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\nSeveral years ago, finance executive Mellody Hobson presented a TedTalk titled, \u201cColor blind or color brave?\u201d in which she acknowledged that conversations about race make people \u201cextraordinarily uncomfortable.\u201d She called it the \u201cconversational equivalent of touching the third rail,\u201d generally resulting in shock followed by a long silence.
\nHobson cited a corporate study that found that the really smart corporations don\u2019t avoid the issue of race, but \u201cactually deal with it head on,\u201d and she urges people to engage in honest and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about race. \u201cAll of us,\u201d she said, \u201cif we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity in America, I think we have to have real conversations about this issue. We cannot afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIn our polarized world of incendiary tweets and combative Facebook posts, honest and civil conversations about issues of race are not a common occurrence.
\nThis fall, a group of approximately 60 students in five separate classes \u2014 four English and one theater course \u2014 were a part of a Race and the University Course Suite. The classes met separately, all engaging with issues of race through different time periods and different genres. Twice during the semester they gathered for a forum to discuss critical issues of race, throughout history and today. It\u2019s an attempt for this group of students and faculty to be \u201ccolor brave.\u201d
\nStudents read fiction and nonfiction, biographies and autobiographies, plays and race theory. They studied literature and dramas that substantially engaged the issue of race as early as the 16th century and as recent as the 21st. They traced the roots of racism in the United States back to the founding of the transatlantic slave trade and then traced it forward to today.
\nThey read slowly and carefully and closely analyzed texts, digging to find the meaning of words and phrases and ideas. They made connections among authors and ideas and time frames. And for the two forums that brought all five classes together, they read excerpts of works from each other\u2019s classes, so that when they all sat down together, they would be \u2014 as much as possible \u2014 on the same page and at the very least, have the shared readings in history, literature and theory as a basis for their conversation. As part of the experience, students live tweeted, and one student live streamed the forum on Periscope.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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Color Blind or Color Brave? Watch\u00a0the TED Talk or view an interactive transcript.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>
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