CTX Research Guides: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Gregory's pick

Name of selector

Dr. Gregory Coleman

Selection

Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith
ISBN: 0525564594
Publication Date: 2019-05-21
Smith renders a host of figures who have lived and fought the system that pushes students of color out of the classroom and into prisons. (As Smith has put it: “Rich kids get mischief, poor kids get pathologized and incarcerated.”) Using people's own words, culled from interviews and speeches, Smith depicts Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, who eulogized Freddie Gray; Niya Kenny, a high school student who confronted a violent police deputy; activist Bree Newsome, who took the Confederate flag down from the South Carolina State House grounds; and many others. Their voices bear powerful witness to a great iniquity of our time—and call us to action with their accounts of resistance and hope.

Review

Anna Deveare Smith uses documentary theater, more specifically verbatim theater, to explore the issue of what has become known as the School to Prison Pipeline, as well as the larger social systems and structures that feed into the issue. Smith not only offers readers a fresh look at the debate from the perspective of those most impacted by and most acquainted with the hard realities of the School to Prison Pipeline (the students, parents, teachers, administrators, as well as journalists, activists, community leaders and law makers), but more importantly, she does so in their own words.

What spoke to me was that this text, in addition to exploring the School to Prison Pipeline, also examines some of the current issues we see being addressed in the media today (systemic racism, the rhetoric of protests vs. rioting, the relations between law enforcement and the black community, etc.).

I see Smith's Notes From the Field fitting into the university's mission in that it not only considers the issues of racism and equity in society at large, but specifically within the context of the education system. Furthermore, as Concordia continues to broaden and diversify it's student base, it is important to consider the challenges some of our students may have faced or overcome on their journey to higher education.

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