Category Archives: Events

on-campus and off-campus events hosted/sponsored by AAST or recognized as relevant to African American Studies

Statement Condemning White Supremacist Violence in Charlottesville – African American Studies Faculty

White supremacist mob in Charlottesville, VA (2017)

 

Lynch mob in Marion, IN (1930)

The white supremacist and white nationalist violence that erupted in Charlottesville last weekend made visible, with terrifying clarity, a truth at the heart of US history: white power, when confronted with threats, real or imagined, reacts with violence and death. As scholars who study the history and culture of African Americans, we recognize that black life is far richer and far more beautiful than a litany of abuses. We choose to frame black life beyond the reach of what Toni Morrison called “the white gaze,” but the fury of a white mob in 2017, wielding torches, brandishing pipes and assault rifles, spewing hate-filled rhetoric, and ramming a car into a peaceful anti-racist march threatens to impinge upon life beyond the white gaze. With images of that furious mob flooding our televisions and news feeds, we could not help but see in those faces a hatred tinged with arrogance reminiscent of the smiling white faces gazing out of lynching photographs from the Jim Crow era. This family resemblance reminds us that what happened in Charlottesville is as American as that small college town’s favorite son, Thomas Jefferson, which is to say, what happened in Charlottesville is as American as enslavement and lynching and convict leasing and debt peonage and mass incarceration.

The African American Studies Program condemns the white supremacist, neo-Confederate, and neo-Nazi ideologies harbored by the mob in Charlottesville as well as the violence these ideologies breed. We mourn the dead, and we wish healing to those anti-racist protesters who have suffered injuries of all stripes. We also recognize that what happened in Charlottesville was not exceptional or unique, after all, we remember all too well the massacre that happened just blocks from our offices two summers ago. Our students have already begun to return to campus in advance of the fall semester, and as much as recent events have shaken and disgusted us, we are deeply concerned for our students who are grappling with these acts of violence and their political aftershocks. In moments like these, the value of African American Studies as a discipline cannot be overstated. We, as educators, remain steadfast in our responsibility to provide the analytical tools, conceptual frameworks, and historical contexts to make our contemporary moment legible, if not comprehensible. We also remain committed to supporting our students, most especially those students of color for whom the violence in Charlottesville is no mere abstraction but a threat to their very existence. This violence may be a harbinger of even more terrifying things to come, but the tradition of radical protest that undergirds so much of African American history and culture keeps us pushing back and pressing forward.

2017 ExCEL Awards

The annual Excellence in Collegiate Education and Leadership (ExCEL) Awards program honors members of the College and community who promote excellence and contribute to the College’s core values of diversity and inclusion.

The 2017 Outstanding Faculty of the Year for the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs was our very own Professor Mari Crabtree!

Another exciting ExCEL award is the Outstanding Students of the Year Lucille S. Whipper Award which was awarded to AAST major Aisha C. Gallion.

Award recipients were acknowledged on April 5, 2017 at the ExCel Awards Program held at the Sottile Theatre. The African American Studies program is very proud of all of our faulty and students and their accomplishments on and off of campus!

Teach-In: Tools for Navigating Post-Election America

December 5th at 5pm
Arnold Hall

A brief panel for contexualizing the election will be followed by break-out sessions on a wide range of topics such as transphobia, voting rights, sexism, anti-semitism, homophobia, white supremacy, and engaging with family across political divides.

Sponsored by African American Studies, History, International Studies, Office of Institutional Diversity, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, Teacher Education, and Women and Gender Studies.

PANELISTS:
TANNER CRUNELLE ‘20
RACHEL MCKINNON, PHILOSOPHY
TRISANI MUKHOPADHYAY ‘19
MARI N. CRABTREE, AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
NOAH JONES ‘20
MATTHEW CRESSLER, RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Teach-In: Police Brutality

September 10th at 7:00pm
Robert Scott Small 235

Roots. Causes. Consequences. Solutions.
The murder of Walter Scott in North Charleston last April sparked outrage locally and nationally about the problem of police brutality. Learn more about the public policies and social forces that have caused and exacerbated police brutality as well as consequences and solutions from a panel of experts. This event is open to the public.

 

Panelists:
Dr. Mari N. Crabtree College of Charleston
Muhiyidin D’Baha Black Lives Matter
Pastor Thomas Dixon The Coalition: People United to Take Back Our Community
Susan Dunn American Civil Liberties Union

 

2015 Student Diversity Conference & Social Justice Symposium

StudentDiversityConferencehttp://diversity.cofc.edu/2014-student-diversity-conference.php 

The Social Justice Symposium will be the first event of the 4th Annual Student Diversity Conference (April 10th and 11th). The purpose of the Symposium is to feature the work of our students who have developed research or community-based  projects that further social justice goals.  The Symposium is free and open to the public.  Dr. Hollis France (Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of the Gender and Sexuality Equity Center) will serve as a discussant to raise comments and questions for the presenters and audience following the presentations.