of Black American Composers. David Howse, voice and Sima Kustanovich, piano

Wednesday, February 11 @ 1pm
Atwood Hall

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Race: The Power of an Illusion | Part 3 of 3

Ask 10 people to define race or name ‘the races,’ and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. Few issues are characterized by more contradictory assumptions and myths. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a three-part documentary that examines the myths, misconceptions, and assumptions that we hold surrounding issues of race. It attempts to shift the conversation from discussing diversity and respecting cultural difference, to building a more just and equitable society.

Part Three, The House We Live In: If race doesn't exist biologically, what is it? And why should it matter? The final episode of the series is focused not on individual attitudes and behavior but on the ways our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others. Its subject is the "unmarked" race: white people. We see how benefits quietly and often invisibly accrue to white people, not necessarily because of merit or hard work, but because of the racialized nature of our laws, courts, customs, and perhaps most pertinently, housing.

The screening will be hosted by Clark faculty members Shelly Tenenbaum (Sociology) and Betsy Huang (English); followed by a facilitated Conversation Café.

Thursday, February 12 @ 7pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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Evolutionary Momentum in African American Studies: Legacy and Future Direction

In 1997, with support from the Higgins School, Professor Winston Napier (1953-2008) founded the African American Intellectual Culture Series — an ongoing lecture series that brings prominent scholars and artists to Clark. This Spring, we honor Professor Napier’s commitment to the study of African American intellectual culture, its influence on America at large, and its contribution to social and political action, with an honorary conference.

Conference Keynote Address  Home Invasions – A Narrative Ethic of Race and Privacy, Karla FC Holloway – James B. Duke Professor of Englishand Professor of Law at Duke University

Friday, February 27 & Saturday, February 28
Dana Commons, second floor

TO REGISTER contact Shirley Riopel Nelson at 508.793.7142 or napierconference@clarku.edu by February 18; conference fee $25 ($5 for students). For full conference schedule and list of presenters, please visit the Higgins School of Humanities website: www.clark.edu/higginsConference sponsored by The Higgins School of Humanities, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, and the Department of English

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Way of Council workshop

How do we remember all our relations, embrace difference and find our own voice, while also listening to others? Council is an ancient form and modern practice whose roots are within the natural world, spanning diverse cultures and religions. The practice elicits an experience of true community, recognizing that each voice needs to be heard, that every person has a gift, a story to share, a piece of the whole. It seems more than ever an essential time in our educational institutions, our nation and world to awaken this deep relational heart/mind.

Bonnie Mennell and Paul Levasseur are trainers with the Ojai Foundation’s Center for Council Training and have brought the Council model to educational institutions and non-profit organizations worldwide.

Thursday, March 19  |  3 to 6pm
Dana Commons, second floor

TO REGISTER please contact Lisa Gillingham at 508 793 7479 or lgillingham@clarku.edu. This workshop is limited to twenty participants. Cosponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College

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Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism

Hubert Harrison (1883-1927) was an immensely skilled writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist who, more than any other political leader of his era, combined class consciousness and anti-whitesupremacist race consciousness into a coherent political radicalism. His synthesis of class and race issues is a key unifying link between the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement: the labor-and-civil rights-based work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the race and nationalist platform associated with Malcolm X. Jeffrey B. Perry, author of A Hubert Harrison Reader will share his insights into Harrison’s biography, one which offers profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America.

Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent, working class scholar who was formally educated at Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, and Columbia University. He is a long-time activist and an elected union officer.

Thursday, March 24 @ 7:30pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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A Sense of Belonging: A Photographic Journey through Nigeria

Nigeria: It’s the home of my father, his father and his father before him. During my childhood, I was mesmerized by stories of this wild and unknown country; and by the beautiful Yoruba language I heard spoken so casually by my family, a language that I still do not understand or speak myself. Over the years, I formed my own vision of Nigeria — a world of welcome with a sense of belonging. I wanted to go to there and reassure myself that it was my home as well as my father’s; to find out that it’s just as rich, vibrant, and alive as my dreams tell me. I wanted to take it in with all my senses; smell the city streets, taste its spices, touch everything, feel its soil under my feet, hear the music and the language. I wanted to experience all its happiness and even its pain. — ADRIENNE ADEYEMI ’10

This exhibition of photographs, by Steinbrecher Fellow Adrienne Adeyemi ’10, is the culmination of her journey to Nigeria, in Summer 2008. She has also self-published a book containing more than 70 photographs from her series A Sense of Belonging. It is available on-line (for preview and purchase) at Blurb

March 26 through May 17
Opening reception: Thursday, March 26 | 5 to 7pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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The Specter of Sex: Gendered Foundations of Racial Formation in the United States

Professor Sally L. Kitch will address a question that has been largely overlooked or left dangling in discussions by historians of race, gender theorists, and ordinary Americans struggling to understand and transform our culture’s continued struggle over race: Could we better understand the racial divide in American culture if we understood the historical role of gender in defining race and creating racial hierarchies? Professor Kitch’s research reveals that gender ideology was a primary factor in transforming race from a circumstantial term that denoted peoples, like the French or Africans, into a permanent biological characteristic starting in the seventeenth century. She will consider how gender ideology continued to construct racial categories and hierarchies over time and will conclude by analyzing the impact of that process on contemporary approaches to racism and sexism.

Sally L. Kitch is a CLAS Humanities Professor of Women and Gender Studies, and the Founding Director of the Institute for Humanities
Research, at Arizona State University.

Thursday, April 9 @ 7:30pm
Dana Commons, second floor

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Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

Beginning with the impact of the abuses inflicted on Native American children at state-sanctioned boarding schools from the 1880s to the 1980s, Andrea Lee Smith expands our conception of violence to include environmental racism, population control and the widespread appropriation of Indian cultural practices by whites and other non-natives. Smith deftly connects these and other examples of historical and contemporary colonialism to the high rates of violence against Native American women — the most likely women in the United States to die of poverty-related illnesses, be victims of rape and suffer partner abuse. Smith places Native American women at the center of her analysis of sexual violence, challenging both conventional definitions of the term and conventional responses to the problem.

Andrea Lee Smith is a Cherokee intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist. In 2005, Smith was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize “as a woman who works daily for peace” in recognition of her research and work regarding violence against women of color in the US. She is a co founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. Cosponsored with the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and part of the Modern History Colloquium

Wednesday, April 22 @ 4pm
Rose Library, Strassler Center

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