View video shown at the talk here.

The panelists:

• Panel Moderator, Harold Fields: a MLK Humanitarian Award winner, former systems engineer at IBM and the leader of the Second Tuesday Race Forum;
• Stephany Rose, Ph.D: activist, public commentator, and assistant professor of Women’s and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs;
• Ernest House, Jr: Executive Director for the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs and responsible for maintaining the communication between Colorado’s tribal governments, American Indian organizations, state agencies and affiliated groups; and
• Chip Colwell: Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The panel will debate that, in reality, race is a powerful idea that was invented by society. The exhibit points out that race is an enduring concept that has molded our nation’s economy, laws, and social institutions It is a complex notion that has shaped each of our destinies. And, the science proves that no biological difference between races of people exists, although race as a concept is very real.

“Our perception that who we are lies in our biology is very much a 21st century cultural construct,” says Chip Colwell, curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “With the spectacular advances we’ve made in DNA science and the profusion of discussion of genetics in popular culture, there is a tendency today to reduce our identity to our genes. We think that all the answers of who we are lie in biology,” he continues. “When, in fact, race is a lived experience and much more complex.”

Deeply-held assumptions about race and enduring stereotypes have forged beliefs that gaps in wealth, health, housing, education, employment, or physical ability in sports are natural. This creation, called race, has fostered inequality and discrimination for centuries. The American Anthropological Association developed the exhibit RACE: Are We So Different?, and History Colorado is hosting it, to share the complicated story of race, to unravel fiction from fact, and to encourage meaningful discussions about race in schools, in the workplace, within families and communities.

“Racism persists precisely because people will not talk about it,” says Ed Nichols, CEO of History Colorado. “We are all impacted as human beings by this issue. With the changing demographics in Colorado and the changing attitudes toward identity in our country, we saw the opportunity through this exhibit and our programs, to bring the topic of race into a conversational mode – not to highlight strife but to open and enhance communication among Colorado citizens about who we are.”

“Part of the challenge is to create a new vision of who we can be in the future as people; to evolve out of the hierarchy we’ve lived for thousands of years on this planet valuing separation that created a system where a religion, a race, or a country is better and more superior than another,” says Harold Fields, panel moderator, MLK Humanitarian Award winner and leader of the Second Tuesday Race Forum. “As a former systems engineer at IBM, I would like to see the emergence of America 2.0. "So many people think we are now a color blind society, but in reality it is a color blind slumber,” Fields states. “That means we are sleep walking through life and our social and economic systems are denying the impact of our cultural paradigm and the conscious decisions we have made in this country.”

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History Colorado's mission is to inspire generations to find wonder and meaning in our past and to engage in creating a better Colorado. We serve as the state's memory, preserving the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through our museums, educational programs, historic preservation grants, research library, collections, and outreach to Colorado communities. Find History Colorado on all major social media platforms. Visit HistoryColorado.org or call (303) HISTORY for more information.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Deborah Radman
deborah.radman@state.co.us
303-866-3670 (direct)