Assignment: Due November 7: Humor as strategy or tool in conflict transformation.
Okay…this will be a blood-red paper to remember the bazillions of prisoner turkeys that will be slaughtered this month so US omnivores can sate their appetites for poor, helpless (well, not really…turkeys are mean cusses) fowls. Do you wonder what it really means to “talk turkey?” Where did that saying come from? (oops, dangling preposition). Snap back to reality (thanks, Marshall): 2 pages. You have your choice of 3 options. I have suggested resources (from the links for this week) but you can use others, of course.
Option A: Resources: Old stuff from the abortion assignment. New reading on Church Ladies, Dynamic of Identity. Any other sources you like (the Ethnic Humor article could be used…information transformed from ethnic to other identity politics). PLEASE CITE SOURCES.
You are a trained facilitator in conflict transformation. You have been asked to teach a one-week mini-course on how to use humor as a conflict transformation strategy and/or tool. You will use Church Ladies for Choice for your example. Lead the class in analyzing what the CLC are doing, how they are manipulating identity dynamics-politics, how, and if, they are transforming conflict and whom does this transform (or does it?...is it – continuing the metaphor – preaching to the choir?). Also address the issue of when is enough too much. Could this action also been seen as polarizing and conflict inducing?
Option B: Resources: Readings on the WTO (Starhawk, Challenging, Jubilee), other things you might want to look up or already know about the Seattle WTO event, YesMen video. Dynamic of Identity. PLEASE CITE SOURCES.
You are an organizer for an upcoming protest on private prisons (somebody wants to buy 100 acres of back campus – oops, there goes the hash – to build a minimum security prison. It will primarily house Indiana residents who have been detained for “non-violent” – are we assuming dealing drugs to kids is not violent? – crimes). You were a member of the organizing team for the Seattle WTO event and are knowledgeable about the Yes Men. You want to mobilize an effective and educational protest event that transforms the issue. You want it inclusive (community involvement and remember what you are dealing with. Prison populations by far over-represent African Americans and Latinos to Caucasians per 100,000 throughout the country. This will, then, affect more African American and Latino famlies in Indiana than it would Caucasian families.) and you want to use humor as a primary strategy. Come up with a plan.
Option C: Resources: YesMen video, Dynamic of Identity, Ethnic Humor, any other sources you want. PLEASE CITE SOURCES.
Last week, two students got in a tizzy in SAGA about cereal options. The conflict was handled poorly and the visible differences between the students (race and gender unknown BUT one student was an athlete…wearing a letter jacket…and one was not) became their essentialed identities. Since EC is a teensy-weenzy place, word got out and now groups are mobilized. SAGA is like a demilitarized zone, people sit with like kind, insults are showing up in graffiti on bulletin boards, dorm doors. The Ultimate Frisbee team can’t decide if they are athletes or not. Even some faculty have taken to wearing their warm-up suits or tie-died t-shirts from way-gone days (not a pretty sight). Whatever the fight was about, nobody remembers and nobody cares. The administration wants to form a committee (of high-level administrator, 1 faculty member and 1 student), hold a vigil on the heart (Campus Ministry’s idea), and have an all-student meeting. Some faculty have had moments of silence in classes but almost no one will touch a discussion with a pole-vault pole. You and other students well-versed in intercultural conflict resolution know that SERIOUSdiscussions (or all-student meetings) seldom work because only the already empowered are empowered to speak. You do, however, realize you must do something…and it’s got to come from the students. You decide to use humor to bring about conflict transformation. What’s your plan?