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For 50th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ panel to discuss race, liberal policies

As Americans marked the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”— the police crack-down on civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama — UH students and faculty members will convene Thursday night for a discussion on whether liberal policies make it harder for African Americans to succeed.

LIVE.Kennedy

Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy will be one of the panelists on “Resolved: Liberal Policies Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed,” Thursday night. |Courtesy of Princeton.edu.

Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy will debate Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley. The event, entitled “Resolved: Liberal Policies Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the Space City Room of the Student Center South. It is organized by the Intercollegiate Student Institute, the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation and Turning Point USA.

“In the wake of the racially charged events of 2014, questions of race, law and education seem to have become more urgent,” said Bree Binder of Turning Point USA. “In such times as these, a thoughtful discussion between the two intelligent men of opposing views can bring light to those often heated questions.

Kennedy has written multiple books, including a controversial book that tackles the N-word and discusses the history of the term. Kennedy’s focus has been the intersection race and legal institutions.

Riley, author of “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed,” is a columnist who has frequently questioned liberalism’s effectiveness in helping the African-American community. In a piece in the New York Post written last year, Riley argued that “Liberalism has also succeeded, tragically, in convincing blacks to see themselves first and foremost as victims.”

With 57 percent of Americans saying that race relations have gotten worse, according to a recent NBC poll, this discussion is guaranteed to be contentious.

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4 Comments

  • Thank you UH for organizing this important discussion. Attendance should be mandatory for every student. Only by thoughtful and open discussion can we begin to understand the complexities of the issues of our day and begin to appreciate the results of our actions and/or inaction. Whether we inherited a problem or created the problem ourselves, its up to each individual to try to be part of the solution without trampling on each others right not to participate.
    I hope some time is spent addressing the duplicity of some of our political and social leaders that created and perpetuate these policies and want to replicate the blueprint (immigration is the issue de jour). Acknowledging that our society has a problem is the easy part. Allowing our government to attempt to resolve the issue rather than taking ownership in the problem AND the solution as individuals is irresponsible and lazy and will ALWAYS end up causing more problems than it fixes. Just ask the American Indians, the first minority we tried to help….sorry, that was too easy. Its up to you and me to make a difference, and I am trying, one idiot at a time.

    • make it mandatory! Every student needs to be indoctrinated!
      But why just UH or America? Anywhere where there is a lack of racial diversity, there is a race problem. Japan, China, Kenya, and Pakistan are not racially diverse enough. Why don’t these countries understand that the only way they can be competitive in the world is if they become more racially diverse? Israel is also too racially homogenous. After all it is mostly Semitic. We need to change that. I call on all people worldwide to promote immigration to these countries so that they can be blended racially. There is no room for xenophobia anywhere on the planet!

      • Israel begins deporting migrants back to African countries

        http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/17/world/meast/israel-deports-immigrants/

        Where Was God When Israel Deported African Refugees?

        After building a fence on Israel’s border with the African continent to
        prevent any further entry by asylum-seekers, the government began
        rounding up those already living in Israel and sticking them in containment centers, to be detained there indefinitely. The stated intention of these spartan camps
        is to sap the Africans of any hope of achieving freedom in Israel, so
        that they will give up and grudgingly agree to go back to the horrors
        they fled from. Netanyahu’s justification for their draconian treatment: the Africans’ non-Jewishness “threatens the social fabric… and our national identity.”

        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sheen/where-was-god-during-isra_b_5500889.html

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