"We Gon' Be Alright: Race and Resegregation in Today's America"

Monday, October 9, 7:30 PM
L.V. Eberhard Center, Second Floor
Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus

Lecture followed by book signing and reception

Jeff Chang has written extensively on the intersection of race, art, civil rights, and the sociopolitical forces that guided the hip-hop generation. As a speaker, he brings fresh energy and sweep to the essential American story, offering an invaluable interpretation at a time when race defines the national conversation. Chang has written for The Nation, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, Foreign Policy, N+1, Mother Jones, Salon, Slate, Buzzfeed, and Medium, among many others. He currently serves as the executive director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.

In this talk, Jeff Chang explores the thoughts and ideas set out in his new book "We Gon’ Be Alright," which The Washington Post calls “the smartest book of the year.” The idea of a diverse and inclusive society is besieged from the Midwest to the White House to Twitter. And resegregation — the increasing division of black and white people across housing, education, and more — is quietly pushing us back to pre-Brown vs. Board-of-Education days. But to Chang, not all is lost. If we can unseat policies of resegregation, which activist groups like Black Lives Matter are helping to do, we join the great fight of our time — the fight to establish America as a thriving, prosperous, equitable place for all.