H-Empire regularly shares recent publications relevant to the network's scope, content, and purpose ("the origin, development, working and decline of empires, rather broadly defined across academic disciplines and professional interests, chronological time periods, and geographical regions").
I have been following the discussion of the Reacting Consortium's decision to discontinue publication of the Frederick Douglass Game. I played the game at a RTTP conference in 2013 and used it in my history of slavery class in 2014 and 2015. I decided not to use the game again. I am a white woman faculty at a PWI. Many of my students struggle to understand the history of racism, particularly historical constructions of biological racial difference. I recall the distinct discomfort of a student who played Thomas R. Dew.
First and most important: in many years of using Fred. Douglass no one in any of my classes has ever been forced to play a member of the Status Quo faction in the game. If teachers have required students to do so, they should stop. If there is no accumulation of evidence of such forced action, members or representatives of the Reacting Editorial Board should stop insinuating that there is.
May 25, 2022 Dr. Celucien Joseph
Day 24 in Haitian Heritage Month: The “Indemnity” of 1825: The Haitian Receipts
Last weekend, the New York Times published an extraordinary investigation into one of history’s most odious debts: the payments Haiti made to French slaveholders in return for recognising its independence. The idea of compensating slaveholders for the loss of ‘their property’ – i.e.
Jim Stewart and I created the Frederick Douglass "game" that the Reacting to the Past leadership recently decided to cancel from its series. Since 2006, the Reacting pedagogy has been a huge part of my professional life. The Reacting pedagogy is terrific for engaging students with Big Ideas! But the RTTP bureaucracy lacks transparency and accountability to anyone outside of its little circle.
These are facts:
After the Civil War, the great abolitionist Wendell Phillips warned that while slavery was dead "the master survives." I see from the expurgated explanation offered by "co-general editor" Carnes that the master still reigns in New York and North Carolina. The revealing words of John C. Calhoun are now too inflammatory for white students? Does Prof Carnes actually believe that African Americans are unaware of what white people have said about them and do to them every week? Who exactly does Prof. Carnes think he is now protecting?
Dear Mark Carnes:
We thank you most sincerely for your highly detailed account of how and why you and your colleagues decided to cancel publication of our Frederick Douglass, Slavery and the Constitution:1845. That’s because (much to our surprise) it buttresses our conclusion that your decision was driven by fears of White fragility, Black backlash and White supremacist manipulation.
Dear Josh,
The mass murder in Buffalo has been so much on my mind that I've had to defer responding to your thoughtful post. I well appreciate the difficult choices presented by intractable students and also understand why you responded to them by toning down the White supremacist elements in the FD game.
As a professor who heavily uses Reacting, including having used the Frederick Douglass game, I feel that the WSJ story is not a very complete report and also leans into the idea that Reacting decision makers are afraid to teach the history of race and racism in a frank and honest way. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, it is important to keep in mind that Reacting is a particular kind of pedagogy, and it helps students learn in a unique way. But it is not the ONLY way to learn. Prudence may demand approaching some subjects with pedagogies other than Reacting.
