Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal

Upcoming WSU Spring Semester Lectures.

(Worcester, Mass.) -- The Diversity Lecture Series will feature two speakers and the Courageous Conversations lecture returns to Worcester State University this spring semester.

Harvard Law professor and author Randall Kennedy will deliver the lecture, “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal,” Tuesday, February 22 at 11:30 a.m. in the Student Center Blue Lounge as part of the WSU Diversity Lecture Series. Known for his fearlessness in tackling sensitive racial issues, Kennedy brings the divisive issues that plague black America to the forefront of mass culture. In this extraordinary talk, Randall Kennedy tackles this highly charged issue head-on. Exploring the actions that trigger cries of selling out -- marrying a white person, acting and thinking "white," living in a white neighborhood -- he shows us the negative consequences of living under the specter of race anxiety, and offers original solutions to overcome the feelings of fear, anger, and mistrust that often surround the issue.

Randall Kennedy

Jim Keady, theologian, activist, educator, will deliver the lecture “Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice,” Wednesday, March 30, at 11:30 a.m. in the Student Center Blue Lounge as part of the WSU Diversity Lecture Series. Keady is a founding director of Educating for Justice, Inc. In his multimedia presentation, Keady will detail the month he spent in an Indonesian factory workers' slum living on $1.25 a day, a typical wage paid to Nike's subcontracted workers.

Along with personal accounts, he will include the latest information on Nike's labor and environmental practices and the women, men and sometimes children, who are the foundation of global manufacturing.

Both lectures are free and open to the public. The series is sponsored by the student Center/Student Activities Office, Disability Services, Third World Alliance, WSU Pride Alliance and People’s United Bank.

Best Selling author Randall Robinson will be featured in the fourth annual Courageous Conversations lecture at WSU. He is the author of An Unbroken Agony and the national bestsellers The Debt, The Reckoning, and Defending the Spirit. He is also founder and past president of TransAfrica, the African-American organization he established to promote enlightened, constructive U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. In 1984, Robinson established the Free South Africa Movement, which pushed successfully for the imposition of sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and in 1994, his public advocacy, including a 27-day hunger strike, led to the UN multinational operation that restored Haiti's first democratically elected government to power. Mr. Robinson lives with his wife and daughter in St. Kitts.

Noted authors Cornel West, Angela Davis and Kweisi Mfume have lectured at WSU in years past as part of the series sponsored by Third World Alliance, the President’s Office, Affirmative Action and Compliance, Multicultural Affairs, Alumni Office, Center for Human Rights, Latino Educational Institute and Public Relations. ###

For Immediate Release Contact: Lea Ann Scales Assistant Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing Phone: 508-929-8018 December 6, 2010. Photo Sources: Randall Kennedy - Photo © C.J. Gunther/SIPA - RandomHouse.com;