A fifteen year old Jewish boy from New Jersey spends a summer living and working on a Kentucky tobacco farm in 1942, hosted by a family that happens to be Christian. This opportunity is provided through a Federal government program intended to “encourage America’s religious and national minorities to become further incorporated into the larger society.”* Sandy loves it. His parents are uneasy. Gradually the boy and his family slide into painful and ultimately dangerous conflict.
The desire to be – or at least seem to be – normal can cause terrible strain within families. Have you lived this through this – as a child, parent, sibling? Please join us and share your story. All are welcome!
*This week’s Conversation is a special tie-in to this year’s One Book One New Paltz book: Philip Roth’s quietly terrifying novel The Plot Against America.
I’m a Republican who faces discrimination from liberals and Democrats on campus but I doubt I’d be welcomed to this for that reason. It’s still a tempting idea where I can vent my frustrations, but it’s not worth it if I don’t know I’ll be comfortable.
Is Alex right? Can Conversation One help with this issue? Let’s discuss
Today, the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination
Schools are almost as segregated as they were 50 years ago, and my brown-skinned daughter and son are nearly as likely to end up in poverty as their grandparents were.* My anger over this reality endangers the most important lesson Dr. King taught: if I allow that anger to make me forget compassion toward those I’m angry at, I lose!
Conversation One at New Paltz is a place of mutual respect, where anyone is welcome to share, examine, undermine – the ways racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of exclusion and discrimination have impacted their life and those of people they care about. Bring what’s on your mind. OPEN TO ALL.
Two New Paltz dorms are named for Native American/American Indian tribes. If this land originally was theirs, what does it mean that – having killed and/or forcibly removed them – we now name buildings after them?
On a smaller scale, what does it mean when we absorb and celebrate others’ cultural heritage to our own profit? If one of the most successful Mexican-American restaurant chains is owned by non-Mexican Americans for example, is that a problem?
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Place: Sojourner Truth Library Conference Room (M39), 4:30pm
