by Carolyn Classen on Nov.08, 2009, under Life, Politics
“Why Does Racism Persist in the United States of America?” lecture
The University of Arizona College of Humanities inaugurates a new lecture series “Unsettling Certainties”, inviting the community “to explore timely and often disconcerting issues with College of Humanities scholars.”
Inaugural Lecture on Monday, November 9 at 6 p.m.:
“Why Does Racism Persist in the United States of America?”
These lectures will take place in the Dorothy Rubel Room of the lovely, new UA Poetry Center’s Helen S. Schaefer Building, 1508 E. Helen Street (SE corner of Vine and Helen, north of Speedway,west of Cherry.)
As moderator, Assistant Professor of English Carlos Gallego will lead a discussion with a panel of College of Humanities scholars from various departments and will engage the community in dialogue.
According to Dr. Gallego, “The United States is a model for democratic governance, civil liberties and social justice. The 1964 Civil Rights Act exemplifies social progress. The election by popular vote of an African American president is an affirmation that we have, in fact, progressed. And yet, racism persists in the United States. Why?
Some of the questions to be explored on November 9 include:
• Do we create race or do we discover it?
• Do racially charged and racially rooted language-trends affect our perception of “racialized relations”?
• Do representations of racial progress propel social justice, or do they disguise persistent prejudice?
• Is a non-racist community even possible?”
I asked a male African American friend of mine if racism persisted in the U.S. and he said unequivocably “yes.” Go to this lecture and maybe find out why. For further infomation call the College of Humanities at (520) 621-9294, or log onto www.coh.arizona.edu.
Free parking available after 5:00pm in all Zone 1 surface lots surrounding the building, on the street, and at cost in the Highland Avenue Garage.
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November 8th, 2009 on 10:19 am
” “The United States is a model for democratic governance, civil liberties and social justice.”
Surely that is just rhetoric and the good Doctor knows that the rest of the western countries outlawed slavery generations before the US ?
In all categories of social justice, from race to womens rights to gay rights, the United States is a laggard dragged kicking and screaming into progress.
Look to Canada, or France as models before looking to the US – maybe they need a history professor there.
November 8th, 2009 on 1:36 pm
Dear Caroline
I read with interest about the coming lecture “Why does racism persist in the United States of America’. As an Australian citizen, it is noteworthy that we also have race problems here between our white citizens and the Aboriginal people. Of course, there are many complicated reasons why this occurs; I am of the opinion, however, that the main reason Australian Aboriginal people are seen as second class citizens is because many of them do not have jobs. The old insult ‘dole-bludger’ is alive and well here. Hardly anywhere in this country can we go into a shop and be served by an Aborigine. Of course, our goverment practises affirmative action where Aboriginal people are concerned and Aboriginal people are working in government institutions. It is true that governments often have to take citizens ‘kicking and screaming to the alter of fair play’. Maybe your Federal Government will make a big difference that is not yet so noticeable. I hope so.
November 8th, 2009 on 9:02 pm
Jennifer — are you really writing to me from Australia? Wow, I didn’t know our Tucson Citizen blogs got picked up so far away. I’ve been to Australia twice to visit in-law relations (my sister in law is Australian, originally from the Sydney area but her sister now lives in Cairns). From my two visits I was saddened to see that the Aboriginal people hadn’t made much progress in full equality like the Native Americans here who have their own sovereign nations. America has made inroads since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of course now we have our first half-African American President, who was born and raised in my home state of Hawaii. Thanks for writing and telling me about how Aborigines are treated in Australia. I’ll be going to this racism lecture tomorrow night to listen to this panel and will post my evaluations.
November 8th, 2009 on 6:35 pm
I believe racism as well as other forms of hatred to irritation, is simply a result of one placing expectations upon another.
