For Debbie Reese, cutting classes in high school was an opportunity to indulge her passions. Rather than finding trouble, however, she used that time to volunteer at Head Start, a program dedicated to helping impoverished youth.

The Illinois-based educator has always been drawn to helping others, especially kids, which was inspired by her upbringing. “What I'm doing isn't for me and my well-being,” says scholar and critic Debbie Reese about her work dispelling literary stereotypes of Indigenous people. “It is for the children, Native and not, who will read those books.” Reese will give an ASU-sponsored lecture on Oct. 20 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Download Full Image

“I remember that as a child growing up at Nambé Pueblo, our elders taught us that the things we do are not for us as individuals, but for our community.”

Reese has incorporated those values into her life’s work as a scholar and activist. She is the publisher of the blog American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL), which provides critical perspectives and analysis of Indigenous peoples in children’s and young adult books, school curricula, popular culture and society.

“What I'm doing isn't for me and my well-being,” she said. “It is for the children, Native and not, who will read those books.” 

Reese will speak about the work of dispelling misconceptions in her presentation “Some Truths, but Lots of Lies: Indigenous Peoples in Children’s Literature” in the fall 2016 Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community. The ASU-sponsored lecture will take at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. An on-campus, meet-and-greet reception with Reese will take place at the Labriola Center in Hayden Library also that day at 10:30 a.m.

In public and for the public

Since its beginning in 2006, AICL has been a heavy influence on authors and readers alike — sometimes even prompting authors to make revisions to their work.

“A good example is Ashley Hope Perez's ‘Out of Darkness,’” Reese said. “It isn't about Native people, but it did have a character saying he was the ‘low man on the totem pole.’ That is one of those common phrases people use that embodies lack of knowledge of the Native peoples who create and use totem poles. I wrote to her, and she edited that passage out of her book. It does not appear in the second printing.”

Reese shares that this immediate impact is precisely the reason she does public-facing work.

“I launched my blog with the goal of making my research accessible to anyone who had access to the Internet,” she said. “Most scholars publish in journals and books that teachers, parents, and librarians never see or can't afford.”

It wasn’t until pursuing her doctorate at the University of Illinois that Reese became aware of the extent of the misrepresentation of Native peoples. To her amazement, she found an overarching ignorance of American indigenous culture outside of indigenous communities, even at the university level.

Reese remarks that her acknowledgment of her Nambé heritage at school, “led to people asking or inviting me to dance at their gatherings. I was surprised by that and realized how deeply they were miseducated by the university's stereotypical Indian mascot, ‘Chief Illiniwek.’”

Starting at the beginning

When she also struggled to find books with accurate portrayals of Native culture to read to her own young daughter, Reese decided to change her focus of study from family literacy to depictions of Native peoples in children’s texts. Reese had come to understand that she could help address the rampant misconceptions with young children, long before they reached university.

“I started looking critically and found images like that of the mascot in much-loved books: dearly-loved characters, like Clifford the Big Red Dog, [who] wears a headdress in one of Norman Bridwell's books,” Reese said. “My research found that children were far more likely to see that sort of thing in their books than stories and images that accurately portray us.”

With a refocused passion, Reese became a vocal leader while at the University of Illinois; she helped establish the Native American House and an American Indian studies program at the university.

Reese has amassed a plethora of awards and achievements. She regularly travels around the country to speak publicly about Native American culture and representation. As a touchstone, she points to a widely cited concept discussed by Rudine Sims Bishop in the 1990s — that books can function as “mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors,” validating and reflecting children’s lived experiences. Reese’s motivation is to create more opportunities for accurate reflections of, and for, American Indians.

“We need those mirrors for Native children,” Reese said, “and we need more people in our communities and university settings to speak up about those distorted mirrors.”

The Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community at Arizona State University addresses topics and issues across disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, and politics. Underscoring Indigenous American experiences and perspectives, this series seeks to create and celebrate knowledge that evolves from an inclusive Indigenous worldview and that is applicable to all walks of life. Simon Ortiz, a poet of Acoma Pueblo heritage and the series namesake and organizer, is a Regents’ Professor of English and American Indian studies at ASU.

ASU sponsors include the American Indian Policy Institute; American Indian Studies Program; Department of English; School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies (all units in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences); the Indian Legal Program in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law; Labriola National American Indian Data Center and ASU Libraries; School of Art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts; and Women and Gender Studies in the School of Social Transformation. The Heard Museum is a community partner.

More information about the Indigenous Lecture Series is available on its website.

Written by Josh Morris

Arizona is home to one of the largest Native American populations in the United States.

To help honor the thousands of years of indigenous tradition and culture in our backyard, Arizona State University will celebrate its first university-wide Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 7.  Download Full Image

ASU’s American Indian Council was the driving force behind expanding this celebration.

