For those of you who missed the lecture or want to experience it all over again, the Nelson Institute recorded Francis’s talk. You can view it below or on YouTube.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

The MSC also has the live video feed of the talk. We will continue to livestream public lectures and talks in the IJET Speakers series.

Related story: Inside the Planetwalker’s Backpack

Usra (left) and Katie (right) discuss how interreligious cooperation and conversation on campus can impact and inspire social justice movements.

On February 8 and 9, the MSC and Institute for Justice Education and Transformation hosted a two-day interfaith leadership training with the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC). Campus community members were invited to participate in an interfaith literacy and strategic visioning session on the first day. The second day, students learned about storytelling as a tool for interfaith cooperation.  We interviewed IFYC trainers, Usra Ghazi and Katie Baxter, about what it means to make a social impact across lines of difference.

Why do you personally feel that interfaith campus cooperation is important and relevant to social justice work?

Katie: Students come to campus with many different beliefs that society has taught them to keep private because we think of religion as a personal matter.  But these beliefs often run deep, and to really respect someone else as a whole person, this includes respecting that person’s beliefs, even if you don’t agree with them.  To me, that’s justice: allowing someone else to be who they are, and knowing that, by doing so, you can be who you are, too.  I also feel strongly about the civic and social purpose of interfaith cooperation.  We need to bridge the divides that can run deep between religious communities so that we can promote a culture of pluralism both on campuses and beyond.

Usra: There are great examples from historical movements in the United States when college students have been the driving force behind social change. I think back to the Civil Rights movement, Environmentalism, and Multiculturalism as groundbreaking, youth-led initiatives. Many of the leaders behind these movements are my faith heroes-individuals inspired by religious and non-religious values to fight for social justice. Likewise, young people today are harnessing the potency of interreligious cooperation to address social issues such as domestic poverty and environmental sustainability. Student leaders of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge and the national Better Together campaign are strong examples of this.

What has been a project that has inspired you recently?

Usra: There are so many! At one campus I’ve worked with this year, the entire campus and a strong group of diverse community partners have come together around the President’s Challenge and Better Together to transform the campus into a model of interfaith cooperation. In just one year they have trained students to run an interfaith action campaign, founded a new interfaith service club for students, launched academic courses on interfaith cooperation all while mobilizing students and community members to serve local food pantries and soup kitchens and raise awareness about domestic poverty. That’s a huge impact!

What was your “a-ha” moment that made you passionate about interfaith work?

Katie: Before coming to IFYC, I worked on college campuses where my work was focused primarily on leadership with a strong emphasis on identity and diversity.  Too often I saw excellent student leaders with several years of diversity training be at a loss when questions of religion and faith would come up or feel strongly about their religious tradition but not be able to talk about it.  For example, I’ve seen RAs from different racial and ethnic backgrounds be thoughtful about the identities of their residents, but unable to work with one another when religious barriers became evident.  I’ve also seen many students of all genders, races, and sexual orientations express that their religion is the piece of their identity that is most salient to them personally.  Through these kinds of experiences, I realized that religion was an important omission from conversations on diversity, multiculturalism, and justice, especially when you add the rhetoric about religion coming out of American media in the last decade.

Usra: The wonderful thing about being a part of the growing interfaith movement is that every day brings a new “a-ha” moment. My first was during an interfaith service council meeting as a high school student. I was invited by IFYC and honestly, skeptical about interfaith work at that time. But not long after joining, I found myself thinking deeply about my convictions as a Muslim and as a civically minded young adult. My “a-ha” moment was at the age of 18 when I realized that interfaith service work was making me a better Muslim, and an empowered member of a large community of diverse social activists that I didn’t realize I was a part of, until then.

What was your personal journey that led you to IFYC?

