All Events
Harvest of Loneliness: the Bracero Program
MCC THEATER
This documentary explores the historical accounts of migrant Mexican farm workers brought into the U.S. from 1942 to1964 under the temporary contract worker program known as the Bracero Program to work as cheap, controlled, and disposable workers. Discussion with Gonzalez following the screening. Gilbert G Gonzalez, Vivian Price, and Adrian Salinas, 58 min., English and Spanish, 2010, USA. Co-sponsored by the Hull Chair in Feminist Studies.
Race Matters Series
Who's the Fairest of Them All? Race, Beauty and the Politics of Skin Tone Margaret Hunter
MCC LOUNGE
Cosmetic skin-bleaching is a multi-billion dollar industry around the globe. In nations including India, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, and the United States, light skin garners more money and more status. Both historical and contemporary forces maintain a system of light-skin privilege within communities of color. Light skin tone is particularly valuable for women of color in the job and marriage markets. But in this global pursuit of fair skin, is the ultimate cost too high? Margaret Hunter is Edward Hohfeld Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology at Mills College in Oakland. She is the author of Race, Gender and the Politics of Skin Tone, a book on skin tone discrimination and women of color. She has also published on colorblind racism in the post-civil rights era and women of color in hip-hop.
Cup of Culture - Meet the Filmmaker
COINTELPRO 101
MCC THEATER
COINTELPRO 101 is both a formal program of the FBI and a term frequently used to describe a conspiracy among local, state, and federal government agencies to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous struggles, as well as mount an institutionalized attack against allies of these movements and other progressive organizations. It represents the state’s strategy to prevent movements and communities from overturning white supremacy and creating racial justice. This documentary will introduce viewers new to this history to the social justice movements of the sixties and seventies. Discussion with director Claude Marks and former Black Panther Hank Jones following the screening. Andres Alegria, Prentis Hemphill, Anita Johnson, and Claude Marks, 56 min., English, 2010, USA. Co-sponsored by the Department of Asian American Studies and KCSB-FM.
Patricia Selbert in Conversation with Pico Iyer. The House of Six Doors
MCC LOUNGE
In an intimate conversation with renowned author Pico Iyer, local author Patricia Selbert shares her experiences and excerpts from her recent novel, The House of Six Doors, a compelling story of immigration from the Caribbean Islands to California that follows a girl as she moves between two cultures, cradled between longing for her indigenous past and the glittering promise of her future in America. Born to Dutch parents in the jungles of Venezuela and raised in Curaçao, Selbert richly spices this novel with images from her own life and experiences. She artfully portrays the honest transformation of an immigrant family, moving from memories of a windswept island and a grandmother’s wisdom to the poignant integration and reality facing all American immigrants. Refreshments will be served.
