Dream with Me…

Today, August 28, 2013, is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. King was a dynamic speaker, and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest rallies for human rights in America’s history, with estimates of the number of participants ranging from 20,000 to 300,000, the vast majority of whom were African-American.

In celebration of that historic 1963 rally for human rights, watch Dr. King deliver his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Or better yet, gather around the Peace Pole in front of the Baptist Student Foundation here at Purdue today from 4:30-5:00pm for a local reading of the speech.  For more info, check out the Facebook page for the event.

“I HAVE A DREAM”

Purdue LGBTQ Center Welcome Fair This Week

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27th, Purdue’s LGBTQ Center will have its annual welcome and resource fair at 6:00pm in the PMU South Ballroom.

Drop by to meet the folks who work at the center, including its director Lowell Kane, to learn about its resources and upcoming activities, and to meet some of Purdue’s students organizations, such as FACT (Feminist Action Coalition for Today) and the Queer Student Union, who’ll have information tables there. We’ll have a panel of students and others who work with the center visit our class in a few weeks to talk with us about sexuality.

For more information, visit the LGBTQ Center online.

“The Danger of a Single Story”

Last week, we discussed some of the common stereotypes of feminism. These narratives about who a feminist is or what feminism aims to do might be one problematic “single story” that we’ve grown up with in our culture. The single story of feminism paints this picture because, of course, the sinlge story of Western culture is also patriarchy.

According to Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie, we get a single story when we show a people as only one thing over and over again. Such stories shape what we think of others, but also how we understand ourselves. Stories have power – they can malign, but they can also heal. Watch Adichie’s talk below to understand how.

Chimamanda Adichie: “The Danger of a Single Story”:

QUESTIONS

1. Adichie states that we are impressionable and vulnerable in the face of a story, especially when we are young. In American culture, who do you think is most “vulnerable” when it comes to a single story written about them? Why?
2. Can you think of dominant single stories about groups of people within America or about America itself?
3. How can we help change these single stories? How can we facilitate what writer Chinua Achebe called a greater “balance of stories” in America?
4. What intersections do you see between Adichie’s “single story” and Brand’s “microaggressions“?

Monday’s Syllabus Quiz

On Monday, we will begin class with the syllabus quiz, which should take about 10 minutes. To prepare, you should familiarize yourself with the course syllabus and policies, as well as bell hooks’s definition of feminism that we covered in Wednesday’s class (see the blog post).