Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In June 2020, prompted by the horrific killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, our nation awakened to the brutality of institutional racism and the violence to human dignity it has wrought in communities of color throughout America's history. The movement for racial justice was renewed in vigor with nationwide protests and calls for action. Although the protests of 2020 have largely been a response to a crisis surrounding police violence, the calls to action have focused attention on the breadth of systemic racism in all facets of American life. In this course, students will engage weekly with a single event or concept, drawn from a variety of disciplines, necessary to understand and dismantle systemic racism. The course centers around a weekly guest-lecture series featuring authors, public intellectuals, faith leaders, and external and internal members of the academy. In each guest-lecture class period, the guest expert provides a sophisticated introduction to a discrete racial justice topic. Some lectures address historical events not widely known (e.g., the Tulsa massacre or the arrival of the first slave ship in the Americas in 1619); others address current racial inequities (e.g., the wealth gap, health outcomes, criminal justice, voter suppression); still others examine broad concepts (e.g., intersectionality, Catholic teaching on racism). Specific topics to be determined by expert availability. This three-credit version of the course is designed for students who are interested in a more intensive study of each week's topic. Students will participate in once-weekly in-person seminar sessions with readings to accompany the speaker and topic for the week. Following each guest lecture, students will gather briefly via zoom to reflect and respond. Throughout the course of the semester, students will compose a variety of short papers, lead classroom discussions, and complete a final project incorporating independent research on related topics.