| Is America Really Post-Racial? |
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A Jamestown Project-Rap Sessions Public Conversation, Fri., March 13, 2009, 5:15 pm at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA in the Ames Courtroom. Introduction by Jamestown Project CEO & President Stephanie Robinson; moderated by Harvard Law Professor and Jamestown Project Senior Fellow Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. Official Flyer Panelists: Princeton Professor and Jamestown Project Senior Fellow, Dr. Eddie Glaude; President and Co-Founder of Industry Ears, Inc., Lisa Fager Bediaka; Editor-in-chief of the NAACP Crisis Magazine and Author of What Obama Means, Jabari Asim; Director of Immigrants Rights at Amnesty International and Community Activist, Rosa Clemente; CEO of Rap Sessions and Co-Founder of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention, Bakari Kitwana. Special guest panelist: Co-Host of The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Sybil Wilkes. During the 2008 presidential primary, the word "post-racial" emerged as a watchword to describe one of the leading candidates, a new voter outlook and by extension a new chapter in American race relations. But what does it mean to be post-racial in the hip-hop generation? Have we truly arrived at a post-racial era when the N-word is daily prevalent in American popular culture? How do we reconcile racial progress alongside persisting institutional racism? How do ideas like "privilege," "class," "special interests," and racial representations in mainstream culture complicate these issues? How do the younger generations who have lived their lives in post-segregation America factor into the equation? A year ago (on 18 March 2008) presidential candidate Barack Obama in his speech on race "A more perfect union" challenged the nation to discuss the centuries old unresolved American racial question. This townhall meeting answers the call.
Co-sponsored by The Jamestown Project, Rap Sessions and
the Harvard Black Law Students Association as part of BLSA's Annual Spring Conference. |