Speakers Bureau Speaker
Matthew C. Whitaker, Mesa
Dr. Matthew C. Whitaker is Associate Professor of United States History, African and American Studies, and Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. He is the author of Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (2005), now in paperback. Dr. Whitaker is also CEO of the Whitaker Group, L.L.C., a human relations, organizational development, and diversity consulting firm, and his commentaries on popular culture, race class, gender, presidential politics, and U.S./African relations have appeared on NPR, PBS, and other media outlets.
Presentations are suitable for high school as well as adult audiences.
The African American Experience in Arizona: 500 Years of History
People of African descent have been present in Arizona since 1528, when the first of many Spanish-speaking people of African descent arrived. By 1880, English-speaking Black people had moved to the state as servants, lumberjacks, free farmers, and entrepreneurs. Hundreds later migrated to fill remote military outposts. The history of African Americans in the West, however, is primarily an urban story of struggle for racial equality. This presentation focuses mainly on the 20th century, when World War II and the industries that arose to support it offered Black people more job opportunities and a freer life style in the West and Arizona. As a result, the Black population grew greatly, paving the way for the state s civil rights movement.
History, Hip Hop and American Popular Culture
This talk will demonstrate that Hip Hop and Rap is arguably the post Civil Rights Era’s highest form of creative, extemporaneous, ever-evolving form of communication and expression. Indeed, Rap is a form of expression that finds its roots imbedded deep within African, Caribbean, and African American culture and oral tradition. This "signifying" often took on an innocuous, playful tone, but through Hip Hop culture and Rap music, it would become a way of communicating serious objections to racial oppression, police brutality, political isolation, elitism, educational inequalities, war and more. This lecture will argue, therefore, that Hip Hop and Rap "emerged as window into, and critique of, the criminalization, socio-economic isolation, and negative perceptions of black youth, and has evolved into a multi-racial, multi-generational, global critique of rigid structures, class-ism, and representative authority."
• Host organization will provide a screen and projector for a PowerPoint presentation.
Race Relations and Interracial Unity in America
Historian and activist Richard W. Thomas has argued that interracial relations have often been "overshadowed by the disturbing persistence of racism." In this talk, Whitaker explores American race relations, and demonstrates that the largely undetected interracial struggle for racial justice and equality can offer a framework for confronting racism and inequality locally, nationally, and beyond. This talk offers a provocative and proactive approach to many racially loaded issues such as urban decay, White and Black flight, racialized poverty, hopelessness, the barrier of white apathy, and the limits of Black anger. Beginning with the history of interracial coalition building from colonial times to the present, this talk presents a penetrating yet sensitive examination of American race relations, and maintains that blacks, whites, and other people of color must become more aware of our shared history of struggle for equality to eradicate racial injustice and inequality.
• Host organization provides a screen and projector for a PowerPoint presentation.
Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West
Inspired and informed by Whitaker s new book, Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West, this talk explores the Civil Rights Movement in Arizona, underscoring the role of Western racial etiquette, Black resistance, local activists, interracial alliances, landmark legal decisions, key legislation, and the movement’s legacy. Whitaker also pays particular attention to ways in which African Americans in Arizona inspired and fought for the social, economic, and political equality that the movement engendered. Whitaker will demonstrate that leaders such as George Brooks, Sr., Cloves Campbell, Sr., Hayzel B. Daniels, Opal Ellis, Herbert Ely, Herbert Finn, Manual Pena, Lincoln Ragsdale, Sr., Warren H. Steward, Sr., and Fran Waldman waged a systematic assault on racial discrimination and inequality. They relied mainly on grassroots activism to force the desegregation of Phoenix schools, places of public accommodation, and private employers, making Phoenix the more open city that it is today.
