Macalester/Fifth Diversity Weekend/Theme
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
What is Diversity Weekend?
Diversity Weekend is an annual student-led initiative at Macalester College organized to celebrate diversity and explore issues of race and racism in the United States. It is a weekend of events meant to promote discussion, reflection, and raise awareness on issues affecting students of color, as well as empower and mobilize students of color at Macalester College.
What is this year's theme?
Year 2004's theme is Race and Leadership in the 21st Century:
In the light of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. elections, and more locally the creation of the Department of Multicultural Life and the American Studies Department at Macalester College, Diversity Weekend 2004 aims to address the theme of Race and Leadership in the 21st Century.
This year's weekend will explore recent progressions of movements led by people of color at international, national, and community levels and examine the roles of leaders of color in these movements. By studying current leaders of color, the barriers they face, and racial formation in the United States, we hope to learn lessons in terms of our own leadership and political participation.
What questions does Diversity Weekend 2004 seek to address?
- What is the changing climate of people of color political leadership and participation in the 21st century?
- What barriers, as well as strengths, do leaders of color face to organize, represent, and remain accountable to their communities of color in political organizing?
- How is this indicative of structural changes in racial formation in the United States?
- What kind of lessons and strategies can we learn for our own leadership and political participation?
