Race Relations Book Required Reading

The Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 3/11/03 | KNS

[TwoBear]

Freshmen entering the University of Tennessee this fall will find they have at least one thing in common with their classmates.

Under a new program called Life of the Mind, all first-year students will be required to read "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride.

During the freshman Welcome Week they will participate in one-hour discussion sessions about the book, led by faculty volunteers from a variety of academic disciplines.

"The Life of the Mind program is a superb opportunity for the University to acquaint new freshmen students with some of our fine faculty," Provost Loren Crabtree said. "The discussions will highlight academic opportunities and expectations, which will be reinforced as themes from the book reappear in regular courses throughout the fall semester.

"We expect the program to engage students in intellectual pursuits from the very beginning of their college careers."

Students are asked to purchase the book, read it over the summer, and write a one-page response to bring to the discussion session.

"The Color of Water" is a memoir that tells the true story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who leaves her home in the South, moves to Harlem, marries a black man, and battles racism and poverty as she raises 12 children and sends them to college.

The mother's story is interspersed with the story of her son, who struggles to understand his mother's past and to define his own identity.

A faculty committee that teaches and supervises freshmen courses selected the book, Crabtree said. The committee also plans to invite author McBride to campus for a lecture early in the fall semester, he said.

[TwoBear]

PC Police are in effect!

[ClearCase_guy]

You know, I wouldn't have a problem with this if the Sophomore class had a book assigned to them. Let's say "The 10 Things You Can't Say in America" by Larry Elder. The University could even swap the books from time to time (maybe Freshman should read Elder in some years, and Sophomores read the piece of crap book as a follow-up the following year.

Having read the 2 books, I wonder which one the Juniors would judge most convincing.

[ohioman]

It would be a cold day in hell that I would ever read this crap. I remember when I was in College we had a requirement to take a Turd World studies class and a woman's studies class. Both were taught by a couple of jackboot commies. After raising hell with my advisor I was given permission to take a couple of other classes which were much harder (i.e., extra Statistics classes). My reputation really helped me out here. :)

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[MHT]

I was recently asked to lead a book group at my children's school speicifically targeting community building--NOT "celebrating our diversity" but a real effort to be able to bond with people different from ourselves, find things we have IN COMMON (NOT the "differences" we "enjoy"), and create a community greater than the sum of the parts.

I had read that book years ago in a racially-mixed book group and everyone enjoyed it. It is particularly interesting because his white mother was a Jewish immigrant who became a Christian pastor's wife when she married.

It is an intriguing book about more than race---it's about being a product of the times in which you grow up as well as the ability to succeed when the odds are against you.

If anything, this might be a candidate for the FR book group. There are lessons of value to be learned from this widow's struggle to raise a big family in turbulent times. If anything, it was old-fashioned work ethic and maintenance of family structure which made their lives work.

[Chi-townChief]

How about David Horowitz' Hating Whitey (and other progressive causes) ?

[DryFly]

Too bad for you, because you would be missing a very touching tribute by a successful black man to his white, Jewish mother that put him and each of his 11 siblings through college despite growing up in the projects. It is a book that captures the purest essence of the American Dream, and should be championed by conservatives who believe in self help above government handouts. BTW, the title "The Color of Water" is taken from the mother's answer to one of her children when asked, "What color is God?"

[MEGoody]

Well, this seems a MUCH better choice than requiring the incoming freshman to read a tribute to the Quran. (I believe it was the University of North Carolina that required this last year.)

[ClearCase_guy]

Well, I was too quick with a snide comment about the book. I assumed that it was a PC piece of junk. Apparently, I was wrong. I am glad to see this school asking students to read a book which promotes American values of hard work and self-determination.

[Question_Assumptions]

Keith Richberg's Out of Africa is also a good book for cross-racial understanding, I think.

[Question_Assumptions]

Excuse me. Richberg's book is Out of America, a play on the title "Out of Africa".

[spintreebob]

My reputation really helped me out here

Meaning what? They didn't want no troublemakers in the class?

[vetvetdoug]

I would suspect who benefits from the sale of the book. Making a book mandatory for reading makes it a commodity that will be needed by all freshman students. Somebody has their hands in the till, I would bet on it. I went to UTK and saw several professors make money off the sales of their books; many not worth the paper on which they were printed.

[BenLurkin]

"The 10 Things You Can't Say in America" by Larry Elder. BUMP

[MHT]

Is that the book about the guy who goes back to Africa to discover his "roots" and becomes grateful that he's an American?

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

Why don't the companies and parents just wake up and realize that "college" isn't really about learning, anymore. All of my friends went to college. I didn't. Guess who has the best job, calls his own shots, and is most educated when it comes to history, America, International Affairs, etc.? Me!

I ain't needed no mofo college! =)

Ok. I admit it. I went for two years. I was bored. I was tired of the propaganda. And I started to wonder WHY I was paying fools to teach me irrelevant dribble when I could be making someone else PAY ME for my talents and abilities, while honing my professional skilset "on the job". College just doesn't make as much sense as it used to. It's becoming too much of an "automatic" hoop good little Commie kids jump through. People need to start aggressively analyzing the "expense" and "return on investment" before they throw their money away.

[T Lady]

"College just doesn't make as much sense as it used to."

...I couldn't agree with you more. One of the major reasons the Left has been pushing for EVERY American child to go to college (Democrat Presidential candidate John Edwards floated this idea on the Today Show) is to systematically brainwash and indoctrinate future generations and turn the United States into the new Soviet Union. Just imagine what elections would be like.

-Regards, T.

[Question_Assumptions]

Is that the book about the guy who goes back to Africa to "roots" and becomes grateful that he's an American?

Not exactly. He was a Washington Post reporter who was first sent to Southeast Asia (where, as an American, he was well treated) to Africa (where he was sometimes mistaken for a native and treated accordingly). But he did learn that his identity was "American" and he often had more in common with the white reporters he worked with than the native blacks of Africa. And he couldn't help thinking, upon visiting one of the main places in West Africa where slaves were sent off to the New World, that he was thankful his ancestors were dragged onto the ships and sent to America. Well written and worth reading. The only tarnish is that, while Richberg seems to have seen much of Africa for what it is, he has a soft hopeful spot for South Africa and that spot is something of a blind spot, judging by more recent comments of his that I've seen posted here. But given everything that what he does admit to in the book, I'm willing to cut him some slack. It is a very depressing situation there.

[cyborg]

Do I get exempt from reading this book since I come from a multiethnic family and grew up poor too? Ridiculous. I would de-register if I were required to read such a book.

[rdb3]

Thank you!

The book is not bad at all.

ohioman, look before you leap.