The Double Standard: Protest Coverage and Racial Bias

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 22:00:00 +0000

Mass media has a long arm, and a national influence over public opinion of social issues. When protests broke out across the country recently in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, newspapers were quick to try to show the ‘true’ nature of these demonstrations. However, in trying to show news consumers what they wanted to see, reporters got caught up trying to create angles and portrayals of protestors that escalated racial tensions.

McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellow Leela Stockley will present her research on racial bias in the media in relation to recent Black Lives Matter protests on February 24 at 5 p.m. as part of Black History Month. Stockley, who is a journalist of color and the current editor-in-chief of the Maine Campus, will highlight not just the problematic language and images used in the press to depict protestors, but also how those biased reports affect marginalized communities. She will also provide advice for how journalists can report on social justice movements in the future in a more equitable manner, and how the public can identify racial bias in the media they consume. She will also discuss plans for an upcoming podcast on the subject of the same name.

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Tarred and Feathered: 91��’s Hidden Connection to the Red Summer of 1919

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Karen Sieber, Humanities Specialist at the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, will speak at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, about her research, “Tarred and Feathered: 91��’s Hidden Connection to the Red Summer of 1919.” Free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the McGillicuddy Humanities Center and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion. Join via Zoom at: .

Sieber, who comes from a background in public history and the digital humanities, has made it her one-woman mission to increase awareness about the Red Summer of 1919, the term given to a nationwide wave of violence against African Americans that year. Over the past five years she has built the world’s largest database and archive on the topic, , which is now the most used classroom resource on the Red Summer in the nation. Her work has been featured or cited by the National Archives, American Historical Association, History Channel, Zinn Education Project and others.

Sieber recently discovered a previously undocumented case of Red Summer violence at the University of Maine that year. Two African American brothers, Samuel and Roger Courtney, were tarred and feathered by their fellow students. The incident was kept out of the press and university records until now. She is using the incident as an opportunity to work with students in Liam Riordan’s Public History class to build an interactive map of this and other hidden histories on campus.

Sieber will discuss her work building what she calls a “rogue archive,” her recent discovery of the Courtney Brothers incident and parallels it holds to current events, and her work with students to think about campus as not just a neutral place where history is studied but as an active place where history has made, forgotten, and at times erased.

The post Tarred and Feathered: 91��’s Hidden Connection to the Red Summer of 1919 appeared first on Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center.

race Archives - Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center

The Double Standard: Protest Coverage and Racial Bias

Tarred and Feathered: 91����’s Hidden Connection to the Red Summer of 1919

Tarred and Feathered: 91��’s Hidden Connection to the Red Summer of 1919