FAIR Perspectives

This week on FAIR Perspectives, we feature a special episode about the Emory Law School Free Speech Forum (EFSF), and their victory in securing formal recognition as a student organization.

Having witnessed intolerance at Emory and on other college campuses, the EFSF students sought to create a place for interested students to hear, consider, and debate diverse ideas. In October 2021, the group’s application for formal recognition was denied twice, under the pretext that open inquiry is “harmful” and the EFSF “overlapped” with other organizations.

FAIR sent a letter to advocating for the EFSF to the Emory SBA and administration on January 18, 2022, and the EFSF’s charter was finally granted in April. Co-hosts Angel Eduardo and Melissa Chen spoke with the group’s founders about their journey and their plans for the future of the EFSF.

In this episode, we speak with Thomas Chatterton Williams about his opposition to identity categories, the ethnic and cultural valence of black identity, the cultural challenges of abandoning race and racialized language, Islamism in France, and the French approach to race policy. We also survey the current landscape of the backlash against Critical Race Theory, the effectiveness of anti-CRT bills sweeping the nation, and debate the relative merits and faults of the Christopher Rufo strategy.

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of 'Losing My Cool' and 'Self-Portrait in Black and White'. He is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, a Columnist at Harper's Magazine, and is a Hannah Arendt Center, and a Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor of Humanities at Bard College. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, and Le Monde, among other publications.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Erec Smith. We discuss his field of rhetoric, what led him to it, African-American Vernacular English versus Standard English, the implications of what activists call "linguistic justice," what it's like teaching rhetoric in our polarized climate, the utility of ridiculing bad ideas, interacting with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Candace Owens' "Blexit," and the publication he co-founded called Free Black Thought.

Dr. Erec Smith is an associate professor of rhetoric at the College of Pennsylvania, whose focus is in the rhetoric of anti racist activism, theory, and pedagogy. He is also the co-founder of Free Black Thought, a website dedicated to highlighting viewpoint diversity within the black intelligentsia.

In this episode, we speak with John Wood Jr,. We discuss why John is so suited to tackling the seemingly intractable problem of polarization, the issues with the media today, the legitimacy crisis in our institutions, how to maintain social cohesion, how to get society talking again, and the jarring implications of Will Smith's Oscars slap.

John Wood Jr, is a former nominee for Congress, former Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, musical artist, and a noted writer and speaker on subjects including racial and political reconciliation. He is also a national leader for Braver Angels, a nonprofit dedicated to political depolarization that runs workshops, debates, and other events where Red and Blue participants attempt to better understand one another's positions and discover their shared values.

Today, we speak with Sarah Haider. We talk about her founding of Ex-Muslims of North America, why she refuses to throat-clear about her progressive credentials anymore, the effects of engaging in the activist space on her personal morale, the complexity of social problems and the issues with oversimplification, the similarities between “wokeness” and religious fanaticism and how “wokeness” pervaded the atheist movement, tokenism and its effects, Joe Rogan and censorship, our lack of trust in news media, and whether there is hope for the future.

Sarah is a Pakistani-American writer, public speaker, political activist, and co-founder of the advocacy group Ex-Muslims of North America, which seeks to normalize religious dissent and to help former Muslims leave the religion by linking them to support networks. Sarah has also recently launched her new Substack, Hold That Thought, where she discusses politics, religion, culture, and more.

In this episode we speak with Dr. Marilyn Singleton about her upbringing in a multicultural neighborhood and Catholic school in California, her and her peers' views on race and racism throughout the 1960's, her getting into Stanford University, her approach to dealing with sexism and bigotry in her life and how it differs from the way others approach it today, individuality versus conformity, and the goals of FAIR in Medicine. 

Dr. Marilyn Singleton is a physician, lawyer, and educator who was among the first women of African descent to attend Stanford University as a freshman. Dr. Singleton studied at UC Berkeley Law School, went on to practice insurance and health law, and currently teaches classes on the detection of elder abuse and constitutional law for non-lawyers. Dr. Singleton is also a fellow for FAIR in Medicine, a nonpartisan professional network dedicated to advancing the highest ethical standards in medical practice, and to promoting a common medical culture based on critical thinking and the pursuit of excellence in all medical endeavors.

Today, we speak with Mónica Guzmán. We discuss what makes Mónica so good at being curious, how being an immigrant helped open her eyes to the benefits of curiosity, and her concept of SOS—Sorting, Othering, and Siloing—and how it affects our discourse. We also discuss whether we've always been this divided or if we're uniquely divided now, the ways technology and social media affect communication, the tension and interplay between fear, ignorance, and uncertainty—and how these emotions affect our ability to be curious, how to foster curiosity in others, and much more.   

Mónica is the Director of Digital and Storytelling at Braver Angels, a nonprofit working to depolarize America. She's also co-founder of the award winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey, host of the Crosscut Interview series Northwest Newsmakers and author of the recent best-selling book, I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.

Today's guest is Chloé Valdary. We talk about her new podcast, art and working in multiple mediums, the Theory of Enchantment and how it differs from other antiracism programs, how pop culture can be a tool for teaching people how to love, how obsession with identity in art divides us, Beyoncé, The Kardashians, the victimhood mentality, responding versus reacting, and whether we can transcend race.

Chloé is a writer and entrepreneur whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, USA Today, Tablet Magazine, The New York Post, and many other publications. She is also the founder of Theory of Enchantment, a startup that provides a compassionate version of anti-racism training. Chloé is also the host of her own podcast, entitled The Heart Speaks.

In this episode we speak with Kimi Katiti. We discuss her formative years growing up in Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa before moving to the United States, her experience learning about America as a college student in Los Angeles, the ways critical pedagogy was infused into her coursework, the unhealthy emotional and psychological effects becoming “woke” had on her outlook and personal life, her slow transition out of that mindset, the power of forgiveness, and the value of having different lenses from which to view the world.

Kimi is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She creates visual art, music, and writing on a variety of topics and themes, and is also an avid skateboarder who devotes much of her time to advocacy and initiatives meant to empower young girls through skateboarding.

In this episode, we speak in-depth with Dr. Sheena Mason about her 'Theory of Racelessness,' whether race is a biological reality or a social construct, how racism creates race and not the other way around, the conflation of race with culture, class, and ethnicity, Whoopi Goldberg’s views on race and the Holocaust, the difficulty of communicating racelessness to the public, common pushbacks and misconceptions to Theory of Racelessness, and whether a raceless future is even possible.

Dr Sheena earned her Ph.D. “with distinction” from Howard University in Washington and is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor in African American Literature at SUNY Oneonta. She is also the President and Co-Founder of the educational firm Theory of Racelessness, as well as the author of the forthcoming book, Theory of Racelessness: A Case For Antirace(ism), which presents a skeptical and eliminativist philosophy of race and racism.