Decoding Discourse:
From Apathy to Advocacy
MEAD 2021
Identity and Racism in Campus Culture
This ATH 421 Senior Seminar MEAD Project uses anthropology to better understand how Miami community members use talking about racism to negotiate both individual and collective identities.
Click through the links to the side of the descriptions below for each episode's synopsis, information, and transcript
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Vignette #1 - Moral Panics, Language, and Myths
This episode looks at moral panics- the widely-spread, scandalous soundbites of white Miamians saying something overtly racist and the ways they're talked about- and what they can teach us about Miami's campus culture surrounding race.
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Through moral panics, we look into ideologies about language and race, how they influence the way moral panics develop, and how anthropology is specially adept to debunk the myths rooted into common campus worldviews about race.
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We also address and tackle the "folk theory of racism" by pointing out where it appears in campus moral panics, how it perpetuates racist beliefs about human nature, and how anthropological research can show the realities behind the myths.
Vignette #2 - Institutional Versus Individual Responses: Why Miami Can't Save Us
This episode takes a deeper look at the way Miami's administration officially responds to racial incidents on campus. We illustrate how Miami has to appeal to different ideologies and agendas when addressing incidents of racially motivated origin in order to avoid majority alienation of their student body, even if their efforts fall flat for the minority student population.
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Using the Greek Life system as a catalyst for further exploration of the racial tensions and moral panics at Miami University, we examine multiple case studies and student bias incident reports from year past to understand the culture and history of Miami's Greek organizations versus the bias scandals that have been attributed to them.
Vignette #3 - Stickers and Stereotypes: How "Free Speech" Advocates Police Anti-Racists
This vignette educates listeners about covert racism, Neo-fascism, and alt-right movements on campus and shows how anthropology can identify the ideological biases racists use to hide, justify, and normalize fascist behavior and rhetoric. Here, we addresses the urgency of addressing racism on campus and showing how fascists hijack terminology, polices, and values on campus to normalize white supremacist beliefs and intimidate marginalized students.
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After giving listeners some tools to identify and debunk alt-right, Neo-fascist, and white supremacist projects on campus, it urges them to actively work against fascism and racism on campus by identifying and calling out covert racist discourse, advocating for academic freedom, and by using their voices, stories, and connections to change campus culture.
