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C&W 2007

Submitted by dr. b. on Sat, 05/19/2007 - 11:18pm. Conferences | Not Just Another Angry Negro | This Is What a Feminist Looks Like
We've been in Detroit since Thursday and I have seen some good sessions and some not so good sessions. But that's about par for the course, right? What I have been disappointed in is the attendance. There are a lot of folks who just didn't show even though they were accepted and some who never even thought about coming. I'm pretty sure that attendance is so low because it's in Detroit. Folks are afraid of Detroit. I don't know if they are afraid of the rumors or frightened by the thought of a true chocolate city. Afraid of being outnumbered the way us Black academic folk are at all of our professional meetings, in our departments, and many times in our own towns. To those folks I just say get over yourselves, your closed mindedness caused you to miss one of the greatest cities in the United States.

We are already hearing rumors of folks being "concerned" for their safety in New Orleans at Cs next year. To those folks I say again Get. The. Fuck. Over. It. Don't let your ignorance make you miss out on another of the great cities in the U.S. (ironically another chocolate city). NOLA (and Detroit) are no more dangerous that any large city in the U.S. They may be a little darker (and you know what I mean) than you are used to, but they are no more dangerous.

Ok, enough of my ranting. I'm going to bed. I'll put my notes up soon.

Edited to add: I just finished my last session so here are all of the notes that I took.

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Amen

Submitted by T J Geiger on Sun, 05/20/2007 - 10:57am.
I wrote this in an email, but I'll go ahead and put it here as well. Thanks, Dr. B., for speaking the frank truth and for calling on white academic folk, what I'm planning to be (I'm just a lowly MA student right now), to get over fears about difference and having concrete contact with communities of color.
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Here's a comment from Andrea

Submitted by dr. b. on Wed, 05/30/2007 - 9:43pm.
because she tried to comment at the same time that the server was dying!


The ideas that you discuss have been pingponging through my head since I flew in to Detroit on Wednesday. Most of the time I was in Detroit, I felt like race was the 800 lb. gorilla that everyone kept skirting. As I was planning my trip, people couched their cautionary tales of the city by telling me to be[a]ware of the crime, to watch out, and many asked why I had to go there (especially as a woman alone)in the first place. No one said, "it's a 'black' city." But I think you've hit it on the head; it's almost as if no one wanted to name race, because naming "it" might mean we'd have to acknowledge that we're aware of "it," and even more to the point, that we're aware of race-ISM.

And yes, as a white girl, I was pretty much a minority everywhere I went in the city--except for C&W events. Guess what? I lived. No one tried to steal my money, rape me, or make me vote Republican. Heck, everyone I met was friendly and even helpful, telling me where I had to see (and yes, saying where I should, as a woman alone, steer clear-- but isn't that the case with every city?). The point is, it's our business to question assumptions and stereotypes; if we're staying home because we're afraid of the "other"--whether that other is race, economics, education, big city, rural, or what not--what in heaven's name are we doing in the classroom?

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