Throughout the summer, WBEZ and Vocalo will be talking about race – out loud, and on the air, in frank conversations and stories, and in lively public events.  We’re calling the series, Race: Out Loud and we’re asking: What would it sound like if people said what they really think and feel about race, about ethnicity? What if they really talked about how race shapes them, their lives, and attitudes? What would we hear, if we listened?

As part of this series, we’re inviting you to read Studs Terkel’s Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession. Authored twenty years ago, this 400-page collection of personal reflections and experiences – mostly from Chicagoans – presents an opportunity to ask: What’s changed in the past twenty years? What hasn’t? And how do the questions Studs asked, about segregation, equality of opportunity, and hope make sense today?  

In 2006, Studs sat down with WBEZ’s Steve Edwards to talk about Race and share his reflections about writing the book.  Click here to hear the interview.

How you can participate:

1) Pick up a copy of Studs Terkel’s Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession by either dusting it off your shelf, borrowing it from a friend, purchasing a copy, or checking it out from the library.

2) Start reading, and as you go, remember you can check back at WBEZ.org each week for our “Where are they now?” series, profiling key storytellers from the book to hear what they think about race twenty years later:

• Marvin Jackson (included under the pseudonym William Freeman, p. 29)
• Carol Jackson (included under the pseudonym Carol Freeman, p. 32)
• Jim Capraro (p.126)
• Joseph Lattimore (p. 133)
• Salim Muwakkil (p. 166)
• Timuel Black (p. 196)

…and stay tuned for more.

3) Please consider joining us July 11th at the WBEZ West Side Bureau, July 17th at the WBEZ South Side Bureau, or July 26 at the WBEZ North Side Bureau for a discussion about the significance of race today, for us and our communities. We’ll focus on a short excerpt from Terkel’s Race – the stories of C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater (p. 271-283) – and Project on Civic Reflection facilitators will guide the discussion. Reading the book is not required to attend, but some familiarity with this short excerpt will help serve as a starting point for a discussion that asks: What does race mean to us today, and how can people change?