From the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
2021 Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks
A Virtual Series| Sundays February 7 – March 14 | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Claiming Our Place: Blacks in “White Spaces”
“They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.”
—James Baldwin–from “The Fire Next Time”
America has a long and troubled history of segregated public spaces. When Amy Cooper called the police on Christian Cooper (no relation) in Central Park last year, the incident underscored a familiar script that continues America’s legacy of enslavement. Some whites perceive African Americans who venture into public spaces as dangerous and disruptive intruders. All it took was a white woman to spout a racist dog whistle and the park, a public space, was made unsafe for a Black man.
The 2021 Tea Talk Series, as a way to rethink our assumptions about race and place, explores how African Americans navigate various “white spaces”, spaces where Blacks and People of Color are marginalized, typically absent, and unexpected. Through shared stories and dialogue this series will present ideas and offer opportunities for understanding and reconciliation.
The winter Tea Talk series, presented by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire (BHTNH) and sponsored in part by a grant from New Hampshire Humanities, is a series of participatory lectures related to New Hampshire’s Black history and African American culture.
These events are free and open to the public.
All talks are Sunday afternoons from 2:00 – 4:00 PM.
Registration for each talk is required.
This final topic of the series is described below, with a link to register.
Sunday, March 14, 2021 | 2:00 – 4:00 PM
On Shaky Ground: Students of Color in Predominantly White Institutions
Presenters:
Rekha Mahadevan, Berwick Academy Class of 2023
Grace Morelli, University of New Hampshire Class of 2021,
Curtis Linton, University of New Hampshire Class of 2021, Mechanical Engineer
Ken Holmes, Senior Vice Provost for Student Life, University of New Hampshire
Moderator: Jada Hebra, Senior Vice President & Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Southern NH University
For many students of color, being in an environment in which most of the people are different from themselves is a challenging experience. Students of color who are not able to feel connected to and a part of the university may feel alienated, inadequate, and depressed. Many experience pressure to adopt the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the dominant white culture while simultaneously feeling pressure to abandon their own culture.
Hear from a group of young New Hampshire students as they identify some of the social pressures they experience while attending a white educational institution, and ways in which they navigate campus environments to achieve self-realization and achieve academic success while creating a sense of belonging
