ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses directly on relationships between activists, marginalized communities, and rhetorical work. On February 15, 2011, tens of thousands of labor activists, students, and workers converged on the Wisconsin State Capitol Building in Madison, protesting Gov. Walker’s newly announced anti-worker austerity bill, the so-called “budget repair bill.” Finally, the chapter presents an overview of this book. The book describes teaching a course about racism and public memory, and examines both the power of experiential learning and the complexities of teaching such a course as a white faculty member. It argues that academics need to resist the urge to assert boundaries for activism that keep our efforts in “the community” instead of attending to our own unjust systems/practices. The first edition of Activism and Rhetoric coincided with the beginning of a near daily assault on the institutions and practices of democracy and the fits and starts of national resistance movements.