Katie: I come from an “interfaith family.”  That is, my immediate family practices a mainline protestant tradition, but my maternal grandparents are Jewish.  This was always something that seemed normal and easy to me.  As I grew up, I realized that some of my peers thought differently, and I experienced a number of thoughtless anti-Semitic comments while in high school.  I went on to get an undergraduate degree in religion and a master’s degree in College Student Personnel, which led me to work with students on college campuses. I really developed a passion for bringing students together around questions of identity and difference (see above!).  We learn and grow so much when we form real relationships with people who are different from us!

Usra: As a Pakistani Muslim growing up in a mostly White northern suburb of Chicago, I was well aware that my religious and spiritual development was coinciding with some big hisorical moments in this country. It was in the aftermath of 9/11 that I especially began to think about my role as a young Muslim woman with close friends of Atheist, Jewish, and Christian beliefs. Amidst this turmoil, I was invited to join an interfaith service youth group with IFYC- a group that showed me how powerful the intersection of faith and service can be. I have been with the organization ever since.

What are some action steps that students and campus community members can take post-training to get involved in the interfaith movement?

Katie: Tell your story!  Share what you learned!  Go start an interfaith conversation!  Learn about a tradition you don’t know much about!  Find a way to have an impact across lines of difference!

The Interfaith Leadership Training, co-sponsored with the Lubar Institute, is part of the MSC’s commitment and participation in the White House Interfaith Initiative. 

Cynthia Lin (right) congratulates Zina Knox (left) on being the MSC's 2011 Meyerhoff Award winner.

Juniors and Seniors are encouraged to apply for the 2012 Meyerhoff Excellence Awards. Recipients are recognized for their strong academic performance, outstanding leadership, and service to the university and larger community. The Multicultural student Center will be selecting one recipient for this award.

Application materials must be submitted by 4:30 pm, Friday, March 30, 2012. A committee will review application materials submitted and select one award winner. A $1000 cash award will be presented at the Meyerhoff Awards Luncheon on Friday, May 11, 2012.

To apply, you must:

• Be a UW-Madison student of color expecting to receive an undergraduate degree in May or August 2012
• Be an active participant in a student organization and/or the University/Madison community
• Demonstrate a record of outstanding leadership skills
• Have strong and consistent academic performance

To ensure consideration, all applicants must submit the following:

• Completed application (download here)
• A recent copy of your transcript (unofficial transcript accepted)
• Resume (listing employment/internship experiences, student organizations, committees, leadership roles, community service, honors, etc.)
• One letter of recommendation from a UW-Madison faculty member, academic staff or community representative/leader recommending you for this award (MSC Staff members are not eligible to submit letters of recommendation)
• A personal statement (not to exceed two pages) detailing how you believe you meet the criteria for this award, citing specific examples in relation to your involvement with committee and campus/community activities and how your activism/leadership opportunities have prepared you for your future endeavors upon graduation.

Sasha Pasulka of Hello Giggles sarcastically remarked: “It was nice of the Grammys to let him off a couple years early for high record sales good behavior.” Also disappointing was Grammy Executive Producer Ken Ehrlich’s response, where he claimed that he and Grammy Awards were victimized by Brown.

“We’re glad to have him back,” said Ehrlich. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”

Uhh, what about Rihanna? Many of the articles about Brown’s performance didn’t even mention her, further silencing the victim and magnifying the criminal. Worst of all, were the comments circulating social media and the blogosphere regarding Chris Brown.

Last night, Buzz Feed compiled “25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions To Chris Brown At The Grammys,” and they were all variations on the same message; “I would let Chris Brown beat me.”

Judging from the Twitter photos provided, most of these commentators appeared to be young women (teen to 20s) from a diverse array of backgrounds. What does this say about my generation? It most certainly does not live up to the Time Magazine claim of a generation that used social media to start global revolutions and topple tyrannical political regimes. Instead, at best it demonstrates that a lot of young Americans are a) unaware that we live in a rape culture or b) don’t seem to care about doing anything about it.