“USG (Undergraduate University Government) recently passed on all four campuses along with the Graduate Student Association to have an Indigenous Peoples Day,” said Megan Tom, president of the American Indian Council and a member of the Navajo Nation. “Before it was only on the Tempe campus.” 

Recognizing the day university-wide was a win for the council.

“In the state of Arizona there are 27 recognized tribes,” said Tom. “We just want the ASU community to be more aware that everywhere they go there are indigenous people.”

Nationwide there has been a movement to replace Columbus Day, which this year falls on Oct. 10, with Indigenous Peoples Day. In recognition of that, but so students could participate in activities before fall break (Oct. 10-11), Oct. 7 was chosen. 

“When we celebrate these cultures, including mine, that shows that the indigenous people are still here and still exist,” said Thomasina Dinehdeal, vice president of the American Indian Council and a member of the Navajo Nation.

The university-wide activities will represent the nearly 400 million indigenous people worldwide who come from 5,000 different cultures.

Students, faculty and staff are all welcome to learn more about these culture from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Tempe, Downtown Phoenix and West campuses. The Downtown Phoenix campus will also have another celebration from 11:30 to 1 p.m. on Oct. 10.

“Indigenous Peoples Day to me is about celebrating the lives of all people. It helps to bring awareness to and acknowledges the (at times) voiceless,” wrote Lorenzo Yazzie, American Indian Council Secretary and a member of the Navajo Nation. “With its passing, I’m happy that the university respects our existence.”

Various student organizations have collaborated to bring performances, arts and voices to the campus events.

“I am just a vessel for all those who have came before me, and I hold it my responsibility to share the knowledge that my ancestors have granted me with the ASU community,” Tom said.

When ASU professor Rashad Shabazz hears Prince classics like “1999” and “Little Red Corvette,” he hears musical artistry and creative genius, to be sure. But he also hears the interplay of history, sociology, geography.    

“Funk, rock, pop, soul, R&B, bop, new wave — these were the musical genres circulating in the black community of North Minneapolis when Prince was growing up,” said Shabazz. “He could play so many instruments by ear, and he had an incredible ability to fuse elements from all of these styles in endless ways to make a signature sound that has lasted more than 40 years.” ASU's annual Humanities Lecture Series kicks off on Sept. 14 at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus with a presentation by justice studies professor Rashad Shabazz, "Black Music in Minneapolis: Prince and the Geography of the Minneapolis Sound." Download Full Image

By way of example, Shabazz broke down the song “1999”: “You hear rock chords, a funk bass line, bop tempo, and R&B harmonies.”

But who were some of the other black musicians who helped give rise to “the Minneapolis sound,” and how did they end up in this relatively small neighborhood in the Twin Cities?

That’s the focus of one of Shabazz’s current research projects, and it will be the subject of a free public lecture on Wednesday, Sept. 14, on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

The lecture is the first in the 2016-2017 ASU Humanities Lecture Series, organized by ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. It begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication/Channel 8 Building (CRONK), room 128.    

Shabazz will combine an analysis of the Prince sound with a look at the migration of black musicians to the Twin Cities, and to North Minneapolis in particular, in the years after the Second World War.

More than just discussing history, social policies and geography, he’ll incorporate sound clips into his presentation to show how black musicians brought a number of sonic forces with them from around the country to create a unique musical style that succeeding generations have adopted, perfected and popularized.

"The Minneapolis sound we identify with Prince was not solely his," said Shabazz, who is faculty head and associate professor of justice and social inquiry in ASU’s School of Social Transformation, an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "It was the product of push-and-pull factors that brought black people to cities of the North who were looking to escape southern Jim Crow and looking for a better life."

The sound was adopted by many Prince contemporaries: from Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson and Madonna, to the Bangles, Sheila E and Sheena Easton, said Shabazz: “It’s still evident today, in the album Prince produced with protégé Judith Hill shortly before his death.”

Rashad Shabazz is associate professor and faculty head of justice and social inquiry in ASU's School of Social Transformation. Photo courtesy of Rashad Shabazz

Shabazz is a scholar who brings together expertise in human geography, Black cultural studies, gender studies and critical prison studies. In his 2015 book, “Spatializing Blackness,” he investigates how urban planning, housing policy and policing practices in Chicago created an architecture of confinement on the city’s South Side that is still influencing gang formation, incarceration rates, masculinity and health.  

“We’re honored to have Rashad opening this year’s Humanities Lecture Series with a timely topic of broad appeal to the community,” said series organizer Mirna Lattouf, principal lecturer in language and cultures in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. “Our aim is to provide Downtown Phoenix with opportunities to publicly discuss and interpret current research and events in a way that leads to greater understanding and appreciation of various points of view on political, social and cultural issues.”

