Harvard outfits dining halls with Holiday Placemats for Social Justice

Date: December 16th, 2015 6:28 PM
Author: "'"'""""'

Dubbed “Holiday Placemat for Social Justice” and described as “a placemat guide for holiday discussions on race and justice with loved ones,” the placemats pose hypothetical statements on those topics and offer a “response” to each of those in a question and answer format. For example, under a section entitled “Yale/Student Activism,” the placemat poses the question, “Why are Black students complaining? Shouldn’t they be happy to be in college?” and suggests that students respond by saying, “When I hear students expressing their experiences on campus I don’t hear complaining.”

In the center of the placemat are what it calls “tips for talking to families,” with recommendations such as “Listen mindfully before formulating a thoughtful response” and “Breathe.”

The placemats are endorsed by Harvard administrators. The product of a collaboration between the College’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the Freshman Dean’s Office, the placemats first appeared in Annenberg last week. Jasmine M. Waddell, the freshman resident dean for Elm Yard, described the placemats’ goal as giving freshmen strategies for discussing those issues with their families over winter break.

“This is a way to say, ‘You’ve been exposed to a lot of different ideas, and particularly in this moment when there’s a lot of discussion about various topics, you’re going to go home and you may or may not be able to speak the same language,’” Waddell said. “It’s not that you have to believe in what’s on the placemat, but it gives you some tools to be able to have productive conversations.”

Jasmine Waddell added that the Freshman Dean’s Office decided against emailing the placemats directly to students, instead installing them in Annenberg without comment as a piece of “passive programming.” lol, Jasmine Waddell

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/12/16/placements-race-discussions-released/

Pic:
https://i.imgur.com/fAso8Aa.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3072244&forum_id=2#29394158)