Campus Dialogue on Race Highlights Civil Rights in California

Six days of events are on tap for the Campus Dialogue on Race, Nov. 1 through Nov. 6.
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The event features discussions covering topics as diverse as California’s history of civil rights, the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II, artistic responses to banned books and wraps up with a celebration led by conscious hip hop innovators Maia Papaya Wiitala and Eli Conley.

The Campus Dialogue on Race is an annual event at Humboldt State University intended for students, staff, faculty, administrators and community members to present and attend programs that relate to social justice and its intersections with other forms of oppression.

“Our objective is to create spaces and structures for reflection, analysis and dialogue,” says Mona Mazzotti, Outreach Coordinator with the MultiCultural Center.

“The organizers of 2010 Campus Dialogue on Race are committed to building capacity for diversity and inclusion at Humboldt State University. We want all students to feel welcome, to feel at home, and to be successful at HSU,” said Mazzotti.

Monday, Nov. 1

Monday’s events begin at 11 a.m. in the Goodwin Forum with Cheryl Seidner of the Wiyot Tribe discussing her people’s history and a looking at contemporary issues facing the Wiyot.

Wildlife faculty member Sharon Kahara follows up with a screening of “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” in Wildlife 258 at noon. Also at noon Wurlig Bao, of the Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department (CRGS) looks at the Chinese experience in Humboldt County in the Goodwin Forum and Jacqueline Nagatsuka, of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, shifts the focus to the trials of Japanese Americans during World War II, beginning at 1 p.m., also in the Goodwin Forum.

Authors Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi are set to deliver the keynote address titled “Wherever There’s a Fight,” in the Kate Buchanan Room at 5:30 p.m. Elinson and Yogi’s book, also titled “Wherever There’s a Fight,” chronicles the story of how freedom and equality have grown in California from the gold rush to today. The authors follow up their talk with an election day (Tuesday, Nov. 2) workshop in which they’ll explore what it means when civil liberties come up for popular vote.

Tuesday Nov. 2

Also on Tuesday, the campus is invited to gather in the Great Hall, part of the new College Creek Apartments, for “Terror & Resistance: A Teach-In on Latino Immigration Struggles, at 2 p.m., led by HSU’s 2008/2009 Outstanding Scholar, Jennifer Eichstedt, along with CRGS faculty members Maral Attallah and Maria Corral-Ribordy and students from MeChA and Puentes.

At 3:30 p.m., Marlon Sherman, Chair of the Native American Studies Department, discusses indigenous rights in the U.S., in the College Creek Great Hall; while the Art Department and Journalism & Mass Communications team up to present readings from banned books in the library lobby starting at 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 3

Wednesday’s events include a screening and discussion as part of Qross Qultural Queer Film Festival in the Kate Buchanan Room at 4 p.m., along with the Tunnel of Oppression, presented by Residence Life Staff on first floor of the “J,” at 5 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 4

The Qross Qultural Queer Film Festival continues as part of the Dialogue on Race, on Thursday, with screenings at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Goodwin Forum, and moves to the Kate Buchanan Room at 7:30 p.m. with writer and director Peter Bratt presenting his film “La Mission.”

Meanwhile, Lydia Hicks, Residence Life Coordinator, leads a discussion on diversity in the sciences in the College Creek Great Hall at 2 p.m. Discussions continue in the Great Hall, with “Deconstructing Stereotypes of Low-Income Students in the U.S.” at 4 p.m. and a discussion on the impact of school desegregation happening at 5:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 5

The Qross Qultural Queer Film Festival continues its screenings with “Boys Don’t Cry” at 1 p.m. in Gist Hall 218 and “Beautiful Boxer” at 4:30 p.m. in the same location.
Maia Papaya and Eli Conley present the workshop “Art as an Anti-Racist Action,” starting at 1 p.m. in the Goodwin Forum. The night concludes with Jaideep Singh presenting “The Racialization of Religious Identity in the Post-9/11 United States” at 5 p.m. in the Kate Buchanan Room.

The week wraps up in the Goodwin Forum with a celebration led by Maia Papaya & Eli Conley. The pair deliver an engaging, heartwarming and challenging performance that begs their listeners to hold themselves accountable to humanity. The concert starts at 9 p.m. in the Goodwin Forum.

For more information on the Campus Dialogue on Race, visit http://www.humboldt.edu/diversity/Download/fall_2010_cdor_sched_10.21.1….