I have had a very successful career as a professor.  One of the things I am known for is my teaching. So, on the campus of North Carolina State University I am asked to give teaching workshops.  “Neo-Diversity in the Classroom: Creating A Safe-Space” is a workshop I did in February 28, 2013. In that workshop I showed how I and any professor can create a safe-space in the classroom.  Especially in the context of my confrontational teaching style, some of my colleagues wonder how I can do both; be so challenging and have students feel safe to ask questions, and give opinions during class discussions. So in a way I should not have been surprised by the question.

All throughout my workshop presentation, I took questions about the specific point I was making, and then at the end I took general questions from the faculty and staff who had come out.  An African-American faculty colleague put her hand up and said: “You really challenge your students on diversity issues, but yet you have a large following of white students. How do you pull that off?” I was surprised but not put off by the racial bluntness of the question. I took a moment then I took time to give an extended answer to that question. But there is really only one thing going on.  I am a day-breaker.

Just the week before that workshop, I was allowed to let people know I had won.  Fall-2012, my department and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences had nominated me for the University of North Carolina System-Board of Governors Award For Excellence In Teaching. Quite an honor to be nominated for sure, but for me quite a lot of work too. As classes for the semester were ending December 2012, in addition to dealing with final exams, final papers, and grading, I was putting together my teaching portfolio that the evaluation process required. I had help; no one is an island. With the assistance and sometimes prodding of my young colleague, Dr. Anne McLaughlin, I got the portfolio done and in on time.  I was exhausted but happy with every component.  Thankfully, Fall-semester was over and I had no plans to travel over the Christmas holiday.

Not long after we started giving books away, readers started writing reviews. And those reviews were enthusiastic. Hear the howls for “Howl of the Wolf”:

Nov 5, 2012

It is currently almost midnight and I have just finished “Howl of the Wolf!” I could not have thought of a better title for this book. It’s very thoughtful and meaningful. We, as students at NCSU, are one. We are the Wolfpack! We all come from different backgrounds, different ways that we define ourselves. In this book, each one of us is figuratively a wolf in this wolfpack. Each of us have a voice, a howl per se, and we come together to voice our own experiences and our own thoughts. Each of us “wolves” is different; different race, gender, ethnicity, and religion. However, we come together as a pack and howl out to stop prejudice and bigotry; to help each other in neo-diversity, to help each other in intergroup interactions. I loved “Howl of the Wolf.” I could only hope that this book goes viral and becomes a must-read. This book could open the eyes of so many.

By Ashley Bridge NCSU Senior

Nov 5, 2012

“Howl of the Wolf” is a great book. It catches you from the start. I started reading it at 2.30am and couldn’t put it down until 5.30am, when I was almost sleep-reading. I like that it’s short, fast and straight to the point, the next best thing to taking Dr. Nacoste’s class. For people who have taken the class, its helps refresh your memory and remind you to Howl! for your pack whenever you stray. Everyone on campus should read it! It’s the spark we need to ignite change.

By Carlos Solorzano NCSU-Senior

Oct 30, 2012

What I find so fascinating about Dr. Nacoste’s book is that it addresses the issues that most of us face on a daily basis regarding how to interact with people who are different from us and people whom we may have internalized prejudices about. This book includes astute insights from Dr. Nacoste’s students whom are on the same journey that we are all on, even those of us who grew up in the 1960s. I highly recommend this book as a way to open up conversation on how our society can become inclusive and honor our differences.

By Susan Swan King

Oct 24, 2012

I just finished reading “Howl of the Wolf” for the first time. I thank Dr. Nacoste for writing it. While I have been interested in the themes of this book for a while, the neo-diversity paradigm and framework Dr. Nacoste used was new to me, and I really appreciate how he was able to articulate things I have felt but not been able to say.

By Alton Russell NCSU Parks Scholar

Already, “Howl of the Wolf” was a success.

A lot of students, some 200, showed up for the “Howl of the Wolf” event.

That event was a coffee house style evening put on by “Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign For Change.”  And that November night, along with the students there were some staff and faculty that I recognized.  But even so, I did not know the reasons that very people came out.

Later I learned that at least one student who came was there to get credit for a course.  Dr. Craig Brookins, my best friend, requires that his students attend a number of events that are relevant to neo-diversity. To get credit for attendance though, his students must write up their experience of the event.  One of Dr. Brookins’ students attended the “Howl of the Wolf” event and wrote it up in this way:

    “I attended Dr. Nacoste’s event which featured student skits and performances and his discussion about the content of his newest book Howl of the Wolf. The skits featured scenarios in which students interacted with someone of a different culture or sexual orientation, but did not handle the situation correctly. We then had an open discussion about the proper way to handle these types of situations and why we think they occur. We also watched a spoken word performs in which the poet described his mother’s life as a maid. Finally, Dr. Nacoste tied in the importance of all of these things amongst students on the campus.

