C E NT ER
F O R
M U L T I C U L T U RA L
ED U C A T I O N
VOICES
Monday, November 4 2013
Promoting Diversity in the University Community and Beyond...
Native American
Heritage Month
3
Human Rights
Conference
4
Schedule of Events 5
for Human Rights
Conference
CME Student
Worker Highlight
6
Upcoming Events
at the CME
7
Interested in sharing
your unique
December holiday traditions with the CME
and the
readers of VOICES?
Contact either
Brittni Haag
(haagb@uni.edu)
or
Lauren Wypiszynski
(wypiszyl@uni.edu)
to be featured in
next month’s
newsletter!
November is finally here! Which
means a bit colder weather, a week off of
classes (WOO HOO!), and the start of
the holiday season. While many of us
celebrate Thanksgiving in a similar way,
everyone has their own way of representing their culture in their family traditions. We interviewed a few different
UNI students to see how they celebrated
their
Thanksgiving
Holiday.
Makayla McDonald is a junior here at
UNI. Her Thanksgiving Day starts with
traveling to her grandparents’ house
where she meets up with all of her relatives. Here they eat lunch, usually pizza,
and spend the rest of the afternoon
hanging out and watching movies together. When 6:30 rolls around, it’s finally time for Thanksgiving dinner,
where the feast on a little bit of everything, including turkey, casseroles, and
various salads. One unique thing and
one of Makayla’s favorites are the Jello
eggs that are served every year. When
Friday arrives, it is a day to just camp
out and perhaps go Black Friday shopping
with
some
friends.
Sophomore Jesse Moe celebrates his
Thanksgiving with close family friends
and relatives. He and his family are vegetarians, so while turkey and ham aren’t
on the menu, other seasonal foods like potatoes and squash are served. Lasagna and
garlic bread are other nontraditional dishes they eat every year. Last but not least
are the scrumptious desserts, such as
pumpkin cheesecake and peanut butter
fudge. Friday is a very fun day for Jesse’s
family and friends. Those that have stuck
around help them find their Christmas
tree. After that, they come back to his
home and play in their annual Turkey
Bowl. This “touch” football game is extremely physical and very competitive.
Every year brings a fresh batch of minor
injuries,
but
no
one
in
his family would miss it for the world.
Molly Pleggenkuhle is a second-year
graduate student, her final year at UNI.
Molly’s part Italian, her grandparents being full-blooded Italian, so that’s the type
of food they serve. Lunch is served “at
two” (usually three) and the spread consists of homemade ravioli, bracioles, rigatoni, and rolls. Some traditional dishes are
on the table too, like broccoli casserole,
corn, and mashed potatoes. Molly’s family
likes to spend the day outdoors, playing
football, basketball, and bags. Friday they
get in the Christmas spirit and help set up
her granny’s tree and Christmas decorations, all while listening to festive music.
Molly
Pleggenkuhle
2
Jesse
Moe
Dr. Blackwell
Piece
Students’ Thanksgiving Traditions
Makayla
McDonald
Inside this Issue:
Page 2
I was ready to go home
when the principal’s voice came
over the public address system
of William Samuel Johnson Elementary School in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, that something
horrible was taking place in Dallas, Texas. It was around 1:45 in
the afternoon and the entire
class, including the teacher, Mrs.
Zissell, was held in suspense for
another fifteen minutes – not
knowing what was going on! It
was like being in suspended animation as we awaited the next
word from the administrative office: President John F.
Kennedy was dead from an assassin’s bullet.
All kinds of thoughts were scurrying through my brain.
I was shocked and scared to death—even to the point of
believing that the murderer would walk through my thirdgrade-classroom door! I had already become superficially
acquainted with our young head of state through my weekly social studies newsletter. I had seen him on television a
number of times by then and, of course, everyone was familiar with the First Lady, America’s Queen. I did not
know about the Bay of Pigs fiasco or that just a year prior,
the world was at the brink of mass destruction during the
Cuban Missile Crisis. I had heard of the widely successful
March on Washington and the president’s great pleasure
over the patriotic hopefulness in Martin Luther King Jr.’s
“I Have a Dream” speech. By that time, many African
Americans came to see Kennedy as a supporter of their
civil rights cause—a dramatic shift from his earlier reticence, which was in capitulation to the perceived
wishes
of
southern
Democrats.
”Violence
is as American as
cherry pie”
~H. Rap Brown
Such horrific violence would haunt me through the
1960’s. The killing of Medgar Evers occurred the night of
a very inspiring speech by Kennedy on Civil Rights. The
bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church ripped through
the basement where four little girls lost their lives. Our
rabid anticommunism lead to the rapid escalation of US
involvement in the Vietnam War. And merely two months
apart, the nation and the world witnessed the brutal assassinations of Dr. King and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Although I did not agree with his politics, I could resonate
with the words of H. Rap Brown, who said, “
Violence is as American as cherry pie.”
