Demythologizing Race: A Re-Education of Difference

Description

"I don't see race..." We have all encountered (or maybe even said) statements like this that generally attempts to project a recognition of equality: "I see people, not color". Yet, what can often be heard is a denial of what it means to live in a particular body: "You don't know what it means to be black...". These kinds of misfire of communication remain commonplace because we have been socialized to avoid speaking honestly about how we understand race, and what informs that understanding. This socialization has often rendered us as unprepared to make ourselves vulnerable or to meet other people where they are. Yet, while confronting the realities and violences of race can often lead to discomfort, if we all remain on the sidelines of this conversation then nothing in our world is going to change. This class, therefore, offers students the opportunity to interrogate the historic construction of race as we presently understand it; exposes the political, social, and economic agendas that informed this creation; and explores ways to think about racial difference that can dissolve the racial hierarchy we have inherited. (Slade, annually Spring) [Prerequisite: Open to First-Year or Sophomore students only, or open to HIST and AFS majors and minors.]