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MICHEL DEGRAFF: So if I were
to teach this course to a group

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that would be much more diverse
than what we have here at MIT--

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because I think--

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so when we taught this
course this past Spring,

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most students came
with a very open mind

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trying to understand
the way, indeed,

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race and language create
these hierarchies that are not

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good for the country,
not good for the world,

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and how to create more
inclusive societies.

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But if I were to
teach this course

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with a more diverse ideological
set of students, what I think

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I would do is to include
more texts from, say, a more

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conservative perspective.

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In fact, some of the
students often they

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would bring in clips
from, say, Breitbart

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or from Rush Limbaugh, voices
that are very conservative

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and some of them even
on the outright extreme.

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And we use that for
teaching moments.

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But if I were to
teach this class maybe

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to a more diverse
group, what I would do

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is to not take views so extreme,
but take some scholarly work

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that could advocate,
say, for building walls

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and then try to examine them
together in a respectful way.

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So that way even students
on the right and on the left

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could have a respectful
dialogue and try

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to look at the data that might
support a particular view

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versus the other.

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And that would be a challenge.

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But I think eventually that
would be a good challenge,

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because one common motif
throughout the semester

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was how do we take what we
learn here in this course

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and make it available to
the wider public including

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those who might want to
build walls and not bridges?

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How do we translate all these
very important knowledge

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of these important
findings about migration,

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about equality?

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How do we translate
that in a way

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that it can be discussed
in the wider sphere?

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And this remains a challenge
to the very end of the class.

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There was no clear
answer on how to do that.

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But I would hope that if we were
to teach to a broader audience,

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we would come up with
the right way to do it.