Discussions with two acclaimed authors and educators to focus on the past and present challenges of race; events are free and open to the public
Indiana University Northwest’s One Book…One Campus…One Community reading initiative has announced its final events for the 2021-22 academic year, related to the themes found in this year’s book selection: "Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People," by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald. Both events will be held online and are free and open to the public.
1919
February 23, 2022
8 to 9 p.m.
Via Zoom at go.iu.edu/4ifO
RSVP not required
Eve L. Ewing, writer, scholar, cultural organizer and author of "1919," will read from her collection of poems that explore the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. The most intense of the riots that comprised the "Red Summer" of violence across the nation’s cities, the eight-day uprising resulted in 38 deaths and nearly 500 hundred injuries. Although it profoundly shaped the last century, the riot is unfamiliar, or altogether unknown, to many people today. Learn how Ewing’s use of speculative and Afrofuturist lenses in “1919” illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.
I'm a Good Person! Isn't That Enough?
March 24, 2022
1 to 3 p.m.
Via Zoom
RSVP not required
Debby Irving, author of "Waking Up White," will lead a workshop designed to support white people in making the paradigm shift from 'fixing' and 'helping' those believed to be inferior, to focusing on internalized white superiority and its role in perpetuating racism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. Using historical and media images, Debby will examine how she used her white-skewed belief system to interpret the world around her, instead of questioning the racial disparities and tensions she could see and feel.
About "Blindspot"
Hailed as "accessible and authoritative," by the Washington Post, "Blindspot" explores the hidden biases carried by society from a lifetime of exposure to predetermined mindsets about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality.
In doing so, the authors invite us to understand our own minds and challenge our self-perceptions, to reveal how our likes and dislikes, and judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential are shaped by hidden biases.
Using the Implicit Association Test, which they co-developed, Banaji and Greenwald mine research findings from their labs, and more than 14 million completed tests, to paint a fascinating picture of how the human mind operates in social contexts.
According to the authors, the title’s "good people" are the many people "who strive to align their behavior with their good intentions." By gaining awareness of our own biases, the authors assert, we can "adapt beliefs and behavior and 'outsmart the machine' in our heads so we can be fairer to those around us." "Blindspot" is available for purchase at the IU Northwest Book Store and Amazon.com.
About the reading initiative
The One Book…One Campus…One Community reading program is intended to build an intellectual and social rapport among students, staff, faculty, and community members. Through the collective experience of reading, thinking about, and discussing challenging ideas and themes about important social issues–especially those surrounding issues of diversity–campus perspectives are enriched.
Inspired by a similar program hosted on the IU Northwest campus from 2006 until 2010, the One Book...One Campus...One Community initiative has introduced a different book each year since its launch in January 2013.
To learn more, visit iun.edu/onebook
