Wow, that title makes me sound old.
(Spoiler alert: I guess I am old.)
When I was in college, one of the few things I watched religiously each week was A Different World. I loved Whitley and Dwayne Wayne and Jalisa and Walter and Kim and Freddie and all the rest. I watched the show in its entirety while it was on, and I have watched it occasionally in reruns over the years when I have come across an episode.
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of being on the campus of Fisk University for a day. It wasn’t my first time on campus, but it was the longest time I had gotten to spend there, and it made me think of how I learned about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the first place. As you might have guessed, I first learned about what an HBCU is through my love of A Different World all those years ago.
While on a break between sessions at Fisk, I started writing in my notebook a list of all the things I could remember learning from A Different World. This list includes things relevant to college student life, like internships and facing up to your fears with hard courses, “stepping”, and more about pledging and Greek life for historically Black fraternities and sororities. I learned to appreciate the music of Heavy D and was introduced to who Dorothy Height was. I learned about the power of student activism, including the choice and consequence of having a sit-in in the University President’s Office. While I had learned about apartheid in my AP US History class, I learned more about what we could do about it in the US from the show, such as divesting in certain companies and why students would push the Board of Directors of their university to do that, even if it meant a loss of scholarships. The show also dealt with topics that I can’t remember other shows discussing in that era, including racist stereotypes, colorism, the Rodney King verdict, microaggressions, and long term impacts of enslavement.
I know there are more things I am forgetting…that break between sessions at Fisk only lasted 20 minutes. But thinking about just these, it is clear to me that my life (personally and professionally) was shaped in ways I could not have imagined when I sat in my dorm room each Thursday night. (Thankfully the other show I religiously watched, Knots Landing, didn’t have a fraction of the impact.) I know there are ways in which some of the episodes fell short, but even with shortcomings, I feel this was a powerful show that helped me understand more about race, racism, culture and other social issues.
Are there shows now that are shaping college students in this way? Though I am a professor, I don’t hear my students talk a lot about shows they are watching. What are the current shows that tackle hard social issues? I would love to check them out, for my own viewing and also think about how to incorporate pieces of them in my classes.
I think this is also a reminder to me of the importance of putting good things into my brain. I am not above a beach read or a 90s era rom-com, but it is good to be challenged with the media I consume. I hope in 30 more years to be talking about something I am learning now, or about to learn.
Teaching (toward) the Beloved Community 