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Vail Symposium explores the current role of race

Carrie Marsh
Vail Daily Corespondent
Vail, CO Colorado
Special to the Vail DailyNAACP President Ben Jealous joins the Vail Symposium for Thursday's discussion Rethinking Race.
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VAIL, Colorado –The Vail Symposium Thursday night will hold one of its final events of the winter season, “Rethinking Race.”

Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, many people wondered if it was possible for Americans to vote an African-American into the White House and in 2008 it finally happened. In one of his first appointments as head of state, President Obama nominated a Hispanic woman, Sonia Sotomayor, to the U.S. Supreme Court. When her nomination was confirmed, she became the first Hispanic justice and only the third female justice to serve on the court.

In the past two years, two significant racial barriers were overcome, but what do these milestones really mean? And how did they change the role of race in our society? Do these milestones mean that race is now passe; that we, as a society have put race behind us? Or are these landmark events just the first steps?



Join the Vail Symposium in a discussion about the current role of race in our society with Hispanic community leaders and Benjamin T. Jealous, president and CEO of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People.

Organizations such as the NAACP believe more achievements are needed before race disparities will become something of the past. As minority organizations work to provide support to groups, programs and aid benefits, they hope to provide greater opportunity to all people.

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The NAACP was founded 100 years ago and focused primarily on civil rights and evolved as the social climate in the U.S. has changed.

“The struggles of the last century were about enforcing civil rights,” Jealous says. “The fights now, the fight for good jobs, the fight for good schools, the fight to end mass incarceration, those are political battles, not legal battles. They are not about enforcing civil rights so much as they are about realizing human rights.

“One requires enforcing a social contract, the other requires extending a social contract.”

Carrie Marsh is the executive director of Vail Symposium.

What: Rethinking Race

When: Thursday, 5:30 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. lecture

Where: Battle Mountain High School, Edwards

Cost: $30, $25 VS Members, $10 Eagle Schools Staff/Students with ID

More information: http://www.vailsymposium.org or 970-476-0954


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