Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. Are we indeed living in a land of opportunity—founded and built by immigrants? Or does this benign narrative of progress mask and diminish the US's history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an historian and the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment and most recently, Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion.
Each year the cathedral chooses a theme for inspiration and reflection, and in 2021 our theme is healing. Join Dean Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Dunbar-Ortiz about how embracing the more complex and honest history of the United States can lead to healing.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades, working with Indigenous communities on sovereignty and land rights and helping to build the international Indigenous movement. She is professor emerita of Ethnic Studies at California State University, East Bay. She is the author of numerous books and articles on indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico; The Great Sioux Nation; and An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, which received the 2015 American Book Award. She is also the author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment and most recently, Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion.
The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.
The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum's host, Malcolm Clemens Young, the dean of Grace Cathedral, and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world. More about Grace Forum Online
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