THE MANHATTAN INSTITUTE CONFERENCE ON RACE AND CULTURE seeks to forge understanding among black scholars (from all points of the political spectrum) on a crucial issue in today’s racial climate in America: what is “African American Culture”? In an increasingly hybrid society, what will be the place and nature of a coherent and constructive conception of a subcultural black identity? How will we balance resisting injustice with incorporating ourselves into a dynamic and promising mainstream?
AGENDA
| 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM | Registration |
| 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM | Opening Remarks: John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute, and Author, Losing the Race and Authentically Black |
| 9:15 AM – 10:30 AM | FIRST PANEL: AUTHENTICITY Debra J. Dickerson, Author, The End of Blackness Glenn C. Loury, Founding Director, Institute on Race and Social Division (IRSD) John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute Moderator: Armstrong Williams AUTHENTICITY: Throughout our history, resistance to injustice has been an obviously urgent task for engaged African Americans. Yet the progress we have made requires a reconception of this facet in our identity. What is it to be “Authentically Black” in 2004? How will we combine the forces of hybridity, essentialism, resistance, and conformity into an identity that best equips us to move ahead? |
| 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | SECOND PANEL: POPULAR CULTURE Stanley Crouch, Syndicated Columnist John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute Joseph C. Phillips, Commentator and Author Moderator: Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune POPULAR CULTURE: What is a healthy popular culture for a race with a tragic history emerging from centuries of oppression? For many, the countercultural messages of hiphop constitute a proactive voice from below. Others call for a more conformist brand of uplift, displaying black America’s strengths and possibilities. This panel will examine hiphop music, black film and literature from a historical and present-day perspective to seek insights on these issues. |
| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | BREAK |
| 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM | THIRD PANEL: RACE, CRIME AND THE MEDIA Roy Innis, Chairman and CEO, Congress of Racial Equality Michael Meyers, Executive Director, New York Civil Rights Coalition Eugene F. Rivers, National TenPoint Leadership Foundation Moderator: Errol Louis, New York Sun RACE, CRIME AND THE MEDIA: The friction between blacks and the law, and the large numbers of black men in prison, are the most prominent factor in many black Americans’ sense that America remains an ineradicably racist nation. What are the solutions that work in resolving these problems? Have the media exacerbated the issue in their coverage, and what role can they play in assisting past this crucial stumbling block towards getting past race in America? |
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