Ideas worth spreading

3 myths about racism that keep the US from progress

2,178,989 views | Candis Watts Smith • TEDxPSU

Racism morphs, spreading and hiding behind numerous half-truths and full-blown falsities about where it lives and who embodies it. In this actionable talk, political scientist Candis Watts Smith debunks three widely accepted myths about racism in the US and calls for a nuanced, more expansive definition to support this new era of anti-racist action.

Racism morphs, spreading and hiding behind numerous half-truths and full-blown falsities about where it lives and who embodies it. In this actionable talk, political scientist Candis Watts Smith debunks three widely accepted myths about racism in the US and calls for a nuanced, more expansive definition to support this new era of anti-racist action.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Elect leaders that share your ambition and vision for a multiracial democracy.

Start early — children are experts at fairness, and it’s our job as adults to help them graduate to become experts of equity.

About the speaker

Candis Watts Smith

Candis Watts Smith

Political scientist

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Candis Smith is on a mission to eliminate outdated, inaccurate commonsense ideas about inequality.

Christopher D. DeSante and Candis Watts Smith | University of Chicago Press, 2020 | Book

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This is one of the two books mentioned in the talk. It focuses on the shape and expression of racial attitudes among white American millennials. It reveals that for almost every factor that makes this generation eager to push for racial egalitarianism, there is another countervailing force that puts us back at square one.

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith | NYU Press, 2019 | Book

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A weekly podcast that discusses all things related to race, ethnicity, identity, culture and inequality in the United States.

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Jamila Michener | Cambridge University Press, 2018 | Book

Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics

This book is focused on the matter of healthcare, but it homes in on a bigger idea: the United States can be characterized as a patchwork of inequality. Whether and how policy problems are dealt with is not dictated by people’s needs but instead by where you live because so many important decisions are within your state legislator’s hands.

Learn more

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Elect leaders that share your ambition and vision for a multiracial democracy.

Start early — children are experts at fairness, and it’s our job as adults to help them graduate to become experts of equity.