Calvin News

As the Supreme Court considers race and admissions policies at the University of Michigan, an upcoming lecture at Calvin College will consider how people of color can forge better alliances across broader spectrums.

Dr. Mark Warren, a sociologist at Harvard and holder of the Dubois Fellowship this academic year, will deliver a public lecture on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. on "Building Multiracial Alliances: Morality, Interests and the Search for Common Ground."

The talk, to be held in room 010 of the Science Building, is is underwritten by the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship and by the Donald Bouma Lecture Series in the department of sociology and social work.

Warren contends that action on racial equality and, more broadly, for social justice cannot rely on minority support alone.

"Progress," he says, "will depend on Americans' ability to forge strong multiracial alliances that galvanize a majority into active support." Such alliances, he says, are lacking. "And our politics, like our social lives," he says, "remain starkly divided along racial lines."

In his talk, Warren will highlight lessons from his study of one of the country's most successfully multiracial efforts: the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). Drawing from his recent book "Dry Bones Rattling," Warren will show how faith-based community organizing efforts like the IAF engage people's faith traditions as a basis for fostering collaboration among white, black and Hispanic communities. Warren will also present findings from his new research project in which he is interviewing white Americans who work
for racial justice. Drawing upon these activists' life narratives, he will identify some of the important factors and processes that foster white leadership in combating racism.

See an interview with Warren, including audio excerpts, at:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/warren04012003.html

See a complete profile of Mark Warren at:
http://hugse9.harvard.edu/gsedata/Resource_pkg.profile?vperson_id=49513