Blog Post #4: Day Three

 Day Three

“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much 

more than that. So are we all." - James Baldwin

Yesterday was Day Three of my Hawken Project and I had my first meeting with Dr. Gadsby

alongside my mentor. The meeting was absolutely fantastic and everything that I needed, 

especially after the events on Wednesday at the Capitol in Washington D.C.! When Dr. 

Gadsby arrived on the Zoom call, I greeted and thanked her for meeting with my mentor 

and I today and in turn, she commended me for my efforts and dedication to creating

the African-American Program despite the unsettling events at the Capitol and 

understanding the bigger picture of how this project will combat the hate and ignorance

that we continue to see today. I kicked off the meeting by asking Dr. Gadsby about her 

background with Africana, African-American, and Caribbean Studies and how long that she 

has been teaching these topics. She replied that she had started teaching these topics at 

Oberlin College since June 2000 and originally hails from a Black and Caribbean 

community in New York. In her community, she found that she was able to truly express her

identity as being part of the Black community, Caribbean community, and American 

community and never felt that she had to filter any part of her identity in fear that it would 

conflict with the other (something that was contrary to some of the experience from some 

of her other Black and Caribbean colleagues who lived in different areas of the US). She 

also expressed that with her work in Caribbean Studies, she observed Caribbean people in

both the US and UK and studied not only their means of survival as Black people in White 

societies that subjected them to racism, but also their means of joy and pride through 

culture with food, religion, music, dance, etc. A perfect segway into my next question, I 

asked Dr. Gadsby about how to navigate finding the balance between teaching the 

historical trauma of the African-American and Black community while also highlighting 

pivotal and significant moments of joy and celebration through culture. One of the things 

that I have to take into account when selecting the topics and content that is featured in 

the courses for the African-American Studies Program is finding this delicate balance 

between trauma and joy. With the way that standard US History is taught, it can be way 

too easy to subject BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) and POC (People of 

Color) to their historical trauma (ie: When Black people are mentioned in US History, the 

two topics that are always brought up are slavery and the Civil Rights Movement and the 

struggles that Black people endured during those periods) and I want to avoid this because 

there is more to a people's story than just tragedy. 

                                                                      Get Out (2017)
                                                   

                                                Lovecraft Country (2020)

Dr. Gadsby then answered my question using multiple examples from both her experience 

and also famous works in Hollywood (Get Out by Jordan Peele and Lovecraft Country by 

Misha Green (based on the novel of the same name); two works that I want to incorporate 

in to the courses for the program). With Get Out and Lovecraft Country, 

they both are able to communicate the dangerous and deadly reality of racism while using 

different mediums to convey the joy through the midst of the protagonists facing the beast 

of racism. In Get Out, Peele uses a heavy use of horror to effectively communicate how 

scary and dangerous racism is through scenes like Chris leaving with his girlfriend Rose to 

visit her parents house in a neighborhood that is located in the middle of nowhere and 

contains no Black people except for Walter, Andre, and Georgina (all of whom were Black 

people that went missing because of Rose and her family). However, the film expresses joy

through comedy as there are multiple times throughout the film that Chris's best friend, 

Rod the TSA Agent, scolds Chris for traveling to the Armitage home and tells him at the 

end of the film, "I mean, I told you not to go in that house. I mean..." and provides a sense of

comic relief that resonates with Black viewers. Lovecraft Country uses a similar format with

using monsters from HP Lovecraft's novels to represent the physical embodiment of how 

dangerous racism is while contrasting this with different themes present like family, strong 

Black communities, religion (both Christianity and African religions), trips down South using

the Green Book (a travel guide book used by African-Americans to help them safely travel 

down South during the 20th century), and more. In essence, in order for the African-

American Program to maintain a balance of tragedy and joy, I need to be mindful of the

content that I use and make sure that I'm spacing out when it is used (ie: If there are two 

very content heavy works, maybe it's best to space them out and not teach them back to 

back because of how both emotionally heavy they are). In addition to this, Dr. Gadsby

explained the importance of being able to create an environment where the teacher takes 

accountability for the course content (especially content that can be controversial or 

emotionally heavy) but encourages students to ask questions or share their thoughts or 

concerns whenever moments like this occurs (basically encouraging conversation). How the 

teacher teaches the course and introduces the topics provided in the course is just as 

important as the content that is incorporated in the curriculum. One of the final points 

made during my meeting with Dr. Gadsby was the emphasis of stressing to students that 

there isn't a single story that fully encapsulates the African-American narrative. It's easy to

subject an entire people's story to one single story if you've only heard one single narrative 

and this narrative can be turned into a stereotype. However, just as we don't reduce a song 

to one note or a film to one scene, we shouldn't reduce an entire people to one story. So, 

heeding to Dr. Gadbsy's wisdom, I'm going to incorporate multiple assignments and 

activities in the course for students to have exposure to the multiple stories of African-

American people, like an oral history project. And to demonstrate how this activity will take

place, over the next few days, I'm going to interview a couple of people and record their 

narratives and stories.