The United States is a country of great opportunity, but we must wrestle with how certain opportunities are contingent on different facets of one’s identity. The United States has provided economic mobility for millions of people, but we must wrestle with the history of violence and exploitation that helped to generate its economic foundation. The United States has freed millions around the world from despots and genocide, but we must wrestle with its pervasive history of barbarous imperialism. These are all parts of what make this country what it is.
In his talk "History Reconsidered," which combines poetry and history, Clint Smith, PhD, pushes the audience to wrestle with the complicated truths about the country we live in and helps crystallize how this history has shaped the contemporary social, political, and cultural landscape of our world today. Smith is a writer, teacher, and Emerson Fellow at New America, a national think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Read more and register here for the virtual event, which will be held at 4 p.m. Oct. 22.