During each fall semester over the last five years, a different expert on race issues in America has been recognized by ASU’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Thursday’s Visionary Lecture featured American Book Award winner Jeff Chang, author of 2006’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation and Who We Be: The Colorization of America.
Chang is considered an expert on the correlation between hip-hop and race issues.
During the lecture, held at Phoenix College, he discussed how race has been viewed by Americans and how that has impacted the way it is seen now. Chang discussed the social changes in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed and when the Watts riots were underway.
He discussed the multiculturalism that culminated after the election of President Barack Obama. After that election, he said, some Americans claimed they were living in a post-racial society.
“Seeing as just a year ago, the Ferguson grand jury handed in a non-indictment, I guess you could say we’re now living in a post-post-racial society,” Chang said.
Chang pointed out the need to discuss race with people who don’t see it as an issue. He acknowledged that some don’t see it as a major issue in modern American society, stressing that racial issues go unaddressed because of a lack of empathy by people toward minorities.
“We feel deeply that the moment we live in is a historic time,” Chang said. “We say that black lives matter because all lives matter.”
According to Chang, race issues go unaddressed because running away from conversations is easier than having confrontational discussion. Because of this, Chang acknowledged CSRD’s Visionary Lecture might be even more impactful than it was intended on being.
“We chose him after several brainstorming sessions as to who would make a great Visionary Lecturer,” said Deborah J. Cox, assistant director at the CSRD.
DJ Panic warmed up the audience as they arrived by playing classic hip-hop before the lecture. After the set, an introduction video created by co-founder of Phonetic Spit, Tomas Stanton, played for attendees.
Phonetic Spit is Phoenix’s premier youth spoken-word ensemble. The film showed images representative of racial issues in the last year, as well as historic events occurring over the last several decades.
Among the speakers throughout the evening were Lasana O. Hotep, Dean of Student Successes and Equity in the Peralta Community College District in Oakland, California, and Wilbert Nelson, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Phoenix College.
“America still has a race problem,” said Hotep, who moderated a Q&A session with the audience at the end of the lecture. “The problem is that it cannot be kept in a box.”
The 2013 lecture featured Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic. In 2014, Aaron McGruder, creator of television show The Boondocks and co-creator of Black Jesus, was chosen as the Visionary Lecturer.
Contact the reporter at Daniel.Perle@asu.edu