Mary O’Donnell, a commenter on the Buzzfeed article, said:

At their worst, these comments demonstrate a sheer lack of decency, but I’d like to cut my peers just a little slack. Let’s educate each other. Instead of glorifying abusers, let’s empower abuse survivors. It’s as simple as putting yourself in Rihanna’s shoes . Would you want the person that attacked you to be celebrated by 100,000 fans and named artist of the year? C’mon people, let’s make this generation one we can be proud of by saying that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

“We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this. This not okay with me. A man hitting a woman in anger is unacceptable and is not easily forgotten or forgiven. A man who hits a woman in anger deserves to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of who might be inconvenienced in the process. A man who hits a woman in anger may eventually be permitted to go on with his own life, but he is not permitted back in my life, even if it’s been three whole years.” –Hello Giggles, reposted again by Oh No They Didn’t.

Comedy Central recently aired the premier of their new show Key & Peele, starring MADtv alumni Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as…well…themselves. The comedy duo created this new sketch series to explore (among other topical issues) their experiences growing up biracial in a “not quite post-racial” America. Interweaving reflective dialogue with culturally insightful (albeit raunchy) sketches, Key and Peele paint the picture of a multicultural generation forced to reconcile personal politics with upward mobility in a hegemonic society…with varying degrees of success. Ironically, that’s where the humor ensues. In Key & Peele’s world, Obama has an anger translator (@ObamaTranslated), because he’s afraid of displeasing voters; Lil’ Wayne’s prison reality show reveals the rapper to be a faux-gangster; and stereotypes force two guys on their cellphones to change their tone of voice out on the street.

Self-described as “Black nerds,” Key and Peele push at the barriers between pop culture pandering and intellectual criticism. During one part of the show, they talk about being a “White-Sounding Black Guy” and what it means to adjust their blackness on a daily basis.  “We sound whiter than Mitt Romney in a snowstorm.” The program has been hailed as a promising replacement for the long-running success of Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show. So far, all signs point to a hit first season.

You can view the full premiere episode online and catch more Key and Peele episodes on Tuesdays at 9:30pm. 

We’re not really surprised that the video has gotten some heat for being racially insensitive and offensive. New Yorker blogger, Evan Osnos, describes the now-viral ad as such: “[The spot] opened with the sound of a gong and showed a young Nondescript Presumably Scary Asian (N.P.S.A.) riding a bike between rice paddies, and saying, in broken English: “You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs.”

Osnos then goes on to discuss the “rookie” racial and political mistakes that Hoekstra and his campaign team made. While the ad is supposed to be anti-China, the backdrop appears to be Southeast Asia. Then, “every Chinese reference, more or less, has a mistake. The Great Wall of Debt came out as the Debt that the Great Wall Owes.” Apparently, Hoekstra barely has a “basic group on the mechanics of his government.” He accuses the Democratic party of borrowing more and more, when in reality, China hasn’t been a major buyer of U.S. treasury notes on the margin for a several years (Victor Shih, Chinese economics and politics expert, Northwestern University).

Disgrasian calls the ad a “hot mess of Vietnamese mise-en-scène standing in for China, California Girl-speak poorly disguised as bad Engrish, and some requisite chinky background music–managed to piss off Dems and Republicans alike with its creepy, unabashed Fear of a Yellow Planet storyline.”

Accompanying the television ad is a website called debbiespenditnow.com (a horrible pun on Stabenow’s last name), which is chock full of Asian cliché. Disgrasian says the campaign site’s “Chinese take out font [dares] a half-blind person to stumble upon the site and try to order dinner from it.”

Kathy Barks Hoffman, for the Huffington Post Politics blog, worries that this ad could “revive discrimination against Asian-Americans.” Osnos  too,  pointed out that by inciting such xenophobia, “Hoekstra will be responsible if Asian-Americans end up subjected to the kind of discrimination in Michigan that took the life of Vincent Chin (the Chinese-American man beaten to death in 1982 by two unemployed autoworkers frenzied about the threat from Japan).”

