Distinguished Professor and Activist Visits GWU

In honor of Black History Month, the Multicultural Student Services Center of The George Washington University sponsored a lecture Tuesday night, titled “Teachable Moments,” hosting a distinguished professor in the field of black studies. Chair of the Africana Studies Program at Brown University, Professor Tricia Rose, spoke about this year’s theme, “The New Negro,” how to address “teachable moments,” and many of the basic problems facing the black community today.

Often mixing her lecture with personal anecdotes, Professor Rose spoke enthusiastically about her career as a teacher and an activist.

While discussing the era we’re living through, she explained that though the president is an African American, there is still much progress needed to improve race relations and the lives of minorities.
Ms. Rose spoke extensively about the media and their portrayal of African Americans, addressing many of the problems that constrain the news from changing and evolving. She explained that the media is corporate and financially driven, with their end goal being an increase in the number of viewers, a stronger hold on the market, and expanded network power.

The media had to be neutral when reporting the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Gates, she explained, because to appeal to the widest audience the news cannot take one side or the other.
One of the main issues, she stated regarding the arrest, was “knowledge-based illiteracy” among the masses, a dilemma that the media does not resolve, instead choosing to frame certain subjects “in unteachable ways.”

Professor Rose proceeded to criticize Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, describing him as “irrational.” Steele, she explained, had no right to compare the comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, during the 2008 President Election, to those that Senator Trent Lott made in 2002. Lott had praised the segregationist Strom Thurmond for his efforts, lamenting on the fact that the man had not been elected president 54 years earlier, a statement that in no way resembles Reid’s comments on Obama’s complexion and dialect in chances of winning, she stated.

After explaining the structure of her class, Mrs. Rose concluded her lecture by expounding upon her four suggestions of how to teach the complicated subject of inequality.

Her first recommendation was simple: be completely honest. Instead of “stating euphemisms,” if you are clear about difficult topics, then you’ve already made progress.

Next, she advises being careful about “discussing group based and individual agency oppression.” Just because a certain group, such as women, or homosexuals, have experienced discrimination, that doesn’t mean that each woman or every single homosexual has had such troubles.

Related to her second point, she proposes that everyone be treated as an individual, and not as a stereotypical member of some broad group.

Lastly, Professor Rose explained that people shouldn’t pretend as if racism doesn’t exist anymore; instead they must confront reality. By following her suggestions, she states, can we only begin to solve our problems.