Collection
Progress and Struggle: Race in US Society
![Ibram X. Kendi 2019 AIF](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulled94606f-becf-4bc3-904c-c864852e9941/48134133537_8256cec85a_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=8a5f4e&q=80&rect=250%2C0%2C2667%2C2667&w=400)
![Ibram X. Kendi 2019 AIF](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulled94606f-becf-4bc3-904c-c864852e9941/48134133537_8256cec85a_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=250%2C0%2C2667%2C2667&w=400)
Countering racism is essential to the formation of a just and equitable society — so how can we fight it?
![Correcting America's Historical Memory](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null1702e2ec-8cec-40f9-88b6-6c8a199645c2/48170700882_95b893d8d6_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C166%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
“The past is never dead,” wrote William Faulkner so famously. “It's not even past.” Indeed, the stories we tell ourselves about the past, always seen through one looking glass...
![Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulle7ae548e-758c-41ab-8c23-dd247e3a584f/48170802812_b4b168142c_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C94%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass learned to read against the odds, succeeded in a harrowing escape from bondage, and went on to bear witness to its evils across the count...
![The ZIP Code Reality: Where You Live Matters](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullaaddf886-4b7b-49e2-96d4-6ecc2ecfdd57/48152934682_722045eacf_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C13%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Not only is the way we work rapidly changing, the atlas of where we work — from coasts, to states, to counties — is increasingly studied and interpreted. Sixty percent of net...
![Race, Reckoning, and Leadership in Tough Times](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullc69dd155-6882-4928-8496-cf1ffeddf00f/48126911543_2e10fb52d7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1298%2C0%2C1774%2C2660&w=400)
In April of 2018, two black men walked into a Starbucks in Philadelphia for a business meeting. Ten minutes later, while waiting for their colleague to arrive, a manager calle...
![The Geography of Longevity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null49b83a8f-1a1b-4b90-88b1-d747773a1682/48114827242_f6a488ccbf_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Travel just seven miles from the Loop in central Chicago to the city’s West Side, and the life expectancy of residents drops by a shocking 16 years. Cross the border from Alge...
![A Living Wage Buys Health](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null4521d056-7db4-42f2-b432-e997a3dbb3ad/LivingWageBuysHealth_AIH19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C900&w=400)
Health care or child care? Food or gas? Rent or electric bill? Tens of millions of US households face those impossible choices every month because they don’t earn enough money...
![Black Maternal Health: When the Village Itself May Be Too Toxic](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a13cb57e-a99b-4c5c-b0f8-81b786dc1265/AdobeStock_110457966.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=767%2C0%2C4907%2C4912&w=400)
![Jelani Cobb 2018](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5d47b896-2c57-43b0-8b2d-d2560d8fa1af/43022977772_1442ec9932_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=0a7c51&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
![Jelani Cobb 2018](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5d47b896-2c57-43b0-8b2d-d2560d8fa1af/43022977772_1442ec9932_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
Today race is a more prominent and intransigent problem than ever.