Is America Too Obsessed with Race?

Check out this amazing Intelligence Squared US debate I moderated in New York City.

Nsé Ufot, me, Kmele Foster at the Intelligence Squared US debate, Is America Too Obsessed with Race?

A note: I’m ashamed to realize that my last entry here is from last August! If this is “The Compleat Nick Gillespie,” I’m scattered to the far corners of the universe. Once again, I pledge to do better in posting my non-Reason-related writings and appearances!

A few weeks ago in New York, I had the distinct honor of moderating an event for Intelligence Squared US (IQ2US), a fantastic organization that stages live debates on the most pressing—and often the most controversial—issues of the day. Over the past decade or so, I’ve participated in four debates (on drug prohibition, Net Neutrality, Medicare for All, and forgiving student debt), moderated one on the state of unions, and attended dozens more (my online archive with them is available here).

The debate on race was held at a comedy club, The Village Underground, and it was a good-natured but heated conversation between my friend Kmele Foster of

The Fifth Column

and Freethink Media and Nsé Ufot, an activist who is the former director of the New Georgia Project. Take a listen and let me know what you think. Here’s the intro letter that I penned for IQ2US, that sets things up. The link to the debate is beneath that.

I was born in 1963, the year that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he prayed that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” No one can deny the massive progress on racial issues since King spoke 60 years ago, not least of which was the election and reelection of Barack Obama.
 
But we’ll likely also agree that the United States remains, in a basic but profound way, obsessed with race, especially distinctions between white and Black Americans. Even after the Civil War, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, affirmative action, and what some call a “racial reckoning” in 2020 in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, it’s clear that race still plays a significant role in many aspects of everyday life, including educational attainment, job and income opportunities, and even health and longevity (on average, white Americans live slightly more than five years longer than Black Americans).

But have we reached a point where talking about race actually confounds matters more than it clarifies them? Do we perpetuate racism by focusing on race? Does America’s long and tortured racial history get in the way of crafting policy solutions that will help individuals fare better in their lives?
 
To put it bluntly: Is America Too Obsessed with Race?
 
Arguing “Yes” is Kmele Foster, co-host of The Fifth Column podcast
and the co-founder and executive producer of the media company Freethink.
 
Arguing “No” is Nsé Ufot, activist, community organizer, and
former chief executive officer of the New Georgia Project.
 
They bring heat and light to a topic that is as timely as it is polarizing. Take a listen and let us know what you think, especially if you change your mind.