“Race: A (White) Construct”
February 5
1:30-2:30 pm at Greencroft Community Center, Jennings Auditorium
“Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.” - James Baldwin, 1969. The idea that multiple, distinct, races exist is a way of explaining visual variations between human persons that is biologically false. In that way, we can say that “Race is not true.” Yet, racial categories profoundly impact all of our lives, with the negative effects felt most readily by those identified as Black and other people of color. This means that race is also most certainly “real.” But where did race come from? Who does it serve? Why does it matter? This lecture will explore this often misunderstood and misrepresented history, and its meaning for the present.
About Nekeisha Alayna Alexis
As Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism (ICUR) coordinator, Nekeisha Alayna Alexis leads a team of teaching faculty, administrators and students in the ongoing work of undoing racism and building intercultural competence throughout the institution. As an independent scholar, she writes and speaks extensively on topics related to the social construct of race, critical animal studies, and Christian theology and ethics. She is a native of Trinidad, grew up in New York City and calls Elkhart, Indiana, home.