![]() The second commentator, Otho Kerr, a program director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, claimed that I was “willing to have us slide back into the days of separate but equal.” (The talk is online, so you can judge for yourself whether those accusations bear any resemblance to reality.) The first woman called my talk “racist” as well as “dangerous and irresponsible”-comments that were met with cheers from the crowd. The event opened with two people denouncing my talk back-to-back. ![]() On the final day of the conference, TED held its yearly “town hall”-at which the audience can give feedback on the conference. I hoped that this strange about-face was the end of the drama. No sooner did I agree to speak with them than Chris told me that actually was not willing to speak to me. I agreed to speak with them on principle, that principle being that you should always speak with your critics because they may expose crucial blind spots in your worldview. Over email, Chris asked if I’d be willing to speak with them privately. He told me that a group called “ TED’s website describes as an “Employee Resource Group that exists to provide a safe space for TED staff who identify as Black”-was “upset” by my talk. Throughout the meals and in hallways, people approached me to say they loved it, and those who disagreed with it offered smart and thoughtful criticisms.īut the day after my talk, I heard from Chris Anderson, the head of TED. The audience applauded some people even stood up. But the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. And indeed, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a handful of scowling faces. ![]() TED draws a progressive crowd, so I expected that my talk might upset a handful of people. On April 19, I stepped onstage in front of an audience of nearly 2,000 people and delivered it. I have never prepared more thoroughly for a talk. In the weeks and months leading up to the conference, I wrote my talk, revised it in conjunction with TED’s curation team, and cleared it with their fact-checkers. Taking that viewpoint seriously-while ultimately refuting it-was the express purpose of my talk.Īs you might imagine, TED is an unbelievably well-oiled machine. (This is also the topic of my forthcoming book.)Įven though a majority of Americans believe that color-blind policies are the right approach to governing a racially diverse society, we live in a strange moment in which many of our elite believe that color blindness is, in fact, a Trojan horse for white supremacy. In my talk, I defended color blindness: the idea that we should treat people without regard to race, both in our personal lives and in our public policy. This past April, I gave a talk at the yearly TED conference in Vancouver, Canada.
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