If you’re not busy on March 17th, consider attending a Kentucky college’s afternoon activity.
As indicated on the calendar site of Berea College, the Women’s and Gender Non-Conforming Center will present a zoom-facilitated “Gender Talk” from noon to one o’clock.
The topic’s a definite news-getter:
White Citizenship as Terrorism: Make America Great Again, Again
The presentation will be provided by Amy Brandzel.
As The Federalist reports, Amy’s an assistant professor of women’s studies at the University of New Mexico.
She’s also author of Against Citizenship: The Violence of the Normative.
Here’s part of a summary from the book’s Amazon page:
Against Citizenship provocatively shows that there is nothing redeemable about citizenship, nothing worth salvaging or sustaining in the name of “community,” practice, or belonging. According to Brandzel, citizenship is a violent dehumanizing mechanism that makes the comparative devaluing of human lives seem commonsensical, logical, and even necessary. Against Citizenship argues that whenever we work on behalf of citizenship, whenever we work towards including more types of peoples under its reign, we inevitably reify the violence of citizenship against nonnormative others.
Colonialism and heterosexism are making America grate again:
Brandzel’s focus on three legal case studies — same-sex marriage law, hate crime legislation, and Native Hawaiian sovereignty and racialization — exposes how citizenship confounds and obscures the mutual processes of settler colonialism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism.
Citizenship stinks:
In this way, Brandzel argues that citizenship requires anti-intersectionality, that is, strategies that deny the mutuality and contingency of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation — and how, oftentimes, progressive left activists and scholars follow suit.
A flyer for Berea’s event obtained by Young America’s Foundation makes considerable claims.
Did you know Donald Trump redefined whiteness?
March 17th could lead to enlightenment:
Despite calls for multiculturalism and color-blindness, segments of white America mourn their so-called loss of privilege, consistently begging to return to the nostalgic past in which their esteemed value as white citizens went unquestioned. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” appears to follow suit by offering a seemingly benign promise to return to America to a previously “great” past. But the offer to “Make America Great Again, Again” requires we refocus on how the last four years of daily tweets and administrative actions redefine whiteness.
If I understand correctly, Trump Support = Terrorism:
If terrorism is redefined as the use of violence and threats to create a state of fear toward particular communities and identities, then this is what “Trumpism” is at its core.
The event’s seen a bit of backlash, and Berea — a free-tuition Christian institution with a mandatory work-study program — has come to its defense.
“To some,” the college tweeted Friday, “the provocative title of the event implies that Berea is not a welcoming place for individuals with differing political views. That is not true. At Berea, we strive to live out our motto: God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth.”
Hence, don’t get it twisted:
We encourage open dialog on difficult topics. Racism and white nationalism have been topics of great debate over the past five years. The event planned for next week seeks to confront aspects of the political spectrum that relate to the difficult topic of race in America.
While that may cause discomfort, it is a valid and important conversation in this time of political and racial division. It is our hope that these types of conversations will occur across the country.
While that may cause discomfort, it is a valid and important conversation in this time of political and racial division. It is our hope that these types of conversations will occur across the country.
— Berea College (@bereacollege) March 12, 2021
The school’s going antiracist:
Open, honest dialogue is essential to understanding racism and moving toward an anti-racist society.
Open, honest dialogue is essential to understanding racism and moving toward an anti-racist society.
— Berea College (@bereacollege) March 12, 2021
Berea’s going to bat for inclusion:
Berea accepts students of all faiths (or none at all), religious beliefs, ethnicities and political leanings, creating a diverse environment that encourages acceptance, respect and even appreciation across our differences.
Berea accepts students of all faiths (or none at all), religious beliefs, ethnicities and political leanings, creating a diverse environment that encourages acceptance, respect and even appreciation across our differences.
— Berea College (@bereacollege) March 12, 2021
Hopefully, that diversity won’t include terrorists.
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Historic: Minneapolis Pays George Floyd’s Family $27 Million
George Floyd’s Makeshift Memorial Is Now Another Autonomous Zone
Find all my RedState work here.
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