Open VISIONS Forum and The Common Ground Series: Michael Eric Dyson, PhD and John H. McWhorter, PhD - Tuesday, March 8 at 7:30 PM

Dr. Dyson holds the Centennial Chair and is University Distinguished Professor of African and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University, as well as being an ordained Baptist minister. A prominent commentator viewed on major media outlets, his opinion articles appear regularly in The New York Times and The New Republic; he has authored 20 books. Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, is his most recent study demonstrating the insidious nature of systemic racism.

Dr. McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. A regular contributor to The New Republic and The Atlantic, he recently published a provocative Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Examining the Use of the N-Word.” Taking an independent position, he has questioned the impact of “microaggressions” and “infantilization” upon the Black community, suggesting it has “dehumanized us.” Dr. McWhorter challenges “victimization, separatism, and anti-intellectualism” as underlying problems hindering racial equality in the eyes of the American public.