CRES230

Description

Several recent events in our nation, world and city have once again captured the challenge and pain that accompanies being a person of color in this city, nation and world and on Clark's campus. Recent events have also left white students, committed to racial justice, both concerned and confused about how to respond to the pain and rage that have been expressed and to the racial injustice that has been revealed, again and again. These events and the realities facing the nation and world are calling for a reckoning-a reckoning with the long history of white supremacy. This reckoning includes all spaces, but particularly, historically white institutions that have both made efforts to increase diversity and inclusion, but have participated in the continued exaltation of whiteness and the oppression of people of color. This reckoning is part of the work we must engage in at Clark. While we have focused on increasing awareness of and support for diversity, we have concentrated much less on inclusion. How do we address the racial battle fatigue and support the work of healing for students of color and enable them to shift from merely surviving to truly thriving at Clark? How do we engage in honest conversations about safety and for whom? How do we develop the critical consciousness for all students related to race? And how do we help students of all races learn to live together and move Clark University from being a space of racial embattlement to a space where everyone feels like they belong and are safe? The purpose of this course is to bring together a select group of students on campus to engage in difficult dialogues and to develop them as leaders and facilitators of on-going and much needed dialogues on race and racism at Clark University. We will borrow pedagogical principles and practices from intergroup dialogue to engage in these difficult dialogues. Students will need to request instructor approval to enroll and must first demonstrate some experience reflecting on racial inequities and express a commitment to stepping into a leadership role in difficult dialogues on race and racism on campus.