The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy is an Arizona State University foundation that fosters community dialogue of race and democracy issues through various programs and community outreach.
The center was founded in 2011 when Matthew Whittaker, co-founder of CSRD, approached ASU President Michael Crow about starting a center that dealt with these issues. CSRD was given funding through the president’s office for 5 years. Whittaker voluntarily resigned from his positions as associate professor at ASU and co-director of CSRD in January after allegations of plagiarism were admitted to be true.
CSRD continues to host events and programs such as the Delivering Democracy Lecture and the Created Equal Film Series to inform and engage students and the public. Program manager of CSRD, Sarah Herrera, says that there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing speakers and topics.
“Looking at what is happening in the world and where we want to try to make an impact has really been a lot of the guiding for not just the speakers but also the topics for some of the other programming that we have,” Herrera says. Herrera and Deborah Cox, CSRD assistant director, work with over 600 volunteers to organize and put on these events.
"I've learned so much volunteering at the different events that has made me a better individual," Shayla Cole, a CSRD volunteer says. "I know that what I do there makes an impact on everyone that attends. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with an awesome staff and broaden my horizon."
This year’s Delivering Democracy Lecture speaker will be actress Viola Davis, who was chosen because of her activism in issues involving diversity, poverty and childhood hunger. Davis is an ambassador for Safeway Foundation’s Hunger Is campaign and, in 2015, was the first African-American to win an Emmy for best actress in a drama for her role in ABC’s "How to Get Away with Murder."
“Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity,” Davis said during her 2015 Emmy’s acceptance speech. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”
The opening and closing remarks at the lecture will be given by Alonzo Jones, the Associate Dean of Students at ASU. Kim Covington, former 12 News anchor, will be doing the facilitated conversation and Q&A with Viola Davis. Covington manages the Black Philanthropy Initiative at the Arizona Committee Foundation and is an advocate for diversity and engagement in the valley.
Previous Delivering Democracy lecturers have included journalist Anderson Cooper and actor Forrest Whitaker, who was the first speaker in 2014. Like the previous years, there will be a resource fair preceding the lecture featuring nearly 60 organizations. The goal is to get people involved in the community and to encourage volunteerism, according to Cox.
“You can come to a lot of lectures, you can hear just the greatest stories and meet wonderful and interesting people, and some people will connect, but to have a real impact, you have to have a significant portion of the people who are attending your program to become impacted for it to have some positive effect on them,” Cox says.
A new CSRD event that is part of the Healing Racism Series, Muslim Mythbusters, will host members of the Muslim community to discuss current racism issues in our country and around the world. The other events that are part of the series will be discussions about "Race and Family" and "Race and Education."
“This is our effort to try to stay current with what’s going on, in terms of maybe what’s in the news to some degree but also what has been the trend. We do evaluations at all of these and we look at what people say they are interested in talking about, what they want to learn about and we try to keep our eye on it so that we can bring the topic to them,” Cox says.
The Delivering Democracy Lecture will take place February 27 at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix. The event is free and open to the public, and information can be found at csrd.asu.edu/deliveringdemocracy.
If you're interested in volunteering with CSRD go to Csrd.asu.edu/deliveringdemocracy/volunteers
