Session One: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Reflecting on the Legacy of Civil Rights and Affirmative Action: Out of the past into the future!

Civil Rights? Affirmative Action? What do 1960s laws have to do with diversity and inclusion in 2008? Isn’t Affirmative Action passé by now? Why were Civil Rights laws enacted anyway?

Turn the clock back 40 years — welcome to “Segregated Seattle” — where the ship canal draws a color line designating where whites and people of color can live, where jobs are offered or not according to race, and where bigotry flourishes in some areas.

“But, that’s the past–it’s all changed now — hasn’t it?” We invite you to come to this session to engage some of Seattle’s history you may not know about, the conditions that spawned the Civil Rights Movement, Seattle’s Civil Rights activists who called for social justice, and the pioneering work of the City of Seattle’s Office of Human Rights. With this context, you’ll be able to consider the origins of affirmative action and why it was (and still is) controversial.

Fast forward to 2008: Have we achieved equal opportunity? Has discrimination been eliminated? Do we need Civil Rights and Affirmative Action? Or should there be a new approach to ensuring equal opportunity and inclusion as America changes?

These are the questions for dialogue, which is the next step in our learning process. Mic Crenshaw, hip-hop artist and social activist will offer his unique interpretation of the current state of social justice, and he will introduce the dialogue groups. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to dialogue with others and a dialogue group leader about what you’ve heard, the questions you have, and what you think is the future direction for ensuring equality and inclusion in your work environment.