     In the first skit, two girls were discussing their holiday breaks and one student was of Middle Eastern descent. The friend made an ignorant comment in relation to the Middle Eastern student’s culture. The second scenario involved two guys who were becoming good friends but one was homosexual and the other was heterosexual. The heterosexual friend was often too aware of his friend’s sexuality and made conversations awkward. Both these scenarios relate to the importance of socialization. As Americans who live in a diverse nation, it is important that children are socialized to deal with people of different backgrounds in a way that won’t offend them and it is also important for the child on the other end of the incident to know how to deal with an awkward situation and not allow negative incidents to alter how they identify themselves.

     The spoken word piece by Chicas had the largest impact on me.

 

    The poet, Chicas, spoke of how his parents were immigrants into the U.S. from South America and he wrote specifically about his mother’s life on the job. He spoke of how his mother’s hands were used to make beautiful music back in her country, but in the United States, they were just seen as instruments to clean someone’s tub. These are all events he recalled as a young boy and they played a part in shaping his identity. Instead of these experiences making him view himself and his culture in a negative life, he used it as fuel to make a better life for himself and his family. He was proud of where he came from and refused to be treated like a second class citizen like his mother was. He aimed to bring pride back to his family.

     The book Howl of the Wolf is a compilation of stories written in Dr. Nacoste’s class in which students described their experiences with people from different backgrounds. Most of these experiences showed how ignorant people were. Dr. Nacoste said that we live in a Neo-diverse age in which it is important for people from all walks of life to know how to interact with one another. This is especially important on such a diverse campus where despite our differences, we all howl the same. We are the Neo-diverse Wolfpack.”

        Wake Up! It’s Serious presents Dr. Rupert Nacoste talking about and giving away his new book, “Howl of the Wolf” about NC State students describing their new awareness and understanding of neo-diversity. Come join us on Thursday, November 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Caldwell Lounge! This will be an Open-Mic event. Coffee and refreshments will be provided by Global Village.

That is how the November 8, 2012 event was announced to the whole NCSU campus on various web bulletin boards.  Also posted all over campus was this flyer:

You see, NCSU students were going wild for my new book, “Howl of the Wolf.”

After the Psychology Club meeting and book give away, word started to spread.  Students began coming by my office to ask about this book they were hearing.  Some of these students were complete strangers to me.  One male student said, “I missed the Psychology Club meeting because I had to work.  I was wondering, though, if you’d give me a copy now.”  I did.

I knew this was not an efficient way to do this.  But that was ok in the short term because the social change student group I advise was doing the work to put on a major event to introduce my book to the campus.

“Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign For Change” is a student advocacy group that grew out of my “Interpersonal Relationships and Race” class. Fall-2010, we had an incident of hateful, racial graffiti in our so-called Free Expression Tunnel.  That time students were outraged enough to organize a protest rally.  At the same time, I led a discussion in my class, and asked the students if they wanted to keep this energy going.  Students said yes, and over the following six months, “Wake Up! It’s Serious; A Campaign for Change” was born.  Two years later, it continues to grow.  As an advocacy group, these students say their mission

    “…is to design campaigns to help North Carolina State University students learn how to speak up in the presence of intolerance by refusing to be silent when another person uses derogatory group terms. We have committed ourselves to speaking up when a fellow student utters words of intolerance toward a group of our fellow student-citizens.  We have also committed ourselves to creating and participating in concrete educational activities toward positive change in the campus diversity climate with the aim of strengthening the social bonds of our community.”

The Wake Up! It’s Serious” group put on a magnificent event with a spoken word artist Chicas, skits about diversity interactions, piano interludes by Justin Outlaw, with me as the main speaker at the end.

That night another 200 students showed up to listen, be entertained, hear me, and get a free copy of “Howl of the Wolf.”

One person who showed up was a young white man who took my course the first or second time I taught it in 2006-2007.  I remembered him because I wrote a letter of recommendation for him to law school.  For a little while after he finished law school he had kept in touch, but that faded as it should have.  But here he was, dressed like a lawyer, at this event he heard about on Facebook.  He came to get a copy of the book.  He was stunned that I remembered him, but I did.

To my surprise, a few staff and faculty members from the college showed up.  Each spoke to me after the event, and each was very complimentary about the organization and content of the event and the turnout.  I assured the faculty that all the credit was due to the students in “Wake Up!  It’s Serious: A Campaign For Change.”

It was quite a night.  We gave away 162 books.

    So, I had made a promise to the Psychology Club.  I promised them that when I had copies of “Howl of the Wolf” in hand, I would come back to a meeting and give copies to the people “…in attendance at the meeting tonight.”  I was very clear about this. 

     “All of you who are here tonight,” I said, “I will give you a copy.  But that’s our secret, just the people who are here tonight.  So when I have them, I’ll let Heather (the Psych Club President) know to spread the word that Dr. Nacoste will be at the next meeting.  That will tell you I am bringing copies of the book; but just for those here tonight.  Got it!”

   All heads nodded to say, yes.  Then I went home to have some dinner.

