RACE: THE FUTURE!
The RACE: The Future! series aims at provoking honest and serious discussion about race relations at MIT. The goal of the program is to provoke honest and serious discussions about race relations at MIT by developing and sustaining alliances both within and among racial and ethnic groups, providing a historical and contextual framework to understand the roots of racism, and motivating faculty, staff, and students to be activists. A broad palette of formats forms the basis of RACE: The Future! programming: seminars, discussions, forums and panels, workshops in dormitories and living groups, conferences, and public programs. Videotapes are created whenever possible for documentation, stimulating discussion, and development of education materials. In the fall of 2000, the program changed its name to from RACE2000! to RACE: The Future! to reflect the ongoing need for discussion of these issues.
RACE2000! was launched in 1997 with a program entitled "An Evening of Conversation with Noam Chomsky and Kathleen Cleaver." In moderated discussion, the two celebrated activists talked about activism—their own and that of students. (Read more about the program in Tech Talk or The Tech; this program was televised by C-Span.) As part of the activities leading up to this program, CRD screened Lee Lew Lee's film, All Power to the People, and Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick's film Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media.
Later that fall, RACE2000! sponsored its second program, "Asian and Asian American Experiences: A Forum on the Racial Climate at MIT." This panel discussion about attitudes toward Asians and Asian Americans was planned collaboratively by a number of student groups and staff.
During the spring of 1998, RACE2000! coordinated a series of alliance-building gatherings, "Somos Todos Latinos," with Latinos from the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. These programs examined and questioned interest in fostering alliances between US Latinos and Latin Americans and focused on commonalties and differences that affect the building of cultural identity and community at MIT.
In 1998-99, the RACE2000! series addressed the topic, "Questioning Race: Is BLACK Black?" Programming included supper seminars and a panel discussion featuring Harvard Professor Lani Guinier, and, from the MIT community, Professor Melissa Nobles, Dean Isaac Colbert, students Eto Otitigbe '99 and LaTonya Green G, and moderator Dean Ayida Mthembu. Through these discussions, the community explored the definitions of race, which fluctuate amid changing political, economic, and cultural relationships. Drawing on wide-ranging expertise, program participants tried to help the community understand the ways in which people of African descent are living their lives and the challenges we all face in the 21st century. You can read about the panel discussion, and look at summaries of the dinner discussions that directed the panel.
In 1999-2000, RACE2000! undertook the sensitive, provocative, and rarely considered topic of White culture, prejudice, and privilege. This program intends to confront the notion that Whiteness is an invisible race, which allows patterns of racial privilege to escape observation and criticism and certain culturally specific behaviors or values to be considered normal or mainstream. Professor Ellen T. Harris, the first chair of CRD, comments, "The behavior of White people is never considered in racial terms. How does this affect our view of race relations on campus? One example will suffice. I have never heard a complaint about White students sitting together at lunch or White students wanting to room together. Generally speaking, this is considered 'natural.' "
After a period of research and discussion, the RACE2000! subcommittee asked a group of volunteers from the MIT community—faculty, staff, and students—to be videotaped discussing their experiences with race and racism as White people. The result of these tapings is a video entitled Making Whiteness Visible: Conversations No One Wants to Have. Early edits of the videotape have been screened for various groups on campus, and their feedback will inform the editing process. RACE2000! believes that inviting White people to engage actively in issues of race, as well as welcoming people of all races to consider Whiteness—with all its contradictions and uncomfortable truths—as a powerful force in all our lives, will enrich and deepen the work that CRD has done in previous years. The notion of Whiteness as a race, a culture, and a social construct continues to challenge CRD. We hope that the MIT community will join us in these groundbreaking discussions.
During March 2001, RACE:2000! changed its name to RACE: The Future! and sponsored a program entitled "Questioning Race and Identity: Who is an American and Who Decides?" At the center of this program, were screenings of Ancestors in the Americas, a two-part documentary series by Emmy-award-winning filmmaker, Loni Ding. Following campus screenings of Parts 1 and 2 of the series, Ms. Ding was the featured speaker at a moderated forum to discuss the films.
If you wish to contribute in any way to the development of upcoming RACE: The Future! events or would like to borrow the videotapes, please contact the Committee (617.253.1706, racerelations@mit.edu).