Black History Month Events at Two Colleges

Posted in Articles, Live Events, Media Archive, United States on 2013-02-10 04:01Z by Steven

Black History Month Events at Two Colleges

The San Diego Union-Tribune
2013-02-09

Karen Pearlman

El Cajon — Both East County community colleges are getting into the commemoration of Black History Month with free events this month.

A library exhibit featuring John Robert Clifford, a seminal figure in African-American history (and a forefather of a Cuyamaca College administrator) and a stepping demonstration by members of a historically black fraternity are part of the commemoration at Cuyamaca College.

At Grossmont College, the celebration will take on a culinary and artistic flair, with events ranging from a soul food lunch with live jazz, a visit by a pair of blues and jazz masters, and the showing of a student documentary…

…Grossmont College film student Sicarra Devers, 22, cites her mixed-race heritage as inspiration for her documentary, “Who Are We Really: An Exploration of Multiculturalism Self-identity,” which will be shown at 4 p.m. Feb. 19 in Room 220 of Building 26. The film explores self-identity through the lens of a multicultural society and includes interviews of students, faculty and community members to highlight issues related to race relations.

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Obama and the complexities of identity

Posted in Articles, Barack Obama, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2012-01-01 01:19Z by Steven

Obama and the complexities of identity

The San Diego Union-Tribune
2008-06-19

Bey-Ling Sha, Professor of Journalism and Media Studies
San Diego State University

In a recent commentary titled “What He Overcame,” Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson described Barack Obama as a “young, black, first-term senator.” In her campaign-suspension speech, Hillary Clinton said, “Could an African-American really be our president? . . . Sen. Obama has answered that one.” These descriptions of Obama are typical of many others offered by and reported in the news media.

What’s wrong with these descriptions of Obama as being black or African-American? As others have already noted, these descriptions reify the supposedly outdated “one-drop rule,” whereby any individual with even “one drop” of African heritage was considered black.

A second, related problem is that these descriptions are instances of identity ascription, whereby one person assigns an identity to another person, usually based on physical characteristics. Thus, someone with blond hair and blue eyes is usually called “white,” even if that person has African, Asian or Native American heritage somewhere in his or her background…

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