The Leonard Lief Library Diversity and Inclusion Working Group invites you to Library Conversations on Diversity and Inclusion. This is a chance to come together as a group and discuss writings, film, video, and the arts devoted to diverse and inclusive conversations.
Reading | CASTE: THE ORIGINS OF OUR DISCONTENTS BY ISABEL WILKERSON
Part Two: The Arbitrary Construction of Human Divisions
Supplementary Reading
The Revolution Has Come by Video: The Black Panthers - Vanguard of the Revolution
Directed by: Stanley Nelson
Produced by :Stanley Nelson, Laurens Grant (Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service, 2016)
Video: The Black Panthers - Vanguard of the Revolution, Directed by Stanley Nelson, Produced by Stanley Nelson, Laurens Grant (Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service, 2016)
"This is an old story and it's used in various cultures where a group of blind men approach an elephant and try to describe him. The first man approaches the elephant, touches its side and says, "It feels like a wall." The next man touches the tusk and says, "The elephant must be like a spear." Another blind man touches the trunk and says, "It feels like a snake."
That is quite often what happens with our descriptions of the Black Panther Party. We know the party we were in and not the entire thing. We were making history and it wasn't nice and clean, it wasn't easy, it was complex."