March 14, 2007
‘What Makes Me White?’ to be shown at Clark University on March 29
Worcester, Mass. - How white people form their white racial identity and deal with white privilege is explored in the thought-provoking film, “What Makes Me White,” by Aimee Sands. This documentary for PBS has its first public screening on Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Razzo Hall in Clark University’s Traina Center for the Arts, 92 Downing Street, Worcester. The public is invited to this free event which is part of the Difficult Dialogues Symposium on “Race and Ethnicity.”
A question and answer session with the filmmaker and a multi-racial panel follows the 15-minute film. Panelists include: Winston Napier, Franklin Frazier Chair and Associate Professor of English; Miriam Chion, Assistant Professor of Community Development and Planning; Betsy Huang, Assistant Professor of English; Odile Ferly, Assistant Professor of French, Foreign Languages & Literatures; Anne Ellen Geller, Director of the Writing Center and Writing Program.
“What Makes Me White” includes readings and interviews that span diverse economic levels of the white community, from a resident in an affluent suburb to white and black students in Boston’s METCO program. By exploring the dynamics of racial socialization among whites, Sands’ film encourages the audience to consider the roots of racism.
Aimee Sands recently graduated with an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. Her work has appeared in Poetry Ireland and is forthcoming in Salamander. She is an award-winning independent documentary producer with programs that have appeared on WGBH, PBS, and NPR. Her acclaimed 1987 documentary for WGBH, “We Are Family: Parenting and Foster Parenting in Gay Families,” won the Special Jury Award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1988 and a Certificate of Merit from the Chicago International Film Festival. This film is a sensitive look at the lives of gay families as they deal with the challenges of raising and nurturing their children. Much of Sands’ work is centered on racial and gender issues and social justice.
Sands teaches at Clark University, produces videos for nonprofit organizations, and is a co-director of the Brookline Poetry Series.
The Difficult Dialogues Symposium runs throughout 2007 and includes symposia examining “The State of Our Democracy,” “Race and Ethnicity,” “Religion and Tolerance” and “Power.” Through these Difficult Dialogues programs, the Clark and the Worcester community have the opportunity to appreciate, learn and practice the skills of dialogue–the practice of conscious exchange in which different views and beliefs can be shared toward the goal of greater mutual understanding.
For more information about the Difficult Dialogues Program, cosponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) Department at Clark, visit http://www.clarku.edu/difficultdialogues_2.cfm. For more information about this event, please call 508-793-7479.
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