Aiming for Action

By Ashley Thomas

From attending a lecture featuring a famous filmmaker at Millett Hall to experiencing a college-level course at The Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, students are able to actively engage in the curriculum of social justice.

Spike Lee at Miami

On February 3, 2005, filmmaker and director Spike Lee visited Miami, presenting two dynamic lectures at Hall Auditorium and Millett Hall. Lee is famous for writing and directing films like Malcolm X, She’s Gotta Have It and his 2002 directing project, 25th Hour, starring Edward Norton.

Lee’s stop at Miami was a part of the John W. Altman Major Speakers Series and was sponsored by the College of Arts and Science and the Richard T. Farmer School of Business. The black world studies program members served as advisors for the event. According to black world studies program director Rodney Coates, the College of Arts and Science and the School of Business need to be applauded.

“[Lee’s appearances] would not have happened without them,” Coates said. “It was their ball game and they invited us to the party.”

Lee’s visit to Miami was well-publicized and students demonstrated their interest by attending both presentations

“The turnout was really good,” said film studies program director Pete Martin. “I think that is an indication of the student interest.”

The first of two appearances, an open discussion entitled “The Film Industry, the Media, the Mass Communications Business and More,” was held at Hall Auditorium.

The auditorium quickly filled with eager students, professors and visitors to hear Lee speak. Most arrived well in advance of the presentation, while some students rushed in at the last moments, searching for any empty seats including those in the front three rows, all reserved for distinguished professors and guests.

Lee took the stage, wearing leopard-framed lenses and a black leather cap. Taking questions from the audience, Lee spoke about a range of topics, including his disagreement with the negative depiction of black women in gangster rap music.

“I really liked how both in the afternoon and evening sessions, he talked about the music industry and the exploitation of women,” said senior English major Nick LiCastro. “It is obviously an important topic.”

“I did enjoy his comments attacking gangster rap,” said senior mass communication major Niki Ross. “It was nice to hear a prominent African-American figure make a stance against this growing subculture.

The larger of the two presentations, “Film and Entrepreneurship: America Through My Lens,” at a packed Millett Hall gave Lee the chance to lecture students on his career in the film world. Lee shared with students that early in his career, he and his crew members would save empty pop bottles and cans to cash in for nickels. This saving bought him two extra rolls of film on the set of She’s Gotta Have It, his first major film production.

Lee ’s presence on Miami’s campus provided students with a look at the role of social justice in film and the outside world — the world outside Miami.

People need to hear me in the Midwest too,” said Lee, when asked why he decided to come to Miami’s small campus. “Not all the time should you speak to the choir. A lot of times many people have heard me speak and knew nothing about me other than what they’ve read. They think Spike Lee is a racist; he acts like a maniac at New York Knicks games. That’s what they think of me before I speak. For the most part, they come away from hearing me speak thinking differently. I think what it also does, it makes people evaluate films they have seen or check out the ones they haven’t seen.”

By coming to the Midwest and encouraging students to reflect on his films, Lee is able to promote issues of social justice, a major goal of many College of Arts and Science programs, especially the black world studies program.

Martin believes that Lee does play an important role in promoting social justice on a college campus.

“I think just by virtue of the fact that he is so outspoken he has a role,” said Martin.

“The thrust of what Spike Lee is about has a social justice focus,” Coates said. “He’s one individual with talent and skills. He has certainly had an impact, but he is just one individual.”

The Feb. 3 events were just one step. To engage students fully, faculty and professors affiliated with the black world studies program are busy working to ensure the future of Miami’s curriculum includes social justice.

Black World Studies

No longer are black world studies primarily concerned with racial justice, but the program has expanded to include social justice issues as well.

“I believe that black world studies is the dialogue not only in racial justice, but in social justice,” Coates said. “Social justice is the next adventure in intellectual and creative endeavors.”

“As long as teachers are open-minded and unbiased in their teaching of social justice,” Niki Ross said. “then I think teaching social justice issues can be a good thing.”

The black world studies program aims to do just that. Currently, the program offers many opportunities, including the Penny Lecture Series, which provide students with the possibility to understand the core ideas of social justice.
According to Coates, all black world studies courses directly relate to the ideas of social justice.

“Implicitly, this [social justice] is part of all of our courses,” said Coates. “Social justice has its roots in the very essence of human justice movements. It is a theme that is timeless.”

So, while courses on the Miami campus are being offered, the black world studies program hopes to bring social justice into real-life experiences.

Thomas A. Dutton, black world studies affiliate, has already helped by creating the Miami University Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine.

The center is the result of a community relationship that dates back to 1981 and provides a place for faculty, staff and visitors to engage in active learning opportunities.

“The center was actually inspired by student ideas,” said Dutton.
Dutton, who currently teaches two courses in Over-the-Rhine, says the center is becoming increasingly important as CAS faculty have engaged the center in their own work.

Geography assistant professor Patricia Ehrkamp uses the center regularly with her classes and Coates has taught a semester-long course in collaboration with Xavier University students at the center.

One of Dutton’s courses, Culture and Poverty, which he teaches with communications associate professor Lisa McLaughlin, brings in community, civic and religious leaders to educate students about urban life and poverty.

These leaders have included Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich and famous black scholar Manning Marable, who writes a column in the Cincinnati Herald.

The center is just one of many steps being taken. The Black world studies program, along with American studies director Marguerite Shaffer, is working on curricular changes that will incorporate local and global experiences.

“Social justice courses must engage our students outside the Miami community,” said Dutton.

Keeping that in mind, black world studies hopes to create not just one course, but a semester-long program in which students live in rural Oxford Hamilton or Cincinnati.

“We are up in the top universities to send students abroad,” said Coates. “We have the Luxembourg program. Why not an at-home, domestic studies program?”

The program hopes to send five Miami students on a service learning semester in an urban or rural community next fall.

While the program is still in its preliminary stages, hopes are high. The black world studies program is engaged in bringing social justice to students.
Through interactive lectures, discussion and learning opportunities, social justice becomes a reality for students.

All photos by Liz Schilling

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