Race Work at the Institutional Level: Still working on the Dream

by Jolivette Anderson 'the poet warrior'

This is the document I wrote and had approved by the former Provost and a group of faculty who agreed to commit to work with the Provost to create an academic course on U.S. Race, Racism and Anti-Racism. I feel the need to say I WROTE THIS, THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND IDEAS because recently, I heard and saw my own work, my own research and ideas introduced to me as something new to Purdue with a dollar amount attached to it for a person who wanted to do the work I am already doing as a graduate student.

Wow, just F-ing wow!

Mission Statement

The U.S. Race & Racism Course Development Faculty Collective at Purdue is a group of dedicated faculty from diverse backgrounds of personal, professional, academic and scholarly experiences. The goal of the Faculty Collective is to assist the institution with its ongoing need to respond effectively to all who have been excluded from or denied the opportunity to question and explore human difference.  

The Faculty Collective is an academic body that demonstrates the meaning of “meeting global challenges by enhancing Purdue’s presence and impact in addressing grand challenges of humanity.”  

The Faculty Collective will create an academic experience at Purdue University that will function in a global arena where U.S. education, identity, values and quality of life is respected, admired and held in high esteem. U.S. history will be studied in global context to help students understand the political, economic and social forces that contribute to ideas about race, racism and the fight-back against it. American culture and values will be examined with an understanding that difficult dialogue and discourse is part of the growth process for all who enroll at Purdue.

The Faculty Collective is organized  to develop an ‘academic’ response to Purdue University students’ demand to have a psychologically, spiritually and physically safe campus environment, free of racist attitudes that disrespect, demean or in any way violate the personhood of any student, faculty, staff or guest at all Purdue University campuses.  

The Faculty Collective will serve as a body that is conscious of legal and social inequalities experienced by persons from diverse backgrounds in the United States. 

The Faculty Collective will assist the university in its development of academic courses that offer real life experiences that provide a working knowledge and a cultural understanding of Race in the United States, and help prepare students to combat racism and racial discrimination in their own lives and in collaboration with others.

The Faculty Collective will serve to create a teaching and learning environment that encourages open dialogue, freedom of expression and anti-racist activism coupled with genuine, intellectual curiosity, respect for self and others, and care and concern for humanity. 

Self-growth of individuals and institutional growth will set the stage for national and global developments in human, educational and cultural relations.

Vision Statement

The Purdue University course on U.S. Race and Racism and the Faculty Collective for Course Development specific to U.S. Race and Racism is committed to assisting Purdue as an institution of Higher Learning, into becoming the home for academic pursuits in experiential learning that serve as a training ground for teachers and community advocates throughout the State of Indiana to learn the necessary skills to talk about Race and Racism in the United States. Success at Purdue and in Indiana will position Purdue to be one of if not the only institution of higher learning to actively start a national, on-going dialogue and discourse on Race, Racism and Anti-Racism in the United States.

• We envision, a Purdue University Training Institute for Learning and Teaching about U.S. Race and Racism. (on-campus and on-line)
• We envision, a global online class and a Summer long visit to campus for those who complete the on-line class no matter where they are in the world. There must be an understanding that tackling U.S. Race and Racism can lead to global communities understanding Human Difference Issues in their part of the world (tribalism in Africa, religious intolerance in the Middle East, ethnic cleansing in eastern Europe etc. --campus visit will be hands-on training in learning and teaching about Race and human difference issues that intersect with racial, ethnic identity, etc.)
• We envision, Purdue Faculty from all disciplines submitting week-long units to be incorporated into the U.S. Race and Racism class offered at Purdue (West Lafayette) and all of its extension campuses.
• We envision, Purdue STEM and Humanities Faculty to Faculty collaborations that will create week-long (or longer) units of exploration and discovery that connect human  difference(s) to effectiveness of global relations between individuals and nations.
• We envision, a group of students as the global public who are supported and encouraged in challenging themselves to do the necessary, hard work required to learn to respect self and others. (all students should be required to do the online portion of the class before participating in the Summer Training Institute)
• We envision training student to become community leaders in fighting against racism. 
• We envision … providing students with tools to reduce levels of racism in society

Sample Course Description Goals 

(submitted by Stephen Horrocks, Purdue Anti-Racism Coalition)

Course Description

The history of the United States is closely inter-woven with issues of race. From the displacement of Native Americans by early colonists to chattel slavery in the South, from Chinese Exclusion to Jim Crow segregation, and from internment camps and mass incarceration to post 9-11 treatment of Arab Americans, in many ways the history of the Unites States is the history of race and racism. Purdue is not immune to this long history, but has in fact played an often active role. This course is not only designed to introduce you to the prominence of race in U.S. politics and society, but also to understand the implications of race and racism in our local community. Through our discussions, we will seek out and identify numerous methods of fighting against racism. We will cover a number of difficult topics in this class, but it is in order to understand how and why our diligence and awareness are still vital in our current time.

Course Goals

In this class we will:

• Learn historical patterns of discrimination based on race and ethnicity
• Critically analyze historical texts as well as contemporary materials
• Come away with a base knowledge of the history of race in the United States
• Understand the difference between racism, bias and micro-aggressions, and how these
• Attempt to understand the experience of those who deal with racism on a daily basis
• Find effective ways of fighting racism—small-scale and large-scale
• Study the history of anti-racist movements in the U.S. and around the world.
• Explore the constructed nature of race alongside real, lived experience 
• Race and Economics 
• Race and Psychological impact on human behavior