What: A discussion about the wrong assumptions people make about race and racial identities entitled, “Five Things We Get Wrong about Race/Identity and How to Get Them Right” will be held. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Who: The School of Social Work is hosting the lecture, given by John Jackson and Richard Perry, dean and professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, respectively.

When: Tuesday, Oct. 16 from 10-11 a.m.

Where: Ferguson Student Center Theater

Why:

“I have not seen his presentation before [but] I’m interested in hearing what [Jackson] has to say,” said Cassandra Simon, associate professor in the School of Social Work. “I think we definitely get a lot wrong about race and racial identity, but I think that depending on what he has to say it can go – I’m not sure if there is a particular reason he is here other than there is a lot that needs to be talked about in contemporary society in terms of race and racial identity and what that means.”

Simon said she has been teaching about race and racial identity for nearly thirty years, and she has seen a shift in terms of how people are looking at race and how willing they are to talk about it.

“I still see it as one of the most volatile issues to talk about, that people have the most fear to talk about, and until we are able to really talk about it and understand the historical significance and how that affects us today, we won’t be able to have any real, meaningful conversations about race that move us as a society forward,” she said. “So he could be taking his presentation a lot of different ways because there are more than five things we get wrong about race and racial identity, so I’m really interested in seeing what he has to say.”