Town Hall on Race

About 50 people attended the evening event. Facilitators from BSA asked participants to discuss in small groups two main questions.

• In what ways does racism and oppression affect the work of EMU?
• In what ways does racism and oppression affect the spirit of EMU?

Following the discussion, each group shared key points. Many groups answered both questions with negativity that they have seen around campus.

One group stated that college is a time of discovery, but being in an environment riddled with racism hinders the ability to truly discover oneself. Also mentioned was the feeling of forced relationships within the classroom due to race, which in turn affects the ability to work productively with classmates. Many groups also talked about microaggressions, which are everyday verbal or nonverbal slights or insults that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages 鈥� such as racist jokes.

鈥淢icroaggressions are products of prejudice and ignorance. Those experiences reach beyond race but affect us all,鈥� said senior Christian Parks, who helped to facilitate the event.

The groups were also asked to discuss what they believed would be a good way for EMU to start instituting change in regards to racism and oppression. Some examples included hiring more people of color as faculty, and extending anti-racism and anti-oppression training in all institutional levels.

Participants were encouraged to attend BSA meetings on the second and fourth Thursday of every month in University Commons Room 124. Parks also mentioned the potential for a privilege-themed playback theater event in March, which would 鈥渙pen the space for white folks on campus to share their experiences of privilege as a way to continue the work of understanding how privilege impacts work and spirit at EMU.鈥�

First-year student Kendi Mwongo said the meeting was 鈥渂eneficial,鈥� and she would support it in the current format on a monthly basis.

The challenge of committing to racial justice

Drew Hart, an author and doctoral candidate at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, spoke at a Thursday evening lecture titled 鈥淲hy Have So Many Christians Been So Wrong for So Long?: Racial Formation and Counterintuitive Solidarity.鈥� He also offered a Friday morning chapel forum on the topic 鈥淟earning to Love Black People, 鈥� drawing from Hebrews 11:23-28.

Hart said that an 鈥渆pistemological divide鈥� exists between people鈥檚 understandings of race and racism, with different paths and circles of socialization leading to seeing the same event 鈥渇rom very different perspectives.鈥�

鈥淲e have very different ways of understanding, narrating and responding to race in America,鈥� Hart said. 鈥淭ake note of what鈥檚 unique and different about the culture that shaped you.鈥�

He noted that while things have certainly changed in the past four centuries of American history, the country hasn鈥檛 鈥渕agically delivered on social justice.鈥� Instead, the issues have 鈥渕utated into different forms,鈥� and maintained a racialized and hierarchical framework. Going forward, he pointed to the 鈥淛esus-shaped, counter-intuitive way鈥� that is 鈥渄rawn to the those on the margins of society鈥� and empowers them and seeks to end domination.

Hart, who has a blog titled 鈥溾�� hosted by The Christian Century, uses the hashtag #anablacktivism. He followed up Friday鈥檚 chapel time with a talkback session and signed copies of his most recent book, Trouble I鈥檝e Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (published by Herald Press), while on campus.

Chances are those words elicited some kind of emotion.

If you鈥檙e under 30, you may have just looked up or away from your digital device and rolled your eyes.

If you鈥檙e over 30, your facial expression might be an unbidden, but half-amused grimace accompanied by a bit of nodding.

If you鈥檇 like to hear and engage with the author in person, whether to take issue with his stance, and/or to soak up the intellectual discourse of one of the eminent thinkers of the day, you鈥檙e in luck.

Author Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, will speak at 草莓社区 Thursday, Feb. 5, on 鈥淭he Humanities in the Digital Age.鈥� Bauerlein鈥檚 talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Strite Conference Room in the Campus Center, followed by a discussion with the audience, including formal responses by , professor of , and , director of residence life.

Bauerlein will also speak at Friday鈥檚 10 a.m. chapel in Lehman Auditorium on 鈥淔rom Atheism to Catholocism.鈥� A talk-back with refreshments follows in Common Grounds from 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Bauerlein has taught at Emory University since 1989, with a break in 2003-05 to serve as the聽Director of the Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. He has published numerous scholarly works, including an acclaimed account of a 1906 race riot in Atlanta, Negrophobia. In addition, his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, where his blog eloquently promotes the humanities.

For a preview of his visit鈥� and to develop a sense of Bauerlein鈥檚 wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with and among great texts as an enlivened source of consolation, wisdom and revelation 鈥� read ,” published in the magazine First Things (in one sentence, he quotes Sartre, Faulkner and Nietzche, in that order).

That essay, and Bauerlein鈥檚 unique perspective about the relevance of the humanities in the digital age are reasons why , professor of , is pleased to welcome him to campus. Both Bauerlein鈥檚 book and academic studies are closely linked to this year鈥檚 campus Common Read selection, Nicholas Carr鈥檚 The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

At a time when study of the humanities are under attack, Bauerlein is an ally of the many professors on college campuses who 鈥渁re eager to give students exposure to great texts, images, sounds and ideas,鈥� says Medley, who notes that it鈥檚 not the digital devices themselves that are the problem, but the time-consuming and intense nature of the peer-to-peer relationships they enable. 鈥淚f we can lure them away from their addicting digital devices, we think we can get them hooked.鈥�

Bauerlein鈥檚 lecture is the fourth event in a year-long exploration of the effects of the digital age on education. He joins two other scholars, both from University of Virginia, who have lectured on this theme: Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and author of 鈥淭he Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), and Dan Willingham, professor of psychology and author of 鈥淲hen Can You Trust the Experts? How to Tell Good Science from Bad In Education.鈥