This year’s lecture theme is “Where Is Our Humanity?” and the fall portion of the series continues on Oct. 6, with a lecture by historian Pamela Stewart on “The Art of War: Chaos, Deception, Redemption,” and on Nov. 10, with a presentation by Nancy Liliana Godoy-Powell, archivist and librarian of ASU’s Chicano/a Research Collection, who will speak on “Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and Policies in Arizona Archives.”

These lectures will also be held in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication/Channel 8 Building (CRONK), room 128, and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Eddie Moore Jr. makes no bones about it. He’s trying to change the world.

His vehicle of choice is amped-up diversity training, the kind “that leads to evolutionary change that becomes permanent and systemic,” said Moore, in a Sept. 2 online interview on “The Philippe Mathews Show.”    Eddie Moore Jr., noted leader in race relations and intergroup dialog, will present three free community workshops this week as part of the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy "Impact Arizona" series. Download Full Image

“It’s exploring white privilege and oppression from systemic organizational design,” he continued. “If we’re going to see different results in organizations today, you can’t hire your way to change; you can’t just achieve visual diversity; we’re going to have to go at them from the source of their design.”  

Understanding how racism, bias, and privilege are entrenched in American institutions — and what individuals can do to disrupt and dismantle those systems — will be Moore’s focus in three free community events hosted by ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy this week.

On Thursday evening, Moore will lead faculty and staff from ASU and other higher education institutions in the Phoenix metro area in an interactive, activities-based workshop at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

“The session examines systems of bias and privilege manifest in the structure and culture of colleges and universities,” said Ian Moulton, professor of English and interim director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. “Participants will also learn ways to bring current events into class discussions to encourage critical thinking and ways to empower colleagues and students by acknowledging and validating their experiences.”

On Friday evening, Moore will lecture and lead a dialog at Mesa Community College on the roots and impact of racism, privilege and power in America. An all-day interactive workshop on Saturday will drill deeper into the material and move into action strategies.

Much of Moore’s work over the last two decades has concentrated on ensuring that k-16 students experience learning in an Inclusive and affirming environment. He’s partnered with schools and colleges in more than 17 states over the last five years.

He is founder and program director of the White Privilege Conference. Launched in 1999 at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa with fewer than 200 participants, it is now a leading conference for social justice education. Held in cities around the nation, it draws about 3,000 students, higher education faculty and professionals, activists, social workers and counselors, healthcare workers, and members of spiritual communities and the non-profit and corporate sectors.

The conference addresses issues of privilege and oppression beyond skin color, inviting diverse perspectives on race, gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, and dis/ability.

“It’s built on a foundation of love and relationships,” Moore said. “It’s about action and accountability, not blame and shame.”

Deborah J. Cox, assistant director of ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, first heard Moore speak at a Phoenix-area charter school in 2015 and was moved to attend the 17th annual White Privilege Conference, held in Philadelphia last April.  

“Dr. Moore’s approach to these workshops make them transformative,” Cox said.  “He combines keen intellect with an easygoing manner and knows how to relax a large audience. He eases into difficult conversations about implicit bias in a way that allows people to let go of their fears and have substantive, action-oriented discussions.

“The Center sees bringing in an individual of Eddie’s caliber as an investment in our community,” she observed, “and we are laying the groundwork with other community partners to potentially bring the White Privilege Conference to Phoenix in 2020.”

Moore has authored and edited numerous publications, including the collection “Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories.” In 2014, he established The Privilege Institute, which publishes the interdisciplinary journal Understanding and Dismantling Privilege. He earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Iowa, where his research focused on black football players at Division III schools in the Midwest.  

ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy presents the following events as part of its “Impact Arizona” series:

College Educators Workshop on Racism and Privilege
When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sept. 8
Where: A. E. England Building, ASU Downtown Phoenix campus
Register: csrdworkshop.eventbrite.com

The Root: Understanding Racism, Privilege and Power (lecture and dialog)
When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sept. 9
Where: Performing Arts Center, Mesa Community College, 1520 S. Longmore, Mesa
Register: csrdimpactaz.eventbrite.com

Examining the Root: Racism, Privilege, Leadership and Action (interactive workshop)
When: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.. Sept. 10
Where: Kirk Student Center, Navajo Room, Mesa Community College, 1833 W. Southern Ave, Mesa
Register: csrdimpactaz.eventbrite.com

Contact Sarah Herrera at sarah.herrera@asu.edu or 602-496-2114

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy is a unit of ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, with offices on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. Eddie Moore’s presentations on Sept. 9-10 are co-sponsored by the Maricopa Community College District.