Ernest L. Boyer Center initiates community conversation on race
Messiah College, through the leadership of the Ernest L. Boyer Center, is initiating a conversation on the interrelatedness of race, education and faith in Pennsylvania. The Boyer Center, in the words of Richard Hughes, Sr. Boyer Fellow, works to “bring [Ernest Boyer’s] vision for social education and social renewal into dialogue and conversation with contemporary social and educational issues that confront our nation today.”
Much of the conversation is expected to center on the September 25th presentation of Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.d., President of Spelman College who will speak on “Can We Talk About Race?”, and who is also the author of “Can We Talk about Race: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation”. Dr. Hughes found Dr. Tatum’s book to be in close harmony with the mission of the Boyer Center, and commented, “when I read Beverly Tatum’s book, I thought, ‘Is this Ernie Boyer, or what?’”
The Boyer Center was challenged by local faith leaders to enlarge the conversation and to involve a larger audience in Central Pennsylvania within the context of faith. The ways in which faith can impact society’s understanding of race were examined by Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D., Professor of African American Studies at Temple University, in his September 13th talk on “What the Faith Community Can Offer a Polarized Society”. Dr. Asante has written extensively and is widely known as the “father of Afrocentrism”.
The Central Pennsylvania community is invited to a series of “Community Conversations on Race, Education, and Faith—Continued”, an event envisioned by Dr. Hughes as a public forum to “bring together community and educational leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, clergy…to talk about how we implement Beverly Tatum’s vision for having a meaningful conversation about race, breaking down the barriers in this country.”
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