Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Facing Race 2012 Keynote Speaker:
“In a “post-race” nation like ours where people are more likely to believe in UFO’s than in institutional bias—which does backflips to obfuscate the operations of white hegemonic power—and thereby insure its continuance—any discussion about race and racism and, especially, white supremacy will literally be considered 'too much,’” said Díaz. “It for this reason that events like ARC Facing Race Conference are of paramount importance. Not only for the important activism and theorizing that they engender but because it is in these spaces of deliberations that we come in contact with the promise of a just anti-racist future.”
Melissa Harris Perry, MSNBC host & Author, Facing Race 2010 Keynote Speaker:
“America's failings to substantively address the continuing challenges of race emerges from a lack of shared vocabulary and experiences, collective understanding of the difference between personal attitudes and systematic discrimination, common data about racial inequity, and historical knowledge about how power and privilege operate,” said Harris-Lacewell. “Most importantly, however, we lack a collective vision of a racially just future. These are the aspects of race that we must face, working in communities across America among people of good faith. That is why I am so pleased to be a part of the Facing Race conference.”