Dear colleague,
On Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m., we’ll hold a Freedom School centered on a discussion at Rutgers-Newark. We’re calling it “Newark Matters: Neoliberalism’s Diversity Ruse.” Click here to RSVP for the Zoom link.
The session will focus on how neoliberal institutions have thrived by pitting differently racialized groups against each other—and hidden this strategy through diversity rhetoric. The session will be introduced with opening remarks from Vijay Prashad of the Tricontinental Institute, followed by a panel discussion with Newark-based professors, students, and alumni working toward antiracist collectivity outside the strictures of neoliberal diversity-speak.
Rutgers AAUP-AFT began organizing Freedom School in 2020 to follow in the tradition of Ella Baker, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the 1960s civil rights movement. The pandemic has disrupted both our ordinary lives and how we connect to each other. We want Freedom School to be a virtual classroom and discussion space for union members, students, and the broader communities that Rutgers serves, with the goal of developing leadership and political consciousness for a new generation.
Please join us on Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m. for “Newark Matters: Neoliberalism’s Diversity Ruse.” You can click here to RSVP for the Zoom link. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our Freedom School YouTube channel.
In solidarity,
Manu Chander, English; Executive Council, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Soili Smith, American Studies; Member, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://rutgersaaup.org/YouTube
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P.S. For those of you on the Newark campus this week, please stop by and say hello Wednesday, April 20, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Union leaders and department reps will be tabling outside Conklin by the Norman Plaza entrance (rain location: 2nd floor Conklin). Come get an update and a donut, and share your concerns about the upcoming contract campaign, your excitement for the first Freedom School on Newark issues, or whatever else is on your mind.