The ad will continue to run statewide over the next two weeks on cable shows with a high Republican voter demographic. Hoekstra has defended the ad, saying that it “jumpstarted the debate” over deficit spending and that the “aggressive approach…hits Debbie smack-dab between the eyes on the area where she is most vulnerable.”

But really? When is it ever okay to use racial prejudices as political leverage? What are your thoughts?

After 10 years of working in UW-Madison Admission, Candace McDowell became the founding director of the Multicultural Student Center in 1988 and led the organization for its first 22 years of existence. Charles McDowell served as president of the Wisconsin Alumni Association from 2003-04. The McDowells have provided us dynamic examples of leadership, service, and commitment to excellence and community that will serve as a blueprint for evaluating future recipients of this award.

We are looking for individuals who live the Wisconsin Experience by creating and applying what they have learned during their time at UW-Madison to make the world a better place. Nominees should:

• Identify as Persons of Color
• Embody the Wisconsin Idea
• Enhance the Wisconsin Experience through gifts of time, talent and/or treasure
• Be a UW-Madison Alum*

*If nominee fulfills the other above criteria, exceptions may be made for individuals who matriculated but did not graduate

Nomination letters should be 1,500 words or less and should be sent electronically to Donte Hilliard (dhilliard@studentlife.wisc.edu) by Sunday, March 25th. Nominators may attach additional materials, such as a resume, curriculum vita, etc. The award ceremony honoring recipients will take place on Monday, May 7 in the On Wisconsin Room (Red Gym, First Floor) from 7:00-9:00pm.

Download the printable flyer here: http://msc.wisc.edu/mla/alumniachievementonesheet.pdf

Interested in technology? AT&T has strong mentoring programs that aid with talent development and involve high-level managers.  The increasingly inclusive workplace culture makes it progressive work environment perfect for tech-lovers with all kinds of backgrounds. Their internship program hires undergraduate and master’s students in the fields of sales and marketing, technology and general business.  With a focus on innovation, the internships provide a mixed bag of work experience, professional development opportunities and social networking.

Interested in media and entertainment? The Scripps Network, which has made real progress with diversity training and recruitment, is home to some cable channel favorites such as HGTV, the Food Network and Travel Channel. Their internship program offers the students the opportunity to learn more about the media industry and also provides a daily “how-cool-is-my-job” factor.  Students are assigned to an advisor and given real-life work samples.  Internships in areas such as production, sales and marketing, finance, interactive and new media, public relations and creative services are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters and range from 20-40 hours per week. Review their job search page in order to view and apply directly to open internships.

Interested in accounting and business? Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and a “big four” accountancy firm. With a strong focus on talent development, especially through employee-resource groups and mentoring programs such as the Diversity Mentoring Program and Cultural Connections, Ernst & Young consistently shows progress in building diversity into business goals.  The company also has great benefits, including generous domestic-partner benefits.  For students, Ernst & Young has an internship program that fast-tracks into a career. Interns even have the opportunity to go abroad through the Global Student Exchange Program.

Ernst & Young also has the Horizon Internship, a customized internship tailored for accounting or related business majors from underrepresented groups in the profession who are two or more years from final graduation. Aside from working with an experienced mentor, the internship also provides access to an extensive support network that helps build career foundations through technical training and skills development.

Interested in marketing, communications or engineering? Proctor & Gamble manufactures a portfolio of leading brands in the consumer goods category. The long-time leader in both global and domestic diversity, this company has a strong mentoring program and firm CEO commitment to an inclusive workforce. P&G also has a very diverse board of directors and directs one-third of company philanthropy toward multicultural nonprofit organizations. To find the perfect internship that fits your talents and interests, search their database and narrow down specifics such as “internship/co-op” or “student programs/seminars.”

1. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (fiction): Winner of the National Book Award for fiction, Jesmyn Ward tells a story about poverty, sexual abuse, violence and survival from the perspective of 15-year old Esch as she endures Hurricane Katrina with her family.