     By late September, 2012, I had the first 1,000 copies of the book.  So I asked Heather when was the next Psychology Club meeting.  She said in two weeks, so I told her, “…ok, I’ll come to that meeting with copies of the book.”  Again, I was clear; “I’m bring copies for those who come already knowing that I am coming for that purpose.  And that’s all I’m going to do; hand out copies and then I am going home.”

     I was very clear.

     Then the week before the meeting, I saw this flyer posted all over Poe Hall; the building that houses.

 

     Not quite as secret as I had planned. But now there was nothing to be done except show up prepared.  You see I knew the combination of my name, with my name on a new book that I would give away free, would bring a crowd.  And it did.

     The evening of the meeting, I walked into the meeting room and it was full and students kept coming in.  Students I recognized from one or both of the undergraduate courses I teach; and students I didn’t recognize at all.

     That night I gave away 120 books.

     Not as secret as I had planned.

    And now it was on.

    Only two people knew that I had written a new book.  Gideon Brookins knew because he served as the technical editor of the book.  Logan Collins knew because she read drafts of the book as I was nearing the end of writing the book.

     So when the semester started, I had a secret.  But I also had responsibilities. 

     I am the faculty advisor of the Psychology Club.  As always, they had asked me to speak at the first meeting of the club for the semester in early September.  It was a Thursday evening and I decided that they would be the first to know about the upcoming publication of my new book; “Howl of the Wolf: North Carolina State University Students Call Out For Social Change.”  But I also decided to have a little fun with them.

     When I got to the meeting room, I found about 70 students in attendance.  I had already set up a power-point presentation, so I greeted everyone and began my remarks as they ate pizza.  I told them about my summer project and that the book would be published soon.  I said, though, that even though the book wouldn’t be available for a month, I wanted their reactions to the cover.  So, I said, here is the cover for the book:

    

     At first they were silent.  I was not surprised, but I prodded them on. 

    “Well, what do you think?,” I said.  Silence.  “No really, tell me; it’s pretty nice huh…” 

    Finally someone said well it’s ok. 

    “Ok?” I said.  “What’s the problem?”

      I knew the problem, but I wanted one of them to say it and someone finally did.

    “But it’s blue Dr. Nacoste.  Almost Carolina blue”

    I laughed.

    “Oh no,” I said, “…you’re right.”

     I was having fun.  No way was I going to publish a book that used the colors of the hated rival, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, even if I did get my Ph.D. there.  Not because it mattered to me, but because it would matter to the audience for my book; students at North Carolina State University.

    “Well,” I said, “… how about this cover.”

         

    Seeing the Wolfpack red, seeing the silhouettes of wolves against that big red moon, the relief and joy in the room was like an explosion.  Smiles, laughter, admiration was now all over the room and all over the students.  It was a fun moment. 

     Now that they were fully with me about my book, all their questions were about when it would be available.  So I promised them that when I had copies of the book in hand, I would come back and give copies to the people “…in attendance at the meeting tonight.”  I was very clear about this. 

     “All of you who are here tonight,” I said, “I will give you a copy.  But that’s our secret, just the people who are here tonight.  So when I have them, I’ll let Heather (the Psych Club President) know to spread the word that Dr.Nacoste will be at the next meeting.  That will tell you I am bringing copies of the book; but just for those here tonight.  Got it!”

    All heads nodded to say, yes.  Then I went home to have some dinner.

    Fall-2012 semester has moved at a clip.  One particular reason has to do with my major summer project.  Aside from taking a cruise with the family, I was working on a small book.  For a while now, I have been trying to decide how to use my students’ writings that they turn in as part of my course “Interpersonal Relationships and Race.”

     In that course, you see, I push my students to explore, examine, their own interpersonal histories when it comes to social interactions they have had with people who are not members of their racial, ethnic, gender, religious, or sexually-oriented group. In fact, one of the major assignments is for each student to write a description of their most “intense” intergroup interaction with another person. I collect these stories from my students and get their written permission to use the story in some way in my writing.

     At the end of the Spring-2012 semester, that May, I got an idea for writing a small book using some of those stories and thoughts from my students. The idea was to a book to challenge other students at North Carolina State University to face up to and embrace the neo-diversity of our campus. Neo-diversity is the social reality; a time and circumstance when each of us has to interact with people who are not like us in some way.  Today that is unavoidable, but too many Americans freeze up or act out in some ugly way when face with that interaction situation.

    But while taking my “Interpersonal Relationships and Race” course, my students come to terms with the reality of neo-diversity.  Not only do they write about and analyze their past mistakes, they write about how taking the course has changed their understanding of what is going on, and about how they now realize they can no longer just sit around “…waiting on the world to change.”  My students howl that now is the time for all on our campus and for all Americans to accept the neo-diversity of our lives and to make that neo-diversity a productive part of each of our lives.

    That was the idea, and that is what I wrote.  In September-2012, I self published my new book, “Howl of the Wolf: North Carolina State University Students Call Out for Social Change.”  That made this Fall-2012 semester move along at a clip.