U.S. resegregation policies to be examined during Fall Arts Celebration event

During a time when race is at the forefront of many national headlines and social media news feeds, Jeff Chang will discuss how resegregation is quietly pushing the U.S. back to the days before 1954’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

Chang, a social historian and author, will present “We Gon’ Be Alright: Race and Resegregation in Today’s America” on October 9 as Grand Valley’s Fall Arts Celebration Distinguished Academic Lecturer. The presentation will take place at 7:30 p.m. on the 2nd floor of the L.V. Eberhard Center, located on Grand Valley’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The lecture will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Many of Chang’s thoughts and ideas about resegregation, which is the renewal of segregation among systems like housing and education, will reflect those found in his new book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation.

Chang claims that if policies of resegregation can be removed from the conversation, which activist groups such as Black Lives Matter are attempting to do, America can become a thriving, prosperous and equitable place for everyone.

“Jeff links contemporary activism and Twitter's use as a tool to advocate for social justice to broader histories of student activism and civil rights,” said Kimberly McKee, director of Grand Valley’s Kutsche Office of Local History and lecture coordinator. “His lecture is timely, given the continuance of police violence and day-to-day hostility experienced by communities of color and other marginalized communities.”

Chang has written extensively on the intersection of race, art and civil rights, and the socio-political forces that guided the hip-hop generation. He has written for The Nation, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer and Foreign Policy among many other print and digital publications. He currently serves as the executive director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.

For more information about Fall Arts Celebration, visit gvsu.edu/fallarts.