I may irritate Mr Tiponeill for a number of reasons, and may even do so to the point of hatred. (I don’t think I have, as I don’t even know Mr Tiponeill) But here is the crux of the point, I don’t like something someone may say, because it doesn’t fit into my box of beliefs. And someone may call anyone racist or hater or… because they are doing something they disagree with. We live in a somewhat free society and that allows people to do what they want, when they want, and unfortunately, to whom they want. Perhaps when we can all look through the same lenses of belief systems, financial, religious and political, then maybe there won’t be a need for these types of lectures.
I doubt it, but one could hope.
November 8th, 2009 on 9:18 pm
James, one can only hope that we will live in a society free of racism someday. Remember what Martin Luther King said in August, 1963:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
November 8th, 2009 on 10:03 pm
does anyone really care?
November 9th, 2009 on 2:27 am
Of course we care. I have been a resident of Tucson for 51 years. And I can say with confidence that racial overtones and language is much more prevalent now then when I was a teenager. I am bi-lingual; Spanish, which does make a difference in understanding culture. Yet the things people say to me make me shudder with sadness.
As a one time Soccer Coach, trainer, and owner of the Tucson Amigos Soccer Franchise, I dealt with a huge ethnic diversity. One of the most curious sources of tension is within the Hispanic community and it exists between Latinos. eg Chile, Nicaragua, Argentina. Columbia and Costa Ricans when they clash with city chicanos. They are from such different worlds, and huge socio-economic differences. Hope to see you at the lecture.
November 9th, 2009 on 9:21 am
Carolyn
You are an actual reporter ! Thanks for the heads up on all these things…did you know that the Sustainable Tucson Folks are having their monthy Pow-Wow tomorrow? I will be there, Et Tu?
November 9th, 2009 on 9:27 am
Thanks Jimmy, but I did not take any journalism courses in high school or college, as I disliked strict daily deadlines. I just like blogging about community events. La Vida Verde’s picnic on Saturday was my “green event” for the week, so not going to the Sustainable Tucson meeting tomorrow night. Maybe some other month.
November 9th, 2009 on 9:08 pm
About 150 people attended, many U of A students tonight. The panel was Franci Washburn, Asst. Prof. in American Indian Studies & English; Wendy Theodore, Asst. Prof. in Africana Studies Studies; Abraham Acosta, Asst. Prof. in Spanish & Portuguese; Hai Ren, Asst. Prof. in East Asian Studies & Anthropology, and the moderator Carlos Gallego, Asst. Prof. of English. The discussion was broad based from violence against minority women, housing segregation, high poverty & incarceration of Blacks, to the Unity/Cultural Centers at the U of A, affirmative action, and global class distinctions, as well as how race is portrayed in the media. Most of the panel members said that some progress has been made in America, esp. with President Obama’s election, but overall the topic was unanswerable & unsettling, as I guess it was designed to be. But I found the discourse helpful in raising this issue especially amongst the young people present. An interesting statement made by Prof. Washburn was that she thought “the younger a person was, the less racist they were”. If true, this is our hope for the future.
November 9th, 2009 on 11:15 pm
My wife and I thank you Carolyn for passing on this event to all of us. It was well done and offered enough material for a semester course.
Racism is indeed unsettling and more so as we identify its true face. Many of our elected officials are so repressed about their racial underpinnings, that I not sure they see the face.
I worked as a cub reporter for KRLA News in Los Angeles during the Watts Riots. I was in the Riots holding tape recording equipment for Norm Woodruff, when we were shot at by our own National Guard. I leaned of the core nature of those riots during those interviews. Race was a secondary issue to the mounting tensions cased by distribution of infrastructure monies in Los Angeles County. Central LA was completely ignored. Not much has changed in major American Cities. We make decisions about allocations with an unconscious racism.
November 10th, 2009 on 4:03 am
America needs to refocus her priorties. With the trillions spent on wasted wars, and the hundreds of billions given to the super rich, we could be eliminating ghettos, ending the endless poverty cycle, and giving our young the quality education they deserve. However, our government is infested with those whose personal wealth, ties to corporate America and other special interests, trumps what could truly make America live up to her greatness. It’s a sad state of affairs when your elected officials have no conscience.
