Elizabeth Alexander, the poet laureate who addressed the nation at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration, spoke with students and faculty in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. The presentation, Hearing America Singing: Multi-Vocal Cultures in America, focused on the role of African American studies in our nation.

Alexander began her lecture through an appraisal of those individuals who came before her – such influences as Walt Whitman, John Hope Franklin and W.E.B. Dubois. She read aloud Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” which illustrates the commonplace activities in the lives of such distinctive and disparate individuals. The poem reflects the belief that there is no harmonious and monolithic America that is “beyond race” – and that is how it should be, for our differences should be cherished.

Throughout the lecture, Alexander stressed the importance of African American studies in higher education. This curriculum was first implemented 40 years ago, and the anniversary provides us with a lens through which we might examine both the progress and current position of the field.

African American studies first gained its institutional footing as a discipline due to the protests and civil disobedience – such as sit-ins – that an ambitious and youthful generation devoted itself to.

Alexander delivered a stern warning against turning our backs away from the archives, especially at such a time as now when the humanities are under attack. She discussed the notion of personal responsibility, urging everyone to become caretakers of the tradition and to sustain an ongoing conversation from within. Furthermore, with the increased dismantling of the dominant literary studies comes space for African American studies to enter into the fray.

Alexander lamented what she terms the “cost of racial thinking.” She referenced the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar who had perceived white audiences that were concerned only with fulfi lling the racial stereotype through writing with an African American dialectic and tone.

Alexander challenged what most take for granted – historical texts. As a means to show her point, she mentioned the poet Natasha Tretheway, whose “Southern History” narrates her own high school education as a blatant disregard for the record of racial prejudice. The poem, which Alexander read aloud, detailed being taught Gone with the Wind in the 1970’s – more so, being taught it as a true account. The stereotype is quite evident in one line: “a slave stood big as life: big mouth, bucked eyes, our textbook’s grinning proof – a lie my teacher guarded.”

However, Alexander argues that there have been those moments in which the African American community has completely disowned these racial stereotypes. For example, just read through Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, concerning a black woman’s uphill struggle against racist white culture. Or take Zora Neale Hurston and her work How It Feels to be Colored Me, regarding self-discovery and cultural appreciation during such turbulent times.

Alexander fi nished her presentation by imparting a personal story. She discussed sending her children to Nature’s Classroom and the double-edged sword of the education received there.

On the one hand, the children learned social truths of that time period through the “Underground Railroad game” – the clear-cut benefi t of such multicultural education.

However, to her dismay Alexander also discovered that the children had sung the song “Jump Down, Turn Around, Pick a Bail of Cotton.” Although the faculty had the best intentions in mind, it failed to appreciate the backbreaking servitude and racial stereotype that the song stood for – the negative consequence of racial ignorance.

Alexander finished by reiterating one fundamental concept to live by: “You only hurt yourself by not educating yourself.”

Related Articles:

1. Occupy Wall Street Occupies and Infects American Minds Occupy Wall Street is not an attack...