Dr. Barbara Trepagnier, author of Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide, will visit WKU for a lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 22) at Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium.
The lecture, sponsored by the Office of Diversity Programs, is free and open to the public.
About her book: Vivid and engaging, Silent Racism persuasively demonstrates that silent racism — racism by people who by all accounts would be classified as “not racist” — is instrumental in the production of institutional racism. Trepagnier argues that heightened race awareness is more important in changing racial inequality than judging whether individuals are racist. The collective voices and confessions of “nonracist” white women heard in this book help reveal that all individuals harbor some racist thoughts and feelings. Trepagnier argues that the oppositional categories of racist/not racist are outdated. The oppositional categories should be replaced in contemporary thought with a continuum model that more accurately portrays today’s racial reality in the United States.
Contact: Diversity Programs, (270) 745-5066.
