During discussions today, we talked about the events of Khayat’s memoir that seemed most significant, challenging, or insightful.  We met in the Harrison Room of the library, which would’ve had a great view of the Lyceum had it not been so sunny.  We had to keep the shades closed to have discussion.

I was impressed with how many students found comfort in Khayat’s ease with which he discussed his failures in life (the missed field goal of the LSU game, the snub he received when trying for the position of dean of the law school).  We discussed the interesting ways in which writers can build ethos, and that by admitting his failures, Khayat seems more accessible, more human in a way.

Some classes felt it was problematic that Khayat used the term “Old South traditions” when referring to the values people hold who could’ve vandalized the original design for the civil rights monument.  We discussed connotation and how we often hear words like “tradition” or “heritage” in reference to “hate” or “racism.”

Many of us shared the artifacts we’d found over the weekend that supplemented ideas presented in the Khayat text.  One of Khayat’s oppositions to the original design for the civil rights monument was its opportunity for vandalism.  Many students brought in articles related to the vandalism of the James Meredith statue by university students and those students’ subsequent indictment on federal hate crime charges.  We looked at Khayat’s text, not from the standpoint of a memoir, but as an argument about the current state of the university.  Such great discussion today!

Looking forward to seeing how these daily writes, weekly writes, and discussions translate into the rough drafts of our video essays on Wednesday!