November 10th, 2009 on 6:20 am
Thanks for your comments. Racism is a difficult issue especially for someone like me who has experienced it firsthand. Usually minority people react when questions about white privilege arise because of the differential treatment they hear is still occurring in the community. Just yesterday someone told me about Hispanics in town possibly being racially targeted for traffic stops by the police. Special treatment based on race (positive or negative) is causing friction in our society, and will continue to do so. And Blacks are still living in urban ghettos.
November 10th, 2009 on 10:38 pm
I would like to share a piece I wrote “Honorary Degrees as Apologies” that gets at a particular brand of racism in our country’s history, the way Japanese Americans and immigrants were treated during World War II. Anyone interested can read it on a San Diego website, the OB Rag:
http://obrag.org/?p=14600
November 11th, 2009 on 6:47 am
Thanks Ernie McCray for sharing your heartfelt article. In 1942 my father Francis Sueo Sugiyama was one of those expelled from University of Southern California’s dental school (along with 8 others) because he was Japanese American. (He never got an apology or honorary degree from them.) He fled to Chicago, took courses at Loyola and then got admitted to the dental school at U of Maryland where he completed his degree in 1946. I knew first hand about this loss of his civil rights, and years later I worked for U.S. Senator Dan Inouye as a legislative aide, and we passed legislation to create the National Commission that investigated this wrong against my people. My father did not want me to contact USC and he died 13 years ago. By the way, he did not encounter any racism in Chicago or Baltimore during the war, only in Los Angeles.
November 11th, 2009 on 4:19 pm
Coastal Cities are more of a concern for our National Defense, so some jerkos took that as a rationalization for such behavior. Have you read the full commemorative plaque at the internment camp on the way to Mount Lemon? The one that was once called Soldiers Camp and now named after George Hir…??? forgot the spelling, sorry.
November 11th, 2009 on 6:42 pm
…Hirabayashi, not an easy Japanese name to remember. No, I haven’t seen the plaque but I know about that former prison camp now the “Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site” in the Coronado National Forest. Dr. Hirabayashi served his time there for his conviction for refusing to comply with the relocation order in Spokane, WA to go to an internment camp. Only years later did I find out that in 1942 Japanese American men who tried to enlist were classified “4-C” as unsuitable due to race or ancestry. My dad told me he had tried to enlist after Pearl Harbor and he was refused, hence he fled to Chicago before the camp roundup in LA.
November 11th, 2009 on 7:17 pm
Postnote: There going to be a talk about this prison camp on December 13 at Agua Caliente Park, 12325 E. Roger Rd. in NE Pima County:
13, Sun
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Agua Caliente Park
Catalina Prison/Honor Camp’s Place in History. USFS Archaeologist Mary Farrell reveals the historical significance of the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site located on the way to Mount Lemmon. For more information call 615-7855 or eeducation@pima.gov.
November 14th, 2009 on 2:24 am
You are just a superb community town crier for events! How big is your kitchen calendar? I will definitely attend this talk. I hope a ton of school children do also.
That camp housed folks who did not pay their taxes too! As you know it was a work camp. If we did that today, it would be packed with shopping center owners!!
November 11th, 2009 on 11:16 am
And if we can find the love in ourselves we move on. Your love for the world, Carolyn, shows in Carolyn’s Community. Keep it coming.
November 11th, 2009 on 1:03 pm
Wow, thanks for the compliment Ernie. I just re-read The Diary of Anne Frank (after seeing the play at the U of A Tornabene theater), and was deeply moved by one of her final statements in 1944, “in spite of everything I really believe people are good at heart.” I think I grew up believing in that as well in my small, rural plantation village back in Hawaii, where there was (and still is) a very strong sense of community and caring for each other as human beings.
November 11th, 2009 on 4:00 pm
I’ve felt something special each of the three times I’ve visited Hawaii, not to mention the warm climate and warm ocean.
November 11th, 2009 on 7:01 pm
That something special was probably the “aloha spirit” which is practiced there.
November 12th, 2009 on 12:15 am
Aloha!