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News Details:

Title: Race and equality in America
Date Entered: 2009-02-02 
Details: On January 29, 2009 Former President of the American Sociological Association Troy Duster and former President of the American Political Science Association Dianne Pinderhughes spoke as 2008-2009 Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturers at the inaugural Robin M. Williams Lecture held that afternoon in the University Club. The Williams Lecture, honors a great scholar, a past President of the American Sociological Association, who spent much of his last two decades as a visiting Distinguished Professor at UCI. Williams' academic career spanned almost 60 years, from a first book in 1947 to a last book in 2003, with his final publication a posthumously published review essay.  
 
The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the Center for the Study of Democracy. The panel topic was "Race and Equality in America." Professor Duster discussed the political contexts that make social change likely to occur. Reviewing several examples in U.S. history, Duster concludes that large scale social changes often occur under a more liberal-leaning government. He asserted that the country is ripe for change under the Obama administration, but that the likelihood of this change increases dramatically if grassroots organizations work with Obama, and put pressure on him to enact more liberal and egalitarian policies. Duster concluded his talk by discussing the dream of a post-racial America. He argues that while many Americans want to believe that the Obama election signifies the end of race as a social cleavage, much more progress is necessary for race to be no longer relevant. Similarly, Professor Pinderhughes argued that race relations in the United States have made some progress, but racial divisions and considerable economic disparities still exist. She pointed, for example, to the current economic recession as disproportionately affecting African Americans because of the high proportion of African-American worked in jobs connected to the automobile industry. Pinderhughes also emphasized the need for the US to further address the lingering racial inequality left by slavery and Jim Crow racism. She concluded her talk by discussing ways in which the Obama administration has a unique opportunity to help advance race relations in the US.  
 
Later on the 29th, Duster and Pinderhughes also engaged in an informal discussion with University of California, Irvine (UCI) faculty and graduate students, and with community members at a Center for the Study of Democracy sponsored dinner at the UCI University Club. That discussion touched on a wide variety of themes, including a look at how new technology will impact future discussions of race relations and how it will affect levels and modes of political participation.  
UC Irvine Center for the Study of Democracy