Here we are 50 years
after the felling of President Kennedy, and the
fear and trembling and
sadness and wailing and
spinning of conspiracy
theories are remarkably
vivid to me. Many things
since then have changed
for the better. After all,
who would have thought
there would be a black
person sitting in the Oval
Office as Commander-inChief? But as the saying goes, the more things change, the
more they stay the same. There are still people who are
grossly poor in this country. Access to quality education is
not universal. White privilege is still alive and well. Women still do not receive equal pay for equal work.
The persistence of these problems challenges us to find
creative approaches to resolve them. One way for us to
meet the current crises is to have a tete-a-tete with the
scholar-activist Angela Davis. Prior to having her run-in
with the law, Davis studied at the Sorbonne, graduated
magna cum laude from Brandeis, became a member of Phi
Beta Capa, sat at the feet of Herbert Marcuse, and did
graduate work at the University of Frankfurt. Davis
earned her Master’s Degree from the University of California at San Diego and her Doctorate in Philosophy at Humboldt University in East Berlin of the German Democratic
Republic. She was fired from her first job as an instructor
at UCLA for having ties with communism. She sued the
university and won, returned to campus, but left a year
later at the end of her contract.
Page 3
Davis
befriended
the younger brother,
Jonathan, of a prisoner named George Jackson, with whom she
was in a relationship.
Jackson was a member
of a group of three or
four guys who came to
be known as the Soledad brothers. These unrelated
“brothers” sought to break out of prison. Some of the
weapons used were allegedly purchased by Davis, who was
not part of the attempted escape. Never the less, a judge
considered her to be an accomplice and sentenced her to
prison. Her incarceration ignited a sustained “Free Angela”
campaign, not only in the United States, but also in Europe
and other places around the world. As a result of this
public
support,
Davis
was
acquitted
of
all
charges
after
sixteen
months.
For over thirty years, Davis has been a fervent advocate
of civil and human rights. She is most noted for her work
titled Women, Race, and Class. Most recently, she has
been attacking the prison-industrial complex and promoting its abolition. Recently retired, Davis is Distinguished
Professor Emerita at the University of California at Santa
Cruz. She remains active and focuses primarily on inspiring young people to utilize their creative and idiosyncratic
genius to forge a just, peaceful, and sustainable global society.
Join us in remembrance during the 50th Anniversary
of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination
Panel Discussion
JFK’s Civil Rights Legacy
Friday, November 22
12:00 PM
CME
Page 4
The Cedar Valley Conference on Human Rights is right around the corner, and the lineup this year does
not disappoint. Strong, independent women will be speaking at this year’s conference, going along with
the CME’s 2013-2014 theme of “Women and Society.” The theme of this year’s conference is Finding your
own Way: Organizing for Social Change and Human Rights. The following women will present their testimonies and what we can do as a community to promote this social change.
Christine Seyboe Tour
Keynote Address: Angela Davis
As mentioned in our October issue, Ms. Angela Davis is
the keynote speaker this year from the conference. She is
currently a Professor Emerita at the University of California,
Santa Cruz and is a part of the History of Consciousness and
Feminist Studies departments. Though she hasn’t always
been held in such high esteem. In 1969 under false charges
related to the Soledad Brothers’ prison break in which a police officer died, she was put on the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted List. She was eventually acquitted after spending sixteen
months in prison. Her personal experience has lead her to
lecture on the racial inequities in our criminal justice system.
Christine Seyboe Tour was a refugee of the Liberian civil
war in Ghana and started working under and owner of a
beauty salon. Once she acquired enough experience, she
became an entrepreneur and starter her own shop, the
Chriseta Beauty Salon. While she was building her own
salon, she became aware of just how many young girls and
women selling their bodies on street corners in order to
make a living. With open arms she brought them into her
salon to teach them her trade so that they could leave the
red light districts and make a safer living. This transformed her shop into the Chriseta Beauty Institute. Once
the war ended, Christine returned home and opened up
another Beauty Institute.
The Goldman Sachs 10,000
Women Project, which recognizes women around the
world who are making a
difference in their community, selected Christine
Seyboe Tour in 2010 as a
Liberian representative.
Jessica Garaway
Some of you might
actually know this
speaker, as she is a senior here at UNI, majoring in Women’s and
Gender Studies and Political Science.
