What Is It About Anti-Racism Workshops?

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There was a practice of snapping when one agrees that was fostered in these workshops and then that entered into our seminar space. The effect of that was to limit students saying things that were controversial or even experimental. It would discourage further experimentation, maybe not unlike Twitter likes and the social media culture that we see around us now. Once someone shared a personal experience of racist incident or other form of harm that happened to them, that shut down conversation, that had to be the end of the dialogue. And yet I think that should be a conversation starter rather than a conversation stopper.

Vincent Lloyd is a Professor and Director of Africana Studies at Villanova University. His latest book is Black Dignity: The Struggle against Domination.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Vincent Lloyd discuss how his summer school seminar on black history was derailed by the language of “harm”; how well-intentioned efforts at contemplating past and present injustice can devolve into dogma and bullying; and how we might more effectively work to bring about racial justice.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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