Today Antonio José Bacelar da Silva presented a talk on antiracism titled, “The Language of Antiracism.” I attended this event with my roommate, Elizabeth, over zoom. During the event, the group had discussions about racism in Brazil, Black Consciousness Day, some Antiracist terms, and a project the professor has his students do.  It was interesting to hear about racism in Brazil and how it compares to racism in America. We analyzed Contraste Social, which is a Portuguese song about the singers experiences and thoughts on racism. It was especially interesting to me to hear the similarity between how people of color in Brazil are treated and how they’re treated here.

Also, the antiracist terms we covered were not what I had expected and I learned a lot from our conversation on them. Going into the talk, I had a preconceived notion that antiracist language centered around inclusion and self-awareness. However, it was actually words oppressed populations use to challenge racism. Some examples we were given include wh*te, mayonnaise boy, Karen, colonizer, settler, and woke. As we had a group discussion about the meaning of these terms, Professor Bacelar da Silva explained that while some people may claim these terms are “reverse racist,” reverse racism is not an actual thing and these terms are the opposite, antiracist. I found this conversation to be really interesting because I have heard people complain that these terms are reverse racist before. At the time, I understood that reverse racism isn’t truly a thing, but I didn’t know how to categorize these words. In the end it was very interesting and educational to attend this talk and I feel as though I came away from it with a better understanding of racism in a global context.

October 28th I attended the IA meeting featuring Professor Ines Valdez. She spoke about her past and previous work, the radicalization of immigration, the issues with Kant, and answered student questions. I previously took her class introduction to Human Rights, where we discussed the history and meaning of the word human rights and important topics like immigration and the use of torture.

She spoke about immigration during her presentation and my final paper for her class was actually on the concept of open borders. It’s been awhile now but I can clearly remember the points she proved in class and how she disproved common ideology on immigration. Her presentation and her class are incredibly beneficial and important because she considers relevant issues from many points of view and does not exclude anything from the discussion. I appreciated the depth and detail in which she went about teaching us the complex and long transformation of the word human rights, as it is not as straightforward as one may think. She also presented her classes in a way that forced everyone to step back from any attachments and biases and see the issues for what they are and what they should be. For example, in the second half of her class we discussed the use of torture by the government and/or government agencies to get information and accomplish goals. As we went, she provided and proved that torture is inhuman and that torture does not actually work to get information out of people, especially not as much as other forms of investigation. With these basics down, we moved on as a class to discuss different specific pieces of legislation and operations done by the American government and whether they were a violation of human rights or not.

Her teaching style and the concepts she covered are especially important for international affairs because human rights are a global phenomenon and what we learned about America is essential for being self-aware. In the end, I would suggest the course to you if you don’t mind reading a lot and are interested in learning about human rights and the applications of those rights.

Today, September 22nd, I attended a informational session about Korean Pop put on by the Global Engagement program. I became very interested in Kpop when I was in high school. Presently, I am much less involved and up to date on Korean pop, but I still find it interesting and fun to listen to. Attending this session really updated me on the current state of Kpop and gave me a lot of important background information about it. We discussed the cultural influences, the history, the realities, and the key parts of Kpop. I learned many new things during this event, including a new dance which we all practiced together.

As a student minoring in Chinese, it was easier for me to understand some of the concepts they discussed, like the idols having to save face and how the societal emphasis on community influences the involvement Kpop idols have with their fans. In Korea, somewhat similarly to China, there is an emphasis on being part of a group and contributing to it. This is much different from America, where we are focused on individualism. This difference can be seen by the way celebrities live their lives in America and in Korea. As they explained it in the session, people are expected to respect American stars privacy and only get the information those famous people are willing to share, which is sometimes very little. In Korea, idols are expected to share lots about themselves so that their fans can “get to know” them. This means Kpop stars go on lots of talkshows, gameshows, and more to give their audience more information about them.

I found this session important because it gave me a look into the differences between the music industry and celebrity expectations between different countries. As an international studies major, knowing more about how important values like privacy differ between regions is really interesting and important.

Friday October 9th I attended an event to listen to the stories and life experiences of immigrants and refugees. During this event four women spoke about their personal experiences relating to immigration. Daniela Pierre-Bravo spoke about her life as an undocumented immigrant, the work it took to do the same things many took for granted, and what DACA did for her. Cynthia Bukirwa spoke about her experience as a refugee form Uganda. Lisa Factora-Borchers discussed her book and the sexual violence women of color face. Emily brown spoke about her work as an attorney.

What really stood out to me during this event, besides the incredible resilience and passion these woman have, was the legal discriminations in Ohio. Emily Brown specifically spoke on cases she had worked on and ways in which Ohio has practices that are harmful to immigrants. She said that because Ohio shares a portion of its border with Canada, it is considered a border state and has a border patrol post. These patrol officers are allowed to patrol up to 100 miles into Ohio. Brown said that there has been a considerable uptick in discriminatory policing ever since the post was put in. A case she worked on specifically was one to represent teenage US citizens whose parents are undocumented. In order for a teenager to get their drivers license, they need a parent to cosign it. However, a BMV in Ohio was refusing to allow undocumented parents to cosign for their Childs license. In turn, the child cannot do any of the things that require a license, like opening a bank account. Brown said they won that case, however they are always on the defensive. She said policy to ban undocumented workers from workers compensation is purposed every year, and every year they have to fight it in order to make sure undocumented workers are treated fairly.

Hearing about the personal and legal struggles undocumented and documented immigrants face made me realize that there is a lot more work and advocacy to be done that I thought. From this event I learned a lot about the lives of people coming to America and how America treats them in return. This is essential for international studies because the migration of people is not just political, it is very personal and needs to be recognized as such.

Overall, I stepped into the minds and hearts of these women and came out with a respect and understanding of their stories that makes me more self-aware.

On the 17th of September I attended a virtual event titled “We’re Still Here: Getting to Know Present Day Native American and Indigenous Peoples.” During the event, Melissa Beard Jacob, an intercultural specialist at the Multicultural Center, gave a general introduction to the history, culture, and current day lives of Native Americans. Melissa covered the different terminologies used to refer to Native American peoples, the statistics about current day tribes, some commonalities shared by tribes, their extensive history and treaties, the blood quantum, and myths and misconceptions. 

I took a lot away from this session, as I have rarely learned about Native Americans besides whitewashed history lessons. There were phrases Melissa used that I had never heard. For example, she referred to tribe governments, and I have never heard of their leadership as a government. It made me realize how I’ve been taught to think of tribes as dissimilar from the USA and not actual independent political entities. Also, she called Native Americans who had endured boarding schools as boarding school survivors. I felt the way she phrased these things more accurately portrayed the events that happened, instead of downplaying them like my history books had. 

Along with this, I learned about blood quantums, or cards Native Americans have to carry that state the amount of Native blood they have and from which tribe it is. The blood quantums are used to qualify Native Americans as able to register for federal programs among other things. Melissa pointed out that no other ethinic group is required to prove how “ethnic” they are with a blood count. 

This entire session was incredibly informative and taught me a lot about their culture and traditions too. It made me question my own education and recognize the stereotypes and biases that were taught to me as fact growing up. This session was an important reminder that I need to remember to question what I learn and be aware of my own implicit biases. Because of this session, I now have a much better idea of the realities of being a Native American and know more about their struggles and strengths. By learning more about their culture and history, I can now have a more indepth respect and appreciation for them and their experiences. 

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