As a
member of the Feminist
Action League, she is interested in people of color’s cultural traditions and expression. She is a recent founder
of the organization Deep Roots United Front, which
gathers folks together who recognize how the dominate
society disregards history, ethos, and customs of cultures. This past summer she participated in a “Summer
of Action”, where she traveled to different parts of the
nation demonstrating and protesting against social structures, processes, and polices that depreciate human lives
and their communities.
Erica Littlewolf
Erica Littlewolf is from
the Northern Cheyenne
tribe of southeastern Montana. Currently living in
Albuquerque, New Mexico,
she is working for the Mennonite Central Committee
Central States with the Indigenous Visions center where she
focuses on decolonization, authentic relationships, and
healing. Littlewolf has her B.S. in American Indian Studies
and Psychology and uses her degrees to help Indigenous
people and social justice. issues.
Page 5
Schedule of Events
Thursday
Friday
November 7
November 8
12:00-1:00 PM
Registration
7:30-8:00 AM
Continental Breakfast
1:00-1:30
Opening Remarks
8:00-8:30
Welcome
1:30-2:45
Fostering Change in Liberia
8:30-10:15
Panel Discussion
Christen Seyboe Tour
Angela Davis
Using Summers Wisely
Erica Littlewolf
Jessica Garraway
Heather Roby
4:15-4:30
Closing Remarks
Dr. Catherine MacGillvery
7:00-8:00
Keynote Address
3:00-4:15
10:30-11:20
Angela Davis
Indigenous Women Issues
Erica Littlewolf
11:30-12:20
*Conference held at the Gallagher-Bluedorn
Performing Arts Center
Where do we go from here?
Lisa Munoz
Debora Barry
and others
12:20-12:30
Charge and Dismissal
The keynote address by Angela Davis is open to the public. Registration for the Annual Human Rights Conference is $30.00 for regular adult admission and $10.00 for students. Make checks payable to Waterloo
Commission on Human Rights and send to 620 Mulberry Street, Waterloo, IA 50703. For more information,
please contact the Commission secretary at 319-291-4441 or visit http://www.ci.waterloo.ia.us/humanrights.
For additional information about Davis’ visit, please contact the secretary at the Center for Multicultural Education at 319-273-2250.
Page 6
As the leaves change color, and the smell of pumpkins are in the air, we mark the beginning of November with the celebration of Native American Heritage Month. The purpose of the Native American Heritage Month is to honor and recognize the original peoples of this land. Some of the early advocates of the celebration of an American Indian Day date back to as early as 1915. Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day to recognize the “First
Americans.” For three years they did just that, adopting a celebratory holiday for Native Americans
(The creation of American Indian heritage month, 2007).
During the same time period, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association formally approved a plan to establish an American Indian Day. A proclamation was issued by the association’s president, Rev. Sherman Collidge, recognizing the second Saturday in May as American Indian Day. Moreover, the first state celebration was in New York in May of 1916. It was not until
1990 when President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November as
“National American Heritage Month.”
Ways to Celebrate!
About Native American History
1491: New Revelations of the Americas
Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
Did you know that Lacrosse originated
as an indigenous stick ball game played by
American Indians? Celebrate Native American
Heritage month by participating in a Lacrosse
game or attending a high school or college
game!
The creation of american indian heritage
month. (2007). Retrieved from http://
www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmorigins1.html
Page 7
November:
November 7:
November 10:
November 11
November 11 :
Native American
Heritage Month
CME Lecture
Series:
Kristallnacht:
CME Book Club
The Night of
Mark My
Words: Native
Women Mapping Our
Nations (First
Peoples: New
Directions in
Indigenous
Studies)
Reaching for
Higher Ground
Film Series:
November 7&8:
Featuring:
Broken Glass
Annual Human
Rights
Conference
Ms. Angela
3:00 Pm
$30.00 for
Adults
$10.00 for
Students
Location:
Davis
7:00 PM
GallagherBluedorn
Location:
GallagherBluedorn
Performing Arts
Center
Performing Arts
Center
Author: MIshuana
Goeman
FREE AND OPEN
TO THE PUBLIC
Location: CME
Price of Sugar
7:00 PM
Location: CME
Discussion to
Follow
3:30 PM
Like Designing
Comics?
We are looking for student designed comics,
related to holiday celebrations, for our
December issue! Please submit your work by
November 21st to be considered!
Center for Multicultural Education
109 Maucker Union
Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614-0165
Phone: 319-273-2250
Email: cme@uni.edu
Website: www.uni.edu/cme
Our Mission:
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
We foster success in racial and ethnic minority students, contribute to the cultural competence of all
students, and promote an appreciation of diversity in the University Community.
Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Michael D. Blackwell
Co-Editors: Lauren Wypiszynski and Brittni Haag