Mount St. Mary’s University recently welcomed scholar, author and public intellectual Eddie Glaude Jr., Ph.D., to campus as the fall Ducharme Lecture speaker. His talk, titled “Race & Democracy: America Is Always Changing, But America Never Changes,” explored the connections between race, trauma, and memory, and what we can do to bring about a new America.
Glaude, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, referenced historic injustices as well as the recent gun violence in Uvalde and Buffalo and the difficult path that America has into the future. He left the audience with questions such as “What does it mean for you and me to collaborate with the world as it is?” and “How do we reconcile with our past and move forward?”
After a standing ovation from the inspired crowd, Glaude welcomed questions from students. The students’ questions focused on activism, and how to be a part of the process of realizing the promises of the United States. “We must expose ourselves,” said Glaude, encouraging attendees to live with conviction. “If you believe that working 40 hours a week entitles you to secure food and shelter, fight for it. If you believe in justice, fight for it. If you want to imagine a new world you have got to fight for it,” he urged. He advised waking up every morning committed to working toward the realization of one’s dreams.
Glaude emphasized that nations must be built on love, but spreading love takes vulnerability and a willingness to be steadfast in the face of adversity. Part of the process, Glaude explained, involves examining what we value, deciding what is worthwhile and what we need to leave behind. The moments in life where we face backlash help us truly define what we value. Glaude posed the question: “Exposure is asking someone to deal with the wounds that make us who we are. Do we live in the shadows and hide from ourselves or do we live vulnerably?"
Glaude further encouraged the audience to live with integrity when he stated that the one “who collaborates is doomed.” He explained that by making compromises with morality and justice, we collaborate with evil and indifference to our fellow members of society.
The evening closed with a book signing that allowed students to meet Glaude, and the line was out the door. Glaude has written several award-winning books including New York Times bestseller “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own,” “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul” and “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America.”
To learn more about Glaude and his work, check out his six-part podcast series, History Is US. The series explores Unites States' history during the Reconstruction Era post-Civil War and beyond, with an emphasis on the challenges black communities have endured and the unique longevity of racism in America.
Held twice a year, the Ducharme Series fosters the integration of learning between different fields in the Mount’s core curriculum. The series is named in honor of Professor Emeritus Robert Ducharme, Ph.D., who advanced the Mount’s mission for 39 years as an English professor and department chair. The Ducharme Lectures are endowed with a generous gift from Raphael Della Ratta, C’92, who was an English and philosophy major at the Mount.