Contacts:
Pat Suhrcke, Director
(617) 495-2727
email: Public Events@cambridgeforum.org
Press Release
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Walter Benn
Michaels and Randall Kennedy discuss "The Trouble With Diversity"
7:30 p.m.,
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street Cambridge, MA 02138
Free and Open to the Public
"Words matter," argues Walter Benn Michaels. The way Americans
talk about our multicultural, multilingual, multinational society directly influences
the social policies and cultural landscape of the nation. In his provocative
new book The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore
Inequality, Michaels argues our enthusiastic celebration of difference and diversity
masks growing economic inequality for African Americans, women, and other marginalized
groups. Legal scholar Randall Kennedy responds to these ideas and moderates a
discussion of these seminal questions. Does the idea of diversity stymie the
search for genuine social justice? What role can identity politics play in fostering
a more equal society?
Michaels and Kennedy discusses their ideas at Cambridge
Forum on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. at First
Parish, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, in Cambridge.
A book-signing courtesy
of Harvard Book Store follows the program.
Walter Benn Michaels is a professor
of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The author of Our America
and The Shape of the Signifier, he has also contributed to The New York Times
Magazine, and The Boston Globe. Randall Kennedy is a professor at Harvard
Law School. A Rhodes scholar and law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall, Kennedy's research is focused on the impact of racism on American social
and political culture. His most recent book is Nigger: The Strange Career of
a Troublesome Word.
Cambridge Forums are free and open to the public. Book signing will follow program. Open discussion follows speaker presentation. Events are recorded for public radio broadcast. CDs and tapes are available. Call 617-495-2727. Forums can also be viewed online: Go to www.cambridgeforum.org and click on the WGBH Forum Network. Cambridge Forum 3 Church Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone/fax: 617-495-2727 email: director@cambridgeforum.org website: http://www.cambridgeforum.org "Bringing people together to talk again . . ."