This spring, Dr. Bomberger will be teaching a course called “Let’s Talk about Race”. Students will be learning about the different life experiences of students, listen to a variety of speakers, and read/discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Anti-Racist. The class will focus on difficult conversations and start a dialog among students about their own views regarding race and ethnicity.

I asked Dr. Bomberger for some extra information about the class, here’s what she had to say:

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“It’s a challenging time on all sorts of levels.  The murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests have caused people to be more ready to engage in true dialogue over challenging topics of race and ethnicity. Often our society teaches us to be “color blind,” which can cause a lot of problems and misunderstandings. It’s wonderful and important to have an open heart and mind to people from all backgrounds, but that alone will not stop racism. Structures in our society don’t treat people of different backgrounds the same way.   

This class will engage students interested in being open to hearing one another’s lived experience. I will do a lot to work to build classroom community so that there is a sense of trust, because people will not agree with one another (nor should they) and these are sensitive topics.  We’ll have a lot of guest speakers to give us some historical and political contexts and will read and discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s easy to read (but challenging for some to hear) book, How To Be an Anti-Racist. It’s a great way to have meaningful dialogue and pick up an honors credit.”

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