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True empowerment comes from embracing our shared humanity while celebrating the grit and individuality that transcend race and ideology.
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Erec Smith is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he has eclectic scholarly interests, his primary work focuses on the rhetorics of anti‐racist activism, theory, and pedagogy as well as the role of rhetoric in a free, pluralistic, and civil society. He is a co‐founder of Free Black Thought, a nonprofit dedicated to highlighting viewpoint diversity within the black communities. Free Black Thought includes a compendium of black artists, writers, academics, and public intellectuals not discussed in mainstream media. The organization also has a Journal of Free Black Thought, that publishes anything–from poetry to scholarly work—that discusses or displays a variety of viewpoints within the black diaspora. Smith is the author of A Critique of Anti‐Racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment (2020), a book in which he scrutinizes contemporary modes of anti‐racism in his field. The book was conceived after Smith's observations of his field led him to conclude that anti‐racist initiatives did more to disempower students and faculty than empower them.
In the film Accidental Courtesy, Daryl's journey takes him all across the country to meet Klan leaders and many others.
Learn moreDaryl's TED talk about his unorthodox approach Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies has over 12 million views.
Learn more