Thurs 7/25/13 at Noon and 7PM: President Obama on Friday spoke from the White House briefing room about reactions to the Trayvon Martin verdict, and the ongoing dialog about race in the United States. Asking if people have done enough soul-searching about race, the president posed the rhetorical questions, “Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can not based on the color of their skin, but the content of their character?”
These questions pose a slightly different challenge in Vermont, where 95.4 percent of people are white, the second highest percentage among the 50 states. Thursday on Vermont Edition, we dive into how people talk about and experience racial identity here, and learn about some of the work that is being done in our schools and police departments. Our guests include Rashad Shabazz, a professor of geography at the University of Vermont who studies anti-Black racism, and Paul Marcus, executive directive of Community Change, a Boston-based non-profit that focuses on the role of white people in addressing systemic racism.
We'll hear from many other community voices during the hour, and we want to hear from you: post below, visit Vermont Edition's Facebook page, or write your thoughts to vermontedition@vpr.net, and join us live at noon Thursday, or hear the rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
