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Our Complicated Relationship With Race and Racism

Credit Gareth Weston
This is the Facebook post from Gareth Weston our conversation was centered around.

On Monday, the first police officer went to trial for the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Just a few days earlier, video was released of a white police officer in Chicago shooting a black man 16 times.

This hour, we talk about race and racism with three people including Hartford resident Gareth Weston, a black man whose own daughter thought he looked like a "bad guy" when wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt. 

"If a little girl, WITH A BLACK DAD*, is being subconsciously conditioned to think certain clothing on black people equates to 'bad people' we have a very long road ahead of us," wrote Weston.

We also preview two discussions taking place on Thursday night. The Connecticut Forum focuses on racism and we talk with the moderator, NPR's Michele Norris. 

Also, Connecticut College is hosting a panel discussion on free speech. It's an issue that has cropped up during discussions about race on campus.

GUESTS:

  • Gareth Weston - Hartford resident, IT Manager at UIS Group in Windsor, Connecticut
  • Michele Norris - NPR special correspondent, host, and curator of "The Race Card Project"
  • David Canton - Associate professor of history and Interim Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion at Connecticut College

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

John Dankosky, Lydia Brown, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.

Tucker Ives is WNPR's morning news producer.

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