… Groups from UM, Ireland, South Africa to join July 2 in Washington, D.C.
OXFORD, Miss. — Rebecca Batey learned a lot about America’s racial
struggle as a tour guide at the National Civil Rights Museum in
Memphis. There, she told stories of the civil rights movement,
frequently drawing raised eyebrows from mostly black tourists, given
that she’s a young white female.
But Batey’s toughest lesson on the sensitive topic of race came when
she heard a 6-year-old black girl wistfully wish that she was white.
“It knocked everything out of me,” said Batey of Bentonville, Ark., a
Southern studies graduate student at the University of Mississippi.
“I’m standing there in shock that this little girl would be saying
this. Finally, I told her she was beautiful just the way she is. But
it amazed me that, in her short life, she had somehow already picked up
this notion. It made me realize how important education is in shaping
racial attitudes.”
Batey is one of six UM graduate students scheduled to travel the globe this summer to explore two of the world’s most divisive issues: race and religion. Also including students from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa, the 18-member group gathers July 2 in Washington, D.C., to begin a monthlong excursion through the three countries. Their goal: to gain a global view of these divisive issues and learn how to reconcile those differences.
“All three societies have wounds, and we all have memories,” said Douglas Ray of Jackson, who is pursuing an MFA in creative writing at UM. “We struggle to give the proper dignity to the suffering experienced by ourselves and our neighbors, while also taking the necessary steps to build a healed, unified society.”
After visiting government and cultural sites in Washington, D.C., the group heads to the Deep South, starting with a tour of the Civil Rights Museum, then to the UM campus in Oxford and the Mississippi Delta. From there, it’s onward to Ireland and South Africa, where the students plan to visit similar cultural and historic sites.
“I think this is a unique exchange opportunity for our postgraduate students to visit two other very different cultural, social and political locations,” said professor Liam Kelly of the University of Ulster. “Importantly, it is based on the principles of cross-cultural interchange, learning on the ground and firsthand experience.”
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NMMU student participant Barbara Kritzinger looks forward to the opportunity. After visiting several major landmarks of the Atlantic Slave Trade during a conference in Ghana last summer, she came away more enlightened about the need for reconciliation.
“It was a very moving experience,” Kritzinger said. “It made me realize the importance of continuing to address issues of racism, unequal power relations and the need for reconciliation which face us in our increasingly culturally diverse environments.”
The exchange program is sponsored by UM’s Trent Lott Leadership Institute in association with the campus Study Abroad Office. Over the past three years, the Lott Institute has participated in similar exchange programs with NMMU, as well as with universities in Mexico, China and South Korea, but this is the first exchange exclusive to graduate students. That, combined with the focus on reconciliation, sets the program apart, said Charles Reagan Wilson, UM Cook Chair of History and professor of Southern studies.
“The exchange on race, religion and reconciliation provides a unique opportunity to compare experiences of peoples who have undergone dramatic changes in their social life and are trying to build new societies that go beyond previous divisions,” said Wilson, who is to lead UM’s participants in a seminar class this fall. “The project is an intense examination of important issues facing the state, the American South and the nation.”
Students from a broad range of academic fields were chosen to participate, based on a strong academic standing and an essay. Besides Batey and Ray, other UM participants are Gregory Day of Oxford, an international relations graduate student; Derrick Donald of Lake, a doctoral candidate in pharmacy; Tara Luchkiw of New Kensington, Pa., a clinical psychology graduate student; and third-year law student Anna Powers of Alpharetta, Ga.
The students will document their adventures in various media formats. They will be blogging throughout the trip, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting is outfitting all 18 with video cameras, with plans to assemble a documentary from the footage.
“In Southern studies, I’ve done a lot of documentary fieldwork, learning how to interview and listen to people,” Batey said. “I’m happy we’re going with these students from other countries. There’s a totally different perception of these issues, depending on where you’re from.”
“This exchange is a poet’s dream,” said Ray, who expects to assemble a body of poetry from his journey. “We are going to grapple with large, difficult, emotionally charged aspects of humanity, while walking on ground zero in three continents.”
Meanwhile, Donald expects to add international perspective to his vision of eliminating race-related health inequalities, such as the higher risk of prostate cancer among black men.
“Some say we don’t have enough black doctors, but arguments can be made that we also need more black scientists with a passion for health,” said Donald, who holds a master’s degree in biomedical sciences. “Everyone deserves quality health care, regardless of race or religious persuasion. Health is a universal human right, and scientific research can be used to attain that goal.”
But that’s not all Donald expects on his first trip to Africa, something he’s dreamed of doing.
“I’m hoping to have an epiphany, I guess,” he said. “As a youth, you hear stories about the civil rights movement, but it’s not easy to understand the struggle to be considered equal, because we haven’t lived it. Somehow, after having experienced this, I’m expecting to have a better sense of who I am and my purpose.”
Kritzinger, whose study of anthropology has sensitized her to the subtleties of racial and religious conflict, expects the trip will reinforce her belief that the best hope for reconciliation in the long term is changing attitudes of future generations.
“Attitudes and beliefs are part of culture and are learned,” she said. “That is the only hope I hold in myself since it means that, in time, we can teach the younger generations new attitudes – and hopefully, allow them to teach us.”
For more on the Race, Religion and Reconciliation Exchange, including regular blogs from the students, visit http://www.lottinst.olemiss.edu/Exchange/gradexchange.html. For other information, contact Ruth Maron in the Study Abroad Office at rfmaron@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1508.