The global spread of a microscopic virus places the ravages of racism and inequity under the microscope. How might the COVID-19 pandemic provide a portal for creating a new world in which we can all thrive?”
In the two talks below, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic may help us to re-vision the world in which we have lived, and hope to live in the future.
Dr. Benjamin facilitates a discussion on using the Coronavirus pandemic to envision a new world.
Black Skin, White Masks: Racism, Vulnerability & Refuting Black Pathology: “I think the only way we can forge a more livable world amidst the ruins of the old, is if we reckon honestly with how business-as-usual has wreaked havoc on people’s lives well before the current crisis. Many people on this planet have ALREADY been living in various states of crisis – ignored, explained away, papered over, endlessly documented and studied. We haven’t “all been in this together...So if racism distorts our vision, then perhaps joy is one way of clarifying it, helping us to discern what we want to KEEP and what we must LET GO OF, as individuals, as societies, as we move through this portal. ” Transcript