This past Thursday, students were given the opportunity to attend a discussion centered on the relation between the experiences of the four speakers in college, and how they were connected to the events described in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s award-winning book “Between the World and Me.” Hosted jointly by NCSU Libraries and NC State’s Black Alumni Society, the event highlighted the similarities and disparities between the modern African-American college experience and the experience black students would’ve had in college in the mid-20th century.
This particular novel, which was selected for the 2017 first-year common reading assignment, details the author’s recollection of events from his youth, his time in college and his analysis on how they connect to current events in the form of a letter to his then 15-year-old son. Throughout this letter, he recounts his time at Howard University, and also gives insight on how both he and his son have interpreted the signs and occurrences of racism in America today.
As a summer reading assignment, the novel does an excellent job of providing a clear picture as to how forces that held significance in the civil rights movement still affect society today, particularly when it comes to the perception of race and racism. With recent events taken into consideration, the common reading book was relevant in its topic of choice.
For the panel itself, attendees had the opportunity to hear from four well-versed speakers from colleges across the Research Triangle. The panelists present included Blair Kelley, NC State’s assistant dean for interdisciplinary studies and international programs, Yaba Blay, North Carolina Central University’s Dan Blue endowed chair in political science, Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African & African-American studies at Duke University, and professor Natalie Bullock Brown, who is an assistant professor in the department of film and interactive media at St. Augustine’s University.
After all of the speakers had been introduced, the panel jumped into full swing. The first topic of the night was on the comparison of how African-American student experiences in the mid 1950’s compared to experiences in today’s universities. Kelley started with a retelling of her mother’s college experience:
“I became a historian because of my mom, and she was a storyteller,” Kelly said. “She had attended Howard University in the 1950s, and her stories of Howard are iconic in my mind. [My mother] was in the very last generation before Howard had its revolution that overturned nearly everything, every rule… she was from the generation who still wanted to follow the rules. For me, the black college experience really starts with Howard, so it’s great to have Ta-Nehisi Coates’s account of his own sort of iconic glowing Howard reminiscent of my mother’s, but yet so different. So I don’t know that there is a baseline black college experience right now.”
Later in the discussion, the speakers were asked about activism on campus, both in the context of their own experiences as both college students and as modern scholars.
“I think by default, for a lot of black students [and] students of color going to a [primarily white university], you end up being an activist,” Blay said. “You end up having to, whether you like it or not, be a voice to the administration about the experiences that you have.”
In response, Brown commented, “there has been a shift, I think…[college students] are more assertive than we were, more savvy and are politicized earlier on than I was at that age, and I feel that there is a need for that. I think that there is a certain climate of, not only lack of support, but intolerance for pursuit of certain issues, especially when they center around race.”
As emphasized throughout the discussion, the experiences of African-American students have changed significantly between the 20th century and today. However, there are still issues on campus surrounding race that persist to this day. Discussions such as this one on “Between the World and Me” are vital to learning how to combat these issues, and to support the students affected in these scenarios. Even if the common reading wasn’t a requirement, picking up a copy of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s novel offers an insightful read for students.
Professor Natalie Bullock Brown from St. Augustine's University chats with NC State Lecturer Darrell Stover after the "Campus Life in the Age of Between the World and Me" panel. The panel took place in the Teaching and Visualization Lab at Hunt Library on Thursday, focusing on the relevance of this year's common reading selection.
