Nia Gooden : Volunteering at cultural events (3-5 points)

 

    On October 29th I helped host one of the Spelman College French Club’s first events. Our club’s cultural event was a halloween themed French movie night where we watched the French movie, Some Like it Rare. The event involved the French club executive board, including me, the Vice President, who helped orchestrate the event. Leading up to the event we had a board meeting to decide on the movie we would be showing, create our event flier, coordinate our communication to the language department to obtain funding for snacks, and finally book a room for our event. While the themes of the movie and the event were horror, humor, and Halloween, those in attendance were also able to learn a lot about French culture through the jokes made in the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed hosting the event and found it pleasant to provide a fun experience for Frenchs students and visitors while also enriching my own language education and improving my ear for French language. I found it difficult to translate the words as quickly as they were being said but I made an effort to stay engaged and guess what they were saying anyhow, with help from context clues in the visuals. It was very revealing to learn about the French social norms regarding racial humor and casual racism through the offensive language-specifically language derogatory to Black people and people of African descent-that was casually used by the characters. Our club advisor, a TA who is a French native herself explained to us how this behavior is quite normalized in France. It was shocking and informative yet not surprising to see how racism continues to be perpetuated in the modern world, even in countries outside of North America. The perjorative term “nègre” was used in the film to describe inappropriate or contemptible behavior that was beneath the white wealthy characters. Watching this film was a great way to supplement discussions about racism appearing in different ways throughout the African Diaspora in my IBQC class (“The Black Intellectual”) and my ADW class. 

Nevertheless, awareness of the racism occurring in various countries is the first step to taking action to mitigate and rectify such occurrences. The cultural norms and habits that I learned about in the movie undoubtedly expanded my understanding of French culture and the minute details such as the diet and social behaviors of French people will assist me as I continue to study French language and culture throughout while pursuing a French minor at Spelman. This activity complimented the listening practice I was getting in French class and therefore helped me evaluate my skill level, giving me an idea of where and how I need to improve. I learned that I need to drastically improve the speed of my comprehension of the French language. I expect to apply my knowledge of French racial bigotry to my advantage when I travel to France so I am aware and safe in situations where I may be faced with individuals attempting to use derisive language toward me.

                                                                By: Nia Gooden