Ibram X. Kendi, William Darity Jr., Thomas Chatterton Williams and Abe Foxman
Throughout history, human beings have stolen one another's land, enslaved members of other tribes and confined those deemed as “other” into fixed positions of inferiority. At what point are those who’ve been oppressed owed recompense?
Jews received it from Germany after the Holocaust, as did Japanese Americans after their internment during World War II.
But what of the descendants of the enslaved Africans whose forced labor served as an engine for America’s economic growth? Two and a half centuries of slavery; another hundred years of Jim Crow segregation; discrimination in housing, education and employment; lynchings, beatings and mass murders.
Will offering reparations help rebalance America’s scales of racial justice or will doing so create greater division by visiting the sins of yesterday on the citizens of today? How do we calculate material compensation for crimes committed centuries ago?
And can we repair injustice retroactively?
As communities, companies, universities and the US Congress grapple with these issues, The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is proud to welcome a distinguished group of panelists to wrestle with these critical questions:
Ibram X. Kendi is the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped From The Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to Be an Antiracist. His relentless and passionate research puts into question the notion of a post-racial society and opens readers' and audiences' eyes to the reality of racism in America today. Kendi's lectures are sharp, informative, and hopeful, serving as a strong platform for any institution's discussions on racial discrimination. For more information on Ibram X. Kendi, please visit www.prhspeakers.com.
Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, William Darity Jr. researches inequality in America, the Atlantic slave trade and the economics of reparations, among other topics. The most recent of his 13 books is From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century, coauthored with A. Kirsten Mullen.
Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Self-Portrait in Black and White and Losing My Cool. A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and a columnist at Harper’s, in 2020 he wrote the initial draft of "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” signed by 152 public intellectuals criticizing a growing culture of "intolerance of opposing views.”
A Holocaust survivor, Abe Foxman is a lawyer and lifelong activist against antisemitism. He served as national director of the Anti-Defamation League for 28 years and is currently vice chair of the board of trustees of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. He is the author of five books.
If this event cannot take place in person (due to Covid-19 restrictions) it will be rescheduled for a date in 2022.
PROOF OF VACCINATION IS REQUIRED TO ENTER THE VENUE - MASKS REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES.