History Professor Sabrina Thomas (right) introduces Alonzo Jones (seated, left) to her Sports, War & Masculinity class on Jan. 18, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Jones, the Associate Dean of Students at Arizona State University, opened a dialogue on what it means to be a man.
'America anoints priviledge of adultness based on birthdays. I'm 48. Does that make me a man,' was Jones' opening query.
Jones challenged the students present, stating 'Masculinity is a powerful conversation. What is a man? I want to make this question as difficult as possible.'
The students, obviously, were engaged in the conversation.
'So much weight is put into the physical self, though that alienates so much of the populatulation, and yet, it's only one-third of your life,' Jones said.
'Do you raise (children) with your physical self? Maybe. No matter how, you actually raise a child with love. A lot of men raise kids physically.'
'The key is exposure. The more exposure you get, the more you can transfer this to another group of people and see them as human,' said Jones.
Later that afternoon, the Wabash community gathered in Pioneer Chapel for an interactive reading of Dr. King's monumental 'I Have A Dream' speech. Here, President Greg Hess utters the speech's opening line.
Eighty-one speakers voluntarily participated by each reading one of the speech's 81 lines.
Dean for Professional Development Alan Hill closed the reading.
Members of the Malcolm X Institute for Black Studies gathered for a group photo following the speech.
History Professor Sabrina Thomas (right) introduces Alonzo Jones (seated, left) to her Sports, War & Masculinity class on Jan. 18, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Jones challenged the students present, stating 'Masculinity is a powerful conversation. What is a man? I want to make this question as difficult as possible.'
'So much weight is put into the physical self, though that alienates so much of the populatulation, and yet, it's only one-third of your life,' Jones said.
Later that afternoon, the Wabash community gathered in Pioneer Chapel for an interactive reading of Dr. King's monumental 'I Have A Dream' speech. Here, President Greg Hess utters the speech's opening line.