“The Constitution and America’s New Racial Battle Lines,” 9/13 James E. Fleming & Linda C. McClain Constitution Day Lecture with University of Pennsylvania Distinguished Prof. Rogers M. Smith

In defending their respective places in ongoing debates about racial policy, contemporary conservatives and progressives each claim their approach is mandated by the Constitution. The approaches themselves—one rooted in traditionalism, the other advocating for radical repair—seem to defy such shared origin. For the 2024 James E. Fleming & Linda C. McClain Constitution Day Lecture, University of Pennsylvania Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science Rogers M. Smith will untangle the two sides’ differences and, in doing so, suggest a common ground that Americans may yet be able to find. Free and open to all, Prof. Smith’s talk will be held on September 13 at 3:30pm in Stotler Lounge at Memorial Union. You can register for the lecture using the link below.

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Abstract

For a generation following the civil rights victories of the 1950s and 60s, American racial policy battles centered over whether America should seek to end persisting racial injustices via “color-blind” or “race-conscious” policies. Each side claimed its view was mandated by the Constitution. In the 21st century, racial policy debates have shifted. Conservatives now stress the need to protect traditionalist Americans, especially white Christian men, against what they see as a militant woke Left. Liberals and progressives argue that integration into America’s existing institutions, even by race-conscious means, isn’t enough. They see those institutions as suffused with systemic racism, requiring more radical repair. Conservatives say the Constitution embodies their traditionalist values. Liberals say it embodies their spirit of reform. In his Constitution Day lecture, Professor Rogers Smith will seek to explain these differences and to suggest what common ground Americans may yet be able to find.

Rogers M. Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught from 2001 to 2022. From 1980 to 2001, he taught at Yale University, ultimately as the Alfred Cowles Professor of Government. He is the author or co-author of many articles and nine books, including America’s New Racial Battle Lines: Protect versus Repair (2024); That Is Not Who We Are! Populism and Peoplehood (2020); Political Peoplehood: The Roles of Values, Interests, and Identities (2015); Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama’s America (2011); Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership (2003); and Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History (1997). Civic Ideals received six best book prizes and was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. Smith also received 5 teaching prizes from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania for both undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring. He is the co-founder of the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia and the founding director of Penn’s Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2011, and the American Philosophical Society in 2016. He served as Associate Dean for Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania from 2014-2018, and as President of the American Political Science Association in 2018-2019.