Week 9: Extended 'Make Your Home Among Strangers' Discussion and More

Good afternoon to anyone and everyone that is reading this blog! I will do the usual rundown of my week and proceed to analyze the discussions that I had in my FYE class last week. Since our class spent the majority of the week going over the speech given by Jennie Capo Crucet at a FYE Success Series event last week, this blog will be present less info and detail than others in the past.

My week went fairly well and mostly according to plan. Monday was very busy with all the classes, an Honors Advisory Board meeting, and a kickball game at 10 at night. Tuesday went according to schedule as well, but I did find out the dates of two upcoming exams for Calculus and Geography which ramps up the stress and studying for the next two weeks. I had an advisory meeting to discuss the workload and the classes I would be taking for the spring semester of my freshmen year. I was a little shocked when my advisor said that I would be only taking 13 credit hours next semester, but I was then told that I was ahead in credits with some of the dual enrollment credits that I carried over from high school. Having those dual enrollment credits cancelled out some of the classes on the schedule that I have already taken. This also means though that I am kind of trapped due to me not being able to take certain major classes next semester because I have not completed classes like Calculus II and Chemistry yet. Besides that, my week went pretty smoothly the rest of the way. Now onto the discussions from my FYE classes last week.

Starting off on Monday, each student in the class was presented with a sheet a paper that asked us questions regarding the speech given by Jennie Capo Crucet the previous Wednesday before class and how we felt about the speech. We were asked if the speech made us feel uncomfortable, and we were also asked on our personal opinion on why particular students at Georgia Southern burned the 'Make Your Home Among Strangers' copies in protest of the book and speech given. To give a quick backstory, Crucet's speech highlighted her journey to becoming a professor and why she does what she does today. In the midst of her speech, she angered some people with her strong tone and her speech against the ways of white privilege in her past and in the present day. A group of students got together to burn her books out of their anger, and some students showed their displeasure through Twitter. These series of events made national news across the national over the course of the last week and a half. We reviewed and looked over some of the things that Crucet mentioned in her speech and discussed some quotes from the speech. On Wednesday, we looked over some of the responses from within our class for the questions given in class on Monday. We highlighted some of the responses that stuck out to us and was the most surprising. Some of the responses also opened up the conversation to talk about Crucet's tone during the speech, diversity, freedom of speech, and many other topics. After looking at Monday's responses, we looked at the article "11 ways white America avoids taking responsibility for its racism". The article by Dr. Robin Diangelo indicates that people can say racist comments without even thinking about, and it happens unintentionally in lots of cases. People. whites in particular, not realizing that they have or can say racist comments out of the blue sounds absurd and does not apply to them at all. 

Personal Reflection

To be honest, I have not enjoyed discussing things the last two weeks not because of the controversial and difficult topics but because it is hard for me to say something from the perspective and person that I am. I feel like that my views and standpoints in these type of conversations does not mean much. I do not want any bad intentions to come out of this because I typically do not have a good point or idea to relay in class when we are talking about anything. I also have felt a bit embarrassed and disappointed in both sides of the book burning controversy because it is burning bridges and relationships between the university staff, students, and many other people. I know there is a reason for everything in this world, but I would like to move on from the series of events that has taken place the last few weeks.  Thank you again for reading my blog once again, and the sources used for the pictures and article mentioned in this blog are listed below!

Sources:

georgia-southern-university-jennine-capo-crucet-book.jpg

https://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/11_ways_white_america_avoids_taking_responsibility_for_its_racism_partner/