The Myth of Post-Racial America
The election of Barack Obama as President has led many to view our country as entering a "post-racial" era. The Sotomayor nomination, the arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., reaction to Attorney General Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remarks, the controversy over the New York Post cartoon of a police officer shooting a chimpanzee and many other incidents indicate that Obama's election may only be the beginning—not the end—of a post-racial America. Panelists will discuss and share analyses on the role of race both following President Obama's inauguration, and its impact on progressive thinking and communication.
Keith Kamisugi is the Director of Communications at the Equal Justice Society, a San Francisco-based national strategy group heightening consciousness on race in the law. At EJS, Keith is responsible for media relations, online strategies and developing communications coalitions and alliances. He is a former chairman of the Young Democrats of Hawai'i, served on the executive staffs of two Hawai'i governors and sat on the national steering committee of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders for Obama Leadership Council. Keith is a member of the Netroots Nation advisory board. He's @keithpr on Twitter, at facebook.com/kamisugi and keithpr.com.
Rinku Sen is the Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and Publisher of ColorLines magazine. She has written extensively about immigration, community organizing and women's lives for publications including The Huffington Post, Jack and Jill Politics, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes.com, AlterNet, and ColorLines. She has written two books: Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing (Jossey-Bass) and most recently, The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization (Berrett-Koehler), which won the Nautilus Book Award Silver Medal. Rinku was named one of 21 feminists to watch in the 21st century by Ms. Magazine.
Rich Benjamin is author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America (2009). Barbara Ehrenreich calls the book “a daring feat of 21st century exploration that will have you laughing and shuddering at the same time.”
Rich is Senior Fellow at Demos, a multi-issue national think tank based in New York City. His commentary is featured in the blogosphere (HuffPo, TPMCafe), in major newspapers, on NPR and Fox Radio, and in many scholarly venues.
Benjamin earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his doctorate from Stanford University.
Annabel's video blog (youtube.com/9500liberty) documenting the immigration battle in northern Virginia is considered a breakthrough in new media activism. She is currently finishing a feature-length documentary version of the story. Annabel also produced youtube.com/UnitedForObama featuring the viral music video "Si Se Puede Cambiar"and created the grassroots campaign, Real Virginians for Webb, in support of Senator Jim Webb. In 2007, she coordinated the historic grassroots campaign for H.Res.121, the "comfort women" resolution, addressing the trafficking of girls into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during WWII. She studied political theory at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.
