Watch: Courageous Conversations: Race at the Crossroads

Talking about race can evoke fear, anger, misunderstanding. So it often remains the elephant in the room. This panel discussion asks the question, “What do we lose when we don’t talk about race and how could our lives improve if we did?”

WHYY hosted in partnership with WURD, Philadelphia Media Network, and American Bible Society, “Courageous Conversations: Race at the Crossroads.” Watch here.

Talking about race can evoke fear, anger, misunderstanding. So it often remains the elephant in the room. This panel discussion asked the question, “What do we lose when we don’t talk about race and how could our lives improve if we did?”

Our goal

In the post-Obama era, data shows that white and black communities are still severely divided. Race plays into so many parts of our daily lives — education, policing, work, incarceration, how we see each other, what neighborhoods we live in, and on and on. The entire country is at a crossroads and divisions across race, class, and gender seem even more fraught.

How do we come together as a country? Will we ever be post-racial? We talked about these things and more.

Featuring the voices of 

Dan K. Williams, Ph.D. — Director of Urban Initiatives at Biblical Seminary
Shane Claiborne — Best-selling Author, Speaker and Activist
Marybeth Gasman, Ph.D. — Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania
Howard Stevenson, Ph.D. — Professor of Urban Education and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania; Executive Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative
Errin Whack — Urban Affairs Reporter for The Associated Press