Article by Isabella Senno, The Daily Iowan
Panelist Loren Glass, Jason England, and Tlaloc Rivas (Photo by Ben Partridge)
Taking a look back can help with moving forward.
On Wednesday, WorldCanvass hosted White Privilege, Structural Racism, and the Dream of America. The event involved three separate panels by seven interchanging members of the University of Iowa community. Respectively, the three segments addressed an overview of structural racism and white privilege, white supremacy in America, and the global rise in nationalist sentiments.
“The recent election has highlighted deep divisions in the electorate and we have yet to see how the incoming administration will address the uneasiness felt by so many African Americans, Latinos, immigrants, Muslims, and others,” said Joan Kjaer, the event’s moderator. “To move forward, we need to acknowledge that dissonances exist and engage in frank discussion.”
Panelists sought to develop a discussion about the roots of structural racism, white privilege and the problems that come attached to both, such as police brutality.
“We need to understand our history better in order to know how we arrived at our current situation,” said Loren Glass, a panelist and English professor. “Not enough folks know about how pervasive white privilege has been throughout American history. In some ways, American history is the history of white privilege.”