Tag Archives: race

EVENT
Psychology Friendship Study

Do you have friends who look like you (especially on the U.S. census)? The Rodriguez Mosquera Lab in Department of Psychology wants to give you money:

We are looking for students who participate in our Friendship Study!

• $5/participant for completing a 45minute survey in
Judd Hall.
• To participate, you and your friend (of the same
biological sex and ethnicity) must sign up for the
study as a pair.

If you are interested, please contact
(and have your friend also contact)
friendstudy2012__gmail__com

If this sounds like your thing, please contact the lab by March 12th.

EVENT
What is Womanism?

Womanist House is sponsoring an informal talk and discussion with our advisor, Dr. Sonia Mañjon, on the basics of Womanist Theory. Food will be served!

Pictured above is professional badass Alice Walker, who coined the term “womanism.”

Co-sponsored by Hewitt.

  • Date: Tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 23
  • Time: 6:00 pm
  • Place: Nicolson Lounge

Race, Power and the Environment at the DFC

Antwi Akom
Come over to the Daniel Family Commons after dinner tomorrow  to celebrate Black History Month with an incredible lecture by Antwi Akom (all the way from the Bay Area!) entitled “Race, Power and the Environment: Building a Youth-Led Climate Justice Movement in Cities and Schools.”

Akom is a leading expert on the green economy, climate change, and educational equity. His research focuses on the links between race, environmental health, and educational equity in cities and schools; the role of the green economy in facilitating pathways out of poverty for vulnerable populations; and the role of local knowledge in the production of environmental health and educational equity.

Date: Tuesday, February 15th
Time: 7:15 PM
Place: Daniel Family Commons
Cost: nothing

EVENT
Professor Alex Dupuy: “The Capitalist World Economy, the Fetishism of Commodities, and the Social Geography of Race: A Reply to Michel Foucault”

Did you get through that whole title? Yeah? Congrats, you might as well just go to the damn lecture, then, at Russell House this afternoon:

In Volume 1 of The History of Sexuality and in Society Must be Defended, Michel Foucault develops a genealogy of race and racism from their origin in what he calls the race struggles in the sixteenth century to their transformation into biological racism with the birth of biopower and the biopower state in the nineteenth century. Professor Dupuy will argue that Foucault’s argument does not hold, theoretically or historically. Theoretically because there is no necessary connection or continuity between the concept of race in sixteenth century Europe that referred to generational or filial lines of descent without imputing the transmission of immutable characteristics, and biological racism that assumes the existence of such fixed and inherited characteristics. Historically because the idea of race in the biological sense emerged first on the ground in the European colonial conquest of the Americas, the struggles against the native populations, and the subsequent enslavement of Africans to provide the labor force for the plantation economy before it was more fully theorized, codified, and systematized into ideologies of racial superiority and inferiority in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

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EVENT
Cycling Club Info Session

Rory Stamp ’12 wants you to enjoy working off that Freshman (or Sophomore . . . or Junior or Senior) 15:

Whether you’re a racer, recreational enthusiast, or just like taking long cruises on your fixie, come to an information session for the Wesleyan Cycling Club.  We’ll discuss upcoming races, fun rides, and scheduling group rides for all abilities. Don’t forget your bike!!

  • Date:Today, Sept. 21
  • Time: 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
  • Place: OutHouse, 132 High St. (Across from the Butts Parking Lot)

’60s Alum Brings Eclectic Memories to Stage

Eric Conger ’68 has written a play loosely based on his experiences as a member of Eclectic in the 1960s, “The Eclectic Society,” which is being performed at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia until March 7.  The play depicts Eclectic and Wesleyan when the student body was a lot more homogeneous.  A Playbill article describes the plot:

