By Cherise Thomas
What people do for a living can be seen through how they act, what they wear, their personality and how they look; but sometimes it’s the opposite. For Bowling Green State University instructor Thomas Edge the latter applies, he is a white man and has a passion for ethnic studies.
“I own the fact, that I do come at this from the perspective of a white male,” Edge said. “I think my students appreciate that I’m honest about it.”
Edge discovered his passion for African American studies and teaching more than twenty years ago, as a freshman in college.
“By that point, I knew I wanted to focus in on African American history,” Edge said. “It’s not just historical, it connects to what is going on right now and helps provide meaning and context for what’s happening right now.”
Those who had the most influence on him were his teachers. Edge recounted one teacher in specific from his “Black Experience in America” class in spring semester 1995, Edward Ramsamy.
Ramsamy was of Indian descent and from South Africa who told of perspectives of Africa and how Africa was perceived, Edge said.
Edge remembered the day Ramsamy walked in with a large stack of photocopies. The photocopies were of a news article from the morning paper, which talked about racist remarks the university president made.
“I’ll never forget that quote.” he said. “Minorities … in his words, (were) lacking the genetic hereditary background to perform well on standardized tests.”
That day the students discussed the remarks and following the class students began a student movement encouraging the removal of the president.
“There was something about that, that just had so much more meaning, something that made me think … this is what I want to do,” Edge said. “I want to engage students in this way. I think as much as anything, I was inspired by their example in wanting to go into … Africana studies.”
According to some African American students, they were not bothered by the idea of a white ethnic studies instructor, as long as the professor was unbiased and showed understanding towards the history and culture of African Americans.
Student surveys from the spring semester of 2015 say more than 60 percent of students either agreed or strongly agreed that his methods of teaching were effective, that they would recommend this course to another student and that the course improved their critical thinking skills.
Like students, those who know Edge and are familiar with the Department of Ethnic Studies, do not mind the idea of a white ethnic studies instructor. They say he is right where he should be.
“The history of this department is that we’ve had folks of all races teaching in ethnic studies,” Director of Cultural and Critical Studies Susana Pena said. “(When) I was hired into the Department of Ethnic Studies, we had African Americans, Latino Americans, Anglo Americans, Asian Americans.”
Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and friend Dalton Anthony Jones who has known Edge since 2011, was not surprised at his focus and interest in ethnic and African American studies.
“There are a lot of really accomplished and amazing non-black scholars of black studies,” Jones said. “It’s not that unusual.”
Jones said non-black scholars are insightful people who “tend to get it.”
“What I think is unusual is for white scholars of black studies to make it their primary, discipline,” he said. “Often, black studies becomes an adjunct to … (another) field.”
He was impressed with Edge’s approach to ethnic studies and says that he shows devotion and commitment and has remarkable qualities.
Pena said Edge was a passionate and dedicated faculty member, mentor of students and an engaged community member.
“Sometimes you can be passionate and not necessarily translate it into the work that it takes to making that passion lead to real changes,” she said. “He’s passionate, but then he’s also committed to doing the day-to-day work that is necessary.”
“One is that he is one of the smartest people you’ll want to know,” Jones said. “He’s one of the nicest people, one of the most generous scholars and generous people that I know.”
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