From Ferguson to Charleston and beyond: Talking about race and diversity in the classroom

ABSTRACT

Courses: News Reporting, Advertising, Strategic Communication, Media Studies, Introduction to Communication, Intercultural and Interracial Communication, Business Communication, and Hybrid Public Speaking.

Objectives: This module facilitates a process for students to interrogate how they relate to the public and to understand the profound implication of past policies on today’s communities, thereby engaging in productive race talk. Through five successive parts, students are better prepared for effective conversations about race and diversity by: (1) moving progressively toward understanding racial and ethnic identity formation; (2) exploring intersectionality (the oppression resulting from compounding effects of multiple identities) and relative power as it relates to broader socioeconomic, political, and environmental structures; and (3) the historicization of power, privilege, and oppression.