The Problem We All Live With is a 1964 Norman Rockwell painting depicting an iconic image from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, that of six-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by U.S. marshals to an all-white public school on November 14, 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Despite strides made in race relations following the 1960s, this iconic painting highlighting the racism and violence surrounding the desegregation of public schools is a poignant backdrop to on-going racial and social injustice in the United States. The killing of unarmed Black Americans including Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor in 2020 sparked an unprecedented global movement for racial justice in the summer of 2020. Tens of millions of people around the world demonstrated, marched, and protested against structural racism in the United States and racial and social injustice globally.  During the signing of executive orders designed to address racial and social disparities, President Biden said, “America has never lived up to its founding promise of equality for all, but we’ve never stopped trying to push us closer to the more perfect union we’ve always strived to be.” This project explores American history from the institution of slavery, through Civil Rights gains in the 1960s, to current social justice movements across the United States and the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color. Participants will examine approaches to address and remedy the lasting impact of racial inequality, including the entrenched architecture of discrimination and racial disparity in the areas of education, economic opportunity, fair housing, and equal justice under the law.  Experts will discuss strategies to overcome the impact of voter suppression, healthcare inequality, and other remnants of the legacy of slavery that plague U.S. society. Participants will explore the importance of advocacy and allyship, as well as the effectiveness of integrated efforts from all sectors of society at the national, state, and local levels in striving for equity for all.

Countries visiting: Australia, Egypt, France, Hong Kong SAR, Israel, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, UK