English 585: Texas Counterstories for Black Liberation (2020)

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IMAGE: Keeanaga-Yamahtta Taylor, "The Black Plague," The New Yorker (April 16, 2020)

WELCOME TO ENGLISH 585! Get ready. We've got some important work to do together. 2020 is not the time for business as usual. You know this. What are we to do about it? For it? In spite of it? 

Humans are inherently storytelling creatures. This is our refrain. This is how we know who we are--as individuals, as communities, as a nation, as a world. Stories empower. Stories (can) also silence. Stories can be violent. Stories can cause violence. For centuries, mainstream narratives about race and racism have destroyed lives. In 2020, the question of who controls the narrative has never been more clear. We need to hear new stories. Different stories. Counterstories.

[Counter-storytelling is a] tool for exposing, analyzing, and challenging the majoritarian stories of racial privilege.

Solórzano & Yosso, 2002, p. 32

In this course, we're harnessing the power of (counter)stories to (re)write America's collective story, a narrative that has (mis)represented, erased, silenced, ignored far too many for far too long. Historically, representations of race in the dominant narratives about our nation have systematically robbed Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) of their humanity.

It's time. Enough. I know you're with me on this. I know you "get" it. If we get nothing else out of this horrific year, let's force 2020 to yield THIS.

Thus, we'll spend our semester together harnessing the power and pain and strength and sorrow and strength to amplify the voices of those whose stories have been silenced, erased, (mis)represented. We're taking to task those heavily-promoted narratives that that strip large groups of people of their humanity. We're recovering, preserving, and amplifying new stories--stories that counter those that have overtaken the cultural imaginary for centuries.

Frankly and transparently and historically, the people controlling that narrative look like me (e.g., White). That I'm leading this counter-storytelling project . . . well, I hear you. You're right. However, racism is also a "White" people problem. We're in this too. All of us.

As a White person, I have this forum through which we can come together to find, recover, preserve, and amplify under represented stories that counter the dominant narrative. We should use it, yeah? If not now, when? A key facet of our collective effort hinges on the ambiguities of representation, especially with respect to racial, economic, and environmental justice.

YOU HEAR THAT, 2020?!

We're harnessing the power and pain and strength and sorrow and strength to amplify the voices of those whose stories have been silenced. . . until Black liberation is realized. THIS is the way we're lifting the knee off the neck together--as a collective. Together. We're looking together at how race has been historically represented so we can CHANGE the century's long pattern of racial trauma finally making itself visible across America.

CHECK OUT THIS INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF ACTIVISM RARELY TOLD (COUNTERSTORY!):

Two days ago, this happened. . .

Unsure where to begin? Our first lecture (Week One, Part I) includes a "tour" of our course materials and design. We'll take it from there--together.

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