Changing the Legacy of Race & Ethnicity: Conversation on Whites & Racial Justice
Posted on 08/09/2021
Join Colorado Humanities, in partnership with Aurora Public Library, for an online panel discussion addressing the topic of Whites & Racial Justice online Thursday, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. The presentation will be broadcast on the Aurora Public Library Facebook page as well as Colorado Humanities’ Facebook & YouTube pages.
Dr. Dwinita Mosby Tyler will facilitate a conversation with journalist and author Helen Thorpe and former Colorado State Senator Michael “Mike” Johnston of Gary Investments. They will explore the topic and respond to questions and comments from online participants. Find out more about the featured panelists below.
This is the fifth event in Colorado Humanities’ “Changing the Legacy of Race & Ethnicity: Conversations for One America” series. The goal of CLoRE is to drive a broad discussion across Colorado as well as inspire action around the issues of race and social justice in the state. Previous presentations in the series can be found on the Colorado Humanities YouTube and Facebook pages as well as viewed below.
Community partners for this series include NAACP Aurora Colorado, History Colorado, Colorado Anti-Defamation League, Aurora Public Library, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Pine River Library, Colorado Council of Churches and Mexican Cultural Center Denver.
Sponsors include The Durango Herald, Arapahoe Libraries, and GroundFloor Media and CenterTable. Media sponsors include Rocky Mountain Public Media and The Durango Herald.
Colorado Humanities is the only Colorado organization exclusively dedicated to supporting humanities education for adults and children statewide. Celebrating its 46th year and its 16th year as host for the Colorado Center for the Book, Colorado Humanities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Library of Congress Center for the Book, the Smithsonian Institution, and the national award-winning educational nonprofit Motheread, Inc.
Featured Panelists
Dr. Dwinita Mosby Tyler is Chief Catalyst and Founder of the Equity Project, LLC, a consulting firm supporting organizations and communities in building diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and The HR Shop, LLC, a human resources firm designed to support non-profits and small businesses. She is also the former vice president of Children’s Hospital Colorado and former Executive Director of the Office of Human Resources for the City and County of Denver. She is the first African American woman to hold each of those positions.
Helen Thorpe is a journalist and the author of four books of narrative nonfiction – “Just Like Us”, “Soldier Girls”, “The Newcomers” and “Finding Motherland”. A former green card holder from Ireland, in her nonfiction she celebrates the lives of people who have moved between countries: immigrants, veterans returning home from foreign conflicts and refugees seeking resettlement.
Mike Johnston is the President and CEO of Gary Community Investments, which uses non-profit and for-profit investments to transform the lives of low-income children in Colorado. Mike was a senior education policy advisor to Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign and transition and served two terms in the Colorado State Senate, 2009-2017, where he passed over 100 bills with bipartisan support.