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delfin bautista in their office at Ohio University's LGBT Center (FILE)

OU LGBT Center's Rainbow Reads to discuss ‘The Color Purple’

Rainbow Reads will discuss The Color Purple and its portrayal of racism and sexism in its first session of the semester. 

Rainbow Reads is a reading group hosted by the Ohio University LGBT Center that will analyze LGBT narratives and themes in literature. The first session this semester will take place Wednesday, and the literature that will be discussed throughout the semester is Alice Walker’s 1982 novel.

The Color Purple follows the lives of African-American women living in rural Georgia and their struggles in addressing various social problems, such as racism and sexism. Its portrayal of the treatment of African-American people during the 1930s has caused the novel to be the topic of many discussions when it was first released. It has been on the American Library Association’s list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books between 2000 and 2009. The novel has since been adapted into a 1985 film by Steven Spielberg starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. 

“We chose The Color Purple because it is by a queer author … (and) it is intersectional; dealing with race, sexuality, and gender,” Jeremy Sierra, a student worker at the LGBT Center, said in an email.

Sierra, a graduate student studying critical studies in education who uses they/them pronouns, said those themes will be discussed throughout the semester. 

One of the main themes in the novel is the discussion of racism against people of color. The characters in the novel are subjected to violence because of their skin color and their social statuses, a problem that Erin Heiney said she believes is still a problem today.

“When you learn the history of something, it helps you better understand how things are happening today,” Heiney, an undecided freshman, said. “When you read or watch this movie and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is crazy that this did happened,’ but you look at what’s happening today and it’s all (related) and intertwined.”

Julia Robertson, a freshman studying creative writing, read the novel during her senior year in high school and said the main character’s voice was a key factor in the novel.

“It’s obvious that she doesn’t have much of an education background, but her opinions on life are very moving,” Robertson said. “She’s such a strong, confident character.”

At the end of the semester, Sierra said they hope people will come out of the discussions with “newfound respect and knowledge of queer literature.”

Robertson said she is considering attending the discussion at the LGBT Center.

The characters’ struggle against their mistreatment makes a statement about problems regarding racism, sexism and others.

“It’s worth the read,” Robertson said.

@summerinmae

my389715@ohio.edu

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