Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 11 December
6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism? And what does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims that race is meaningless?
US-based writer, researcher and educator Robin DiAngelo has considered these questions deeply. Her first two books, Is Everyone Really Equal? and What Does it Mean to Be White? examined notions of equality and white racial literacy. Her third book, White Fragility, is a New York Times-bestseller. White Fragility asks why white people often become defensive or hostile during discussions of racism, and examines how this phenomenon derails progress in dealing with structural discrimination. DiAngelo challenges us all to find constructive ways to see, acknowledge and respond to racism in the 21st Century.
At the Wheeler Centre in December, DiAngelo will present a 30-minute talk. She’ll then be joined by a panel including Jack Latimore and Odette Kelada for a 45-minute discussion and Q&A.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth.
Featuring
Robin DiAngelo
Robin DiAngelo is Affiliate Faculty of Education at the University of Washington. She is a two-time winner of the Student's Choice Award for Educator of the Year from the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. Her scholarship is in White Racial Identity and Race Relations. In addition to her academic work, Robin has extensive experience as a workplace consultant in race relations and racial justice.
Robin has numerous publications and books, including What Does it Mean To Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy. Her work on White Fragility has influenced the national dialogue on race and been featured or cited in Salon, NPR, PBS, the New York Times, and the New Yorker. Her book White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism was released in June and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list.
Jack Latimore
Jack Latimore is an Indigenous researcher with the Centre for Advancing Journalism. He is currently involved in the development of several projects aimed at improving the quality of Indigenous representation and participation in the mainstream media-sphere. His journalism work has appeared in Koori Mail, Guardian Australia, Overland and IndigenousX.
Odette Kelada
Odette Kelada is a Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of Culture and Communication. She has a PhD in literature researching the lives of Australian women writers.
Her writing focuses on marginalised voices, gender and racial literacy, and has appeared in numerous publications including the Australian Cultural History Journal, Outskirts, Postcolonial Studies and the Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Her novel, Drawing Sybylla, won the Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2017.
Tim Lo Surdo
Tim is the Founder and National Director of Democracy in Colour – a national racial and economic justice organisation led by people of colour. Tim is deeply passionate about people-powered change and has spent the past seven years creating opportunities for everyday people to take collective action.
Before starting Democracy in Colour, he was a Senior Organiser at United Voice where he helped young, low-paid workers start Hospo Voice – a new union in hospitality. He has led campaigns at Oaktree, been an adviser to two Senators, was the Campaigns Director at Jhatkaa (the Indian equivalent of GetUp!), led national communications at UN Youth Australia, and co-founded Open Sky – one of India’s most well-known performance art communities that holds regular events in eight cities. Tim is also on the Boards of the Southern Migrant & Refugee Centre, Stop the Traffik, Climate for Change, and The Wilderness Society (Victoria).