All Events
Virtual Workshop
The Latinx Community and Covid-19: Understanding the Pandemic's Impact and Community Responses
Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, Dr. Melissa Smith, Alejandra Melgoza, Arcenio J. Lopez
Online
Please join the UCSB Department of Chicana/o Studies and the MCC to analyze the impact of Covid-19 on Latinx communities in Los Angeles and the Central Coast. Scholars, physicians, and community activists will discuss how the pandemic has disproportionately affected Chicanx/Latinx people and how they are organizing and responding to this multi-layered crisis.
Dr. David Hayes-Bautista is a Professor of Public Health and Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Melissa Smith is the Director of Health Equity Initiatives at UC Santa Barbara. Alejandra Melgoza is a community organizer with Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). Arcenio J. Lopez is the Executive Director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP).
Diversity Lecture
The Model Minority & Forever Foreigner Myths: Context, Consequences, Creating Change
Jessika Chi, PhD
MCC Theater
Empowering solidarity between communities of color is difficult because of the racial tropes produced by whiteness that continually pit communities of color against each other. Whiteness as an ideology has led to a unique construction of two hegemonic tropes for Asian Americans – the “forever foreigner” and the “model minority.” The “forever foreigner” positions Asian Americans as eternally not-American and critically different. Taken literally, it erases Asian American history by persistently portraying the community as newcomers to the United States. Simultaneously, the narrative of Asian Americans as “model minorities” is used to discredit the Civil Rights Movement, negate critiques of racism, and prevent community solidarity. Therefore, a critical examination of these two racial tropes are needed in order to understand how whiteness is institutionally imposed on, and internalized by, communities of color. Utilizing a critical race theory lens, this talk will provide context for the myths of the model minority and forever foreigner, illuminate the consequences of these racial stereotypes on communities of color, and offer strategies to create change.
BIO:
Jessika Chi, PhD, is the Assistant Dean for Institutional Diversity at Reed College and serves as an adjunct professor for Lewis & Clark College and the University of San Francisco's higher education programs. In her roles, she leads campus-wide diversity, equity, inclusion, and campus climate initiatives and prepares graduate students to be equity and student-centered change agents. Chi received their MA in educational administration and leadership with an emphasis on student affairs from University of the Pacific and their PhD in education and leadership from Pacific University. Her scholarship centers on critical examinations of racial ideologies and higher education's role in maintaining systems of inequity.
Co-Sponsors: Office of Equal Opportunity & Discrimination Prevention, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Conscious Conversations Series
The Movement for Black Lives, Fighting for Black Futures
Panelists Simone Ruskamp, Jasmine LInnea Kelkay, and Chelsea Alexandra Lancaster, facilitated by Dr. Terrance Wooten
Online
Through the work and envisioning of Black leaders, especially Black queer women, the past several years have ushered in an era of mass protest and worldwide demands for a reality where Black Lives Matter. This panel engages with Black organizers, community leaders, and scholars to discuss the radical possibilities of a future where all Black lives matter and explores the role of community in the fight for Black lives. Join the MCC for a dynamic conversation facilitated by MCC Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Terrance Wooten with panelists, including Simone Ruskamp, Jasmine LInnea Kelkay, and Chelsea Alexandra Lancaster.
DIVERSITY LECTURE
The Muslim American Life: Crushing Islamophobia with Countercultures of Resistance
MCC Theater
How should we understand the nature of contemporary Islamophobia? What motivates it? What sustains it? Who gains by it? Moustafa Bayoumi—author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror—discusses “War on Terror culture” as way to comprehend today’s Islamophobia. He will examine the ways the media, law, and politics mutually reinforce each other in viewing Muslims as potentially dangerous outsiders. Bayoumi will also address a growing “War on Terror counterculture,” that, by resisting the stereotypes and challenging the prevailing narratives of the “War on Terror,” fights not only for the rights of Muslim Americans but for the civil liberties of all. Professor Bayoumi teaches English at Brooklyn College.