2. Leche by R. Zamora Linmark (fiction): Noted author of Asian American canon, R. Zamora Linmark follows up the classic Rolling the R’s by revisiting the now-adult Vicente de los Reyes, runner-up in a Hawaiian pageant for Filipino American men and winner of a trip to Manila.

3. We the Animals by Justin Torres (fiction): A patchwork of vignettes, memories and short stories about the three sons of a mixed-race couple. The narrator, nearly 7, travels in a pack with his brothers. Together, they hide from the disorder of their home life and from the exclusion by the working-class children around them.

4. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (non-fiction): Pulitzer Prize-winning Isabel Wilkerson chronicles the decades-long migration of almost six-million black citizens who moved northward during the period of 1915-1970.  See history through the eyes of three unique individuals as they leave the South in search of a better life.

5. A Tiger in the Kitchen by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (memoir): Mouth-watering recipes aside, this culinary memoir is packed with anecdotes about how food and cooking helped Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan reconnect with family and tradition and reclaim her cultural identity.

6. The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam (fiction): Tahmima Anam asks, What is a good Muslim? After Bangladesh’s War of Independence, characters Rehana, Maya and Sohail grapple with the country’s new identity as well as their own. Rehana searches for the balance between religion and everyday life while Maya and Sohail fall on opposite sides of religious extremes. Along the way, Anam openly discusses women’s sexual violation through the narrative of Piya, a victim of traumatic sexual assault.

7. Open City by Teju Cole (fiction): Teju Cole’s debut novel reads like a diary about national identity, race, liberty and surrender. Set in New York, the half-Nigerian, half-German narrator (Cole himself is Nigerian-American) walks around the city and meets a range of people: a Liberian who was imprisoned in Queens; a Haitian shoeshiner who works in Penn Station; and a Moroccan student who mans an internet café in Brussels.

8. Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (fiction): Nearly a century ago, eight young women were brought over from Japan to San Francisco as ‘picture brides’. Otsuka traces their lives, writing about their overseas journey together, their work as fieldworkers and maids, their struggles to master a new language and culture, and their experiences as mothers.

9. One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina (memoir): Follow Binyavanga Wainana’s journey through Kenya as he grows up during turbulent political realities. He stumbles through the chaos of adolescence and finds refuge in words and books. An illuminating story about the complexities of life but bursting with the love of coming home.

10. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (memoir): Writer and executive producer of The Office,Mindy Kaling, brings her tongue-in-cheek personality to her blithely candid memoir that is part childhood memory, part Hollywood confessional and part cultural commentary.

11. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable: The late African-American Studies professor, Manning Marable, offers a humanizing biography of Malcolm X with an unvarnished, but still inspiring, version of Malcolm’s life. Through letters, diaries and interviews, Marable introduces new information about Malcolm X that repaints America’s version of him as a heroic icon into a struggling, complex human being.

12. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley (fiction): Meet ninety-one year old Ptolemy Grey, determined to live forgotten with only his memories. Trying to fight dementia and unlock secrets from his past, he unexpectedly meets Robyn, a young girl without a family of her own, who challenges him out of isolation.

No time for a full novel? Try a “mini-book”. Recently, there’s been a growing trend in micro-fictions and short novellas for quick, but satisfying, reads. Amy Tan’s Rules for Virgins is a 44-page story set in 1912 Shanghai about a practiced courtesan giving her protégée a list of instructions.

‎”“If people are indeed part of the environment, how we treat ourselves and each other provides our first opportunity to treat the environment in a sustainable way, or even to understand the very nature of sustainability.” – John Francis, Ragged Edge of Silence

We’ll be streaming the event live: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uwmadison-multicultural-student-center

By the way, the latest edition of Tapestry features a review for his book, Ragged Edge of Silence, by our very own Social Justice Educator, Cynthia Lin. Read it (the review and the book). They’re both very good.