Kicking off the "back to school night" for the Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement, columnist and professor William Raspberry spoke about remedying the problems associated with race relations in America. In his hour-long address Sunday afternoon in a crowded Baldwin Auditorium, the Pulitzer Prize winner stressed that society should focus on maladies like racial discrimination and inequities, instead of racism itself.
"Of all the important battles to be waged on the national front, is racism the one we want to pursue?" Raspberry asked. "Racism is an impossible target. When it comes to race in America, let's stick to what we can do."
Raspberry ranked racial inequalities as his primary concern. He preached to his predominately white audience of about 350 DILR members that people have two choices in approaching race relations: agonizing over the philosophical ramifications of the problems or trying to remedy them.
"We've spent precious time and resources attacking entities when we could have been better off recruiting allies," Raspberry said.
After his passionate and, at times, humorous speech, Raspberry fielded a handful of audience questions which probed issues of education-DILR's central objective-rather than the race problems mentioned in Raspberry's speech. Although the audience received the columnist warmly, some held reservations that he had not focused on learning and lifelong education.
Sara Craven, DILR director of curriculum, explained that education is at the core of the organization's mission.
"Our continuing challenge is to remain a community of learners," she said in her introduction.
DILR comprises more than 700 members who are over 50 years old and who share a commitment to continued learning. Established 23 years ago, the organization now offers 59 non-credit courses to its record-high membership. Classes include language, medicine and financial planning; Duke faculty teach some of the courses. About half of the group attended the fall convocation this weekend.
Raspberry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and the Knight professor of the practice of communications and journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. In both spheres, he offers commentary on equal opportunity, the effects of socioeconomic changes and the press. This semester he is teaching a course on Race and Equity, as well as one about the effects of cultural and economic movements on American families.
Characteristically, Raspberry left his audience with a challenge.
"In all we work for," Raspberry said, "we need to be doing it together because of our common goal of helping our students grow."
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