“It is early November, 1963. On a University campus somewhere in New England, the members of The Eclectic Society are caught up in a whirlwind of social change. Sure, there are still Homecoming games to be won and pranks to be pulled on the incoming pledges, but things start to change with the arrival of Darrell Freeman (J. Alex Brinson). A scholarship winner from the ghettos of Cleveland, Darrell doesn’t exactly fit the mold of membership. In other words: he comes from the wrong side of the tracks, and he’s black. As the second African-American admitted to the Society (after three-sport athlete Floyd Wiggins, played by Carl Clemons-Hopkins), Darrell has his own hurdles to clear as he is welcomed by some with open arms…but not everyone…in the end, new friendships are formed and others destroyed as 125 years of ‘traditional thinking’ comes in direct conflict with a brave new world.”

Mr. Conger has been busy since the 1960s.  He attended the University of Paris, translated Molière and Feydeau, appeared as Oliver in As You Like It at the Walnut Theatre in 1985, and has narrated over 80 audiobooks and done voice-over for commercials.

If you happen to be in Philadelphia, John Wilson ’69, the 1966 Eclectic flagman, invites Eclectic members and students for a cocktail party/reunion:

We’re hoping that we can assemble enough brothers and Wesleyan people on February 13th for a cocktail party and mini-reunion at a yet-to-be determined Philadelphia hotel.  If you think you can make it, shoot me an email at john(at)dwitherbee.com and I’ll update you about where and when.

Playbill: Eclectic Society, World-Premiere Tale of a Campus Club in Changing Times, Opens in Philly

Walnut Street Theatre: The Eclectic Society

[Thanks to Mica Taliaferro ’11 for the tip.]

EVENT
Student Forum: Mixed Heritage/Multiracial Identity in Contemporary America

From Alicia Castagno ’12:

This Fall ’09 semester, we (Alicia Castagno and Rachel Cross ’12) will be facilitating a forum on multiracial identity and are looking for prospective students!

The forum will explore the American “mixed experience”, specifically through the study of mixed heritage/multiracial child identity formation, multiracial history, treatment of multiracial individuals in current federal policy, and other current issues facing those of mixed heritage.

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MUSIC
Das Racist explains “blipsters”

Online magazine The Root has this embarrassingly unironic article about the rise of black hipsters, or… blipsters, thus somewhat legitimizing a term that probably should not have become a serious thing.

One Himanshu Kumar explains the advent of black people wearing tight pants to readers:

“You can’t really wear sagging jeans without being embarrassed on your skateboard,” says Himanshu Kumar of the band Das Racist.

[…] Das Racist, a hipsterish band comprised of Queens-born Kumar and San Francisco-born Victor Vazquez, matches hyphy dance beats with lyrics about “the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” that could speak for the ‘hood or the nearest gated community. And why choose? “A lot of this all [comes] from a resurgence of ‘80s culture into the boring modern day; across races—tight jeans and bright clothing aren’t distinctly un-hip-hop, so to speak,” Kumar says.

Ok. Now we know.

das-racist5

Anyway, Das Racist is in the running to be Artist of the Month in Deli Magazine, a site about the NYC music scene – vote here if you are so inclined. You can also get a free download of the Pizza Hut Taco Bell remix here at Playboy.com (of all places) if you don’t yet have it.

The Root: The Rise of the Black Hipster

Hapa Perspectives

Shannon Sun-Higginson ’10 has created an awesome film featuring other Wesleyan students about being Hapa, or half-Asian. Check it out on Current.com and vote for it!

Vagabond/Photographer/Activist takes on American Racism

Photographer Jacob Holdt presents “American Pictures: A Danish vagabond’s personal journey through the American underclass”

A self identified Danish vagabond presents his show (through a range of multi-media) on American poverty, racism and oppression. After spending many years hitchhiking across the US living among extreme poverty, KKK members, and being arrested by the secret service, he considers his show/workshop to be “racism shock therapy.”

Date: This Friday, February 23
Time: 4:15-8:15
Location: Science Center 150
Motivation: Snacks will be served during intermission!