"Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America”
Civil rights lawyer and activist Jeffery Robinson, the Rappaport Distinguished Visiting Professor at Boston College Law School, will be the featured speaker at the October 3 Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America.
At the event, which will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons, Robinson will screen “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” a documentary based on a presentation he has been giving over the past decade about the history of anti-Black racism in the United States, from 1619—the year enslaved Africans were first brought to the colony, and future state, of Virginia—to the present. After the film, Robinson will talk about the issues raised in the film, discuss his work, and engage in a Q&A with the audience.
A University-wide initiative launched in 2020, the Forum is designed to provide a meeting place for listening, dialogue, and greater understanding about race and racism in America, while serving as a catalyst for bridging differences, promoting reconciliation, and encouraging new perspectives.
Jeffery Robinson
The process of making the film inspired Robinson to form and launch The Who We Are Project, a nonprofit organization striving to educate people about the history of anti-Black racism and white supremacy in the U.S. All of Robinson’s work aims to counter a narrative of U.S. history that is “incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading,” according to Robinson, by providing “compelling, meticulously researched, factually accurate descriptions.”
“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” cuts back and forth between his 2018 stage performance in New York City, historical and present-day archival footage, Robinson’s own story, and verité and interview clips of Robinson’s meetings with various people—from Black change-makers and eyewitnesses to history to latter-day defenders of the Confederacy. Through the film and discussion, Robinson covers subjects such as slavery, Reconstruction, lynchings, Jim Crow laws, police brutality, the Civil Rights Movement, and the impact of racial discrimination in housing, employment, education, and health care.
At the core of Who We Are, according to Robinson, is a scrutiny of a fundamental contradiction in the national character: Americans have long expressed and fought for—at home and abroad—transcendent ideals of freedom and equality, yet many have tolerated, encouraged, or espoused racist actions and attitudes that work against those same ideals.
“America has demonstrated its greatness time and time again, and America is one of the most racist countries on the face of the Earth,” he says during the film. “Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
Acknowledging this incongruity is vital to having a meaningful conversation about race and racism in the U.S., said Robinson. The purpose of the Who We Are film and discussion is not to denigrate the U.S., nor to foment guilt or self-loathing, he explained, but to point out the extent to which racism has been embedded in so many aspects of American life, inhibiting social and economic growth among populations that have endured discrimination—and thus keeping America from realizing its full potential.
“I love America enough to criticize it when it’s wrong. I’m not preaching revolution,” he said in an interview with Chronicle, pointing out that The Who We Are Project website [thewhoweareproject.org] includes a bibliography of sources used in the film and his presentation.
“The white supremacy that was part of what caused the Civil War didn’t simply go away,” he said. “It was still there, and it’s stayed with us since then.”
Robinson said the need for dialogue on race and racism in the U.S. has only intensified since the film’s release in 2022. The increased public and online presence of groups and individuals promoting white supremacist ideology is cause for concern, he said, but so is the effort to downplay or minimize racism in U.S. history—evidenced by Florida officials’ approval of a curriculum claiming that Blacks benefited from being slaves, or a film for schoolchildren produced by nonprofit PragerU that depicts Frederick Douglass describing slavery as “a compromise” between the Founding Fathers and Southern colonies.
He refuted the idea that those who see the film or attend his talks are simply seeking confirmation of their beliefs about racism in the U.S. “I don’t go where I’m not wanted, but I’ve had audiences of police officers, prosecutors, and people from the South. It’s one thing to say you’re ‘against racism,’ but my point is, liberal or conservative, you have to educate yourself about the truth. Ignorance of our history is dangerous, especially at this time.”
”I am glad the BC Forum on Racial Justice in America is able to bring Professor Robinson and his powerful documentary into conversation with the Boston College community,” said Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., who co-directs the Forum with Vice President Joy Moore, executive director of the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success. “If we are to work effectively for racial justice today, we must have a clear understanding of the history of racism in our nation. This event provides us all with the opportunity to deepen our knowledge and to be inspired to persevere in our shared efforts to build a just society.”
For more on the Boston College Forum for Racial Justice in America, see bc.edu/forum