Engaging Students and Scholars in Developing Stories of Resistance to Hate

The Working Group was excited to host this weekend in Oakland, California, a small group of scholars from across the state to advise us on our Not In Our Town work supported by the California Council for the Humanities. The group included Yolanda Moses, anthropology professor and special assistant to the Chancellor for Excellence and Diversity at UC Riverside, and one of the shapers of the American Anthropological Association’s “Race Are We So Different” traveling museum exhibit; Alberto Pulido, director and professor of Ethnic Studies and chair of the President’s Advisory Board on Inclusion and Diversity at the University of San Diego; and David Brundage, who teaches the history of social movements in the Community Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater.

During the meeting, we generated ideas for documenting stories of resistance to intolerance in 20th century history, from the Mexican-American family on the frontlines of fighting segregation in our state’s schools to resisters of the internment of Japanese-Americans. We’re planning to pepper this website — which we’re re-launching this fall to include many new resources and social networking tools — with some of these powerful stories to show the long legacy of resistance to hate in California.

ENCOURAGING NEW MEDIA STORYTELLING AND ACTION ON CAMPUS

We’re working to build a California network of scholars and university professors who want to engage with Not In Our Town in ways that our Humanities advisors are already demonstrating: Professor Pulido is creating a class assignment this fall to encourage his students to chronicle stories of people standing up to hate, as well as connecting us with the community coalition United for a Hate Free San Diego. Dr. Moses is helping us build our Los Angeles/Inland Empire network, and we’re exploring ways for NIOT and the “Race Are We So Different” project to partner. Professor Brundage volunteered to write a short piece for the new site, and has ideas for collaboration with graduate students of the Community Studies Social Documentation Master’s program. We’re so excited to be teaming up with these social thought leaders.

We hope this work in California can be a model for engaging the university and scholar community across the country.