#ferguson syllabus

[thesociologicalcinema]

#FergusonSyllabus (https://sociologistsforjustice.org/ferguson-syllabus/) Artist: Ashley Lukashevsky

[whentherewerebicycles]

stuff we did this semester

preparing to teach my last formal class tomorrow (it’s all presentations and evaluations after that). In addition to conducting their own research projects, here’s what my students read/watched and discussed this semester:

Essays, chapters, and books:

1.     Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Other America” (speech).

2.     Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again” (poem).

3.     Preface, introduction, chapters from James Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America (book).

4.     Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots” (speech).

5.     Louisiana Literacy Test (archival document).

6.     NPR article, “Selma Backlash Misses the Point” (article).

7.     Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” (essay).

8.     Nick Wing, “This Supreme Court Decision Could Encourage One of the Worst Forms of Racism” (article).

9.     Coates, “Fear of a Black President” (essay).

10.  The Black Panther Party documents (“Black Panther Party 10-Point Program,” “Rules of the BPP,” + articles on school breakfast program, community medical center, Liberation Schools, and COINTELPRO) (archival documents).

11.  Sara Ahmed, “White Men” (blog post/essay).

12.  Ahmed, “A Phenomenology of Whiteness” (excerpts; academic essay).

13.  Audre Lorde, “Power” (poem).

14.  Lorde, “Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” (essay/speech).

15.  Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped (book). (all of it!)

16.  Judith Butler, “What’s Wrong with ‘All Lives Matter’?” (essay/interview).

17.  Eugene Robinson, “Dehumanizing Ferguson” (essay/article).

18.  Danez Smith, “Not an Elegy for Mike Brown” (poem).

19.  Kiese Laymon, “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America” (essay).

20.  Brent Staples, “Black Men and Public Space” (essay).

21.  Michelle Alexander, chapters from The New Jim Crow (book).

22.  W. Chris Johnson, “The Unauthorized Biography of a Black Cop” (essay).

23.   bell hooks, “Killing Rage: Militant Resistance” (essay).

24.  Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” (speech/essay).

Video clips, songs, and films:

1.     MLK. “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” (speech).

2.     Selma (film).

3.     Fruitvale Station (film).

4.     “True Colors” (video).

5.     Aamer Rahman, “Reverse Racism (Fear of a Brown Planet)” (comedy sketch).

6.     Ta-Nehisi Coates interview with Bill Moyers.

7.     Tupac Shakur, “Words to My Firstborn” (song).

8.     John Oliver on mass incarceration (video).

9.     Kendrick Lamar, “The Blacker the Berry” (song).

10.  Kiri Davis, “A Girl Like Me” (video).

11.  CNN study on children and race (video).

12.  Malcolm X, “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” (speech).

[willoughbrarian]

Academic Research & the Library

LIBR 1101 with Angela Pashia

This course site is an inspiration and motivation! Such great, reflective library research assignments are in here. 

[ferguson-semester]

Not sure I'm ready for this

I teach at a small, mostly-white, Christian university in the western U.S. My students come from conservative families, many from small towns or rural areas. Many of them attended Christian high schools and have gone to church their whole lives. They have upbringings, in fact, very much like mine--religious, sheltered, generally happy, middle class, white.

Last semester, the news from Ferguson--an entire continent away--grabbed me and glued me to the social media sites and live-streams that were breaking the story. A few of my colleagues were equally galvanized by the protests as they gained momentum and equally horrified by the violent response of police and lack of accountability from the justice system, but for the most part our students were oblivious--not surprisingly, as college campuses these days offer plenty of distractions and isolation from political engagement, particularly private colleges.

So I decided to make use of what little platform I have and transform my first-year research writing class via the #FergusonSyllabus into an opportunity for my students to learn about and respond to racial injustice in all its forms, starting with the story that began in Ferguson and continues across the country with #blacklivesmatter protests, and branching into our education system, prison system, drug laws, real estate practices, media representation, political system, health care system, and beyond. 

This blog will document the semester--my education and theirs--as we do our research, plan lessons, write papers, and talk together about whiteness and blackness in America. The truth is I'm nervous. I'm white--and plenty aware of the likelihood of my saying the wrong thing, betraying my own implicit biases and ignorance and embarrassing myself--or worse, causing harm by what I say. I may face confrontational students who react badly to being asked to think about these issues and read perspectives that offend them. (Those moments are always a possibility when you teach in the humanities, but I feel a bit like I'm courting trouble.) And it's going to be a lot of extra work, revising a complete and effective syllabus with new articles and assignments. Part of me wants to just give up on the whole idea and go back to teaching what I know, what is less time-consuming, less trouble, less opportunity for error.

But I can't go to Ferguson or join large city-wide protests. My voice is not needed among the political leaders in this movement--African Americans are speaking for themselves and liberating themselves, as only they can. Their voices are central in this story. What I can do is speak to other white people, my own students, colleagues, and friends, about our own complicity and ignorance in American racism and work together to pay better attention. Given how much content the typical college student remembers from a given gen-ed course, I'd say "paying attention" is not too modest a goal for one semester--for myself or them. Here goes.

[rashiddarden]

Georgetown University ‘Die-in’ - Black Lives Matter

[nyashajunior]

My post is the first at the brand-new Wabash Center's Race Matters blog. Read, share, comment, and respond!

[umassworldliteratures]

Above: Marvin Gaye's original song, "What's Going On"

John Legend's cover at the Hollywood Bowl (feat Sharon Jones) "What's Going On"

J. Cole's "Be Free" (check out the annotations from listeners)

Lauryn Hill's "Black Rage (sketch)" (also has listener annotations)

[lefthandedlibra]

Still relevant post-Ferguson. The Black Power Mixtape - almost 40 years ago Swedish Filmmakers spent several years documenting the Black Power movement. On Netflix streaming.