{"id":16286,"date":"2011-09-15T22:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T22:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=16286"},"modified":"2011-09-16T03:19:54","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T03:19:54","slug":"university-of-cincinnati-president-has-a-unique-perspective-on-his-life-as-a-black-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=16286","title":{"rendered":"University of Cincinnati president has a unique perspective on his life as a black man"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Cincinnati president has a unique perspective on his life as a black man<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/a>
\n2011-09-11<\/p>\n

Karen Farkas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

CLEVELAND, Ohio<\/a>\u2014Gregory Williams<\/a> says that in the five decades since he learned he was black and moved into a tarpaper shack with his black grandmother instead of a middle-class home with his white grandmother, the nation has made great progress in inclusion and diversity.<\/p>\n

But much still needs to be done, the University of Cincinnati president told the audience at the City Club of Cleveland on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Certainly there is less rigidity in America’s color line today than there was in the 1960s,” he said. “We live in a time, thankfully, where the ‘multiracial’ population is growing and barely raises an eyebrow these days. Yet all of us can be yanked back across the line by a look, a so-called ‘joke’ or a tense reception in the so-called ‘wrong’ neighborhood.”<\/p>\n

Williams, who has been at UC for two years, spoke of his life as a black man who looks white and his views on race and several times asked “Why is it taking so long?” to speed racial healing in the nation…<\/p>\n

…Williams, who said he came to view himself as African-American, eventually wrote an award-winning and best-selling memoir, “Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black<\/a>.” He also earned numerous degrees, leading to a career in academia…<\/p>\n

…Following his speech, a man in the audience asked why Williams didn’t try to live as a white man after he got older.<\/p>\n

“In Indiana I was ostracized for being black, and if I abandoned those who were willing to stand by me, I’d have no principles at all,” Williams responded…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Cincinnati president has a unique perspective on his life as a black man Cleveland Plain Dealer 2011-09-11 Karen Farkas CLEVELAND, Ohio\u2014Gregory Williams says that in the five decades since he learned he was black and moved into a tarpaper shack with his black grandmother instead of a middle-class home with his white grandmother, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,8,20],"tags":[7541,7539,1365,7540,7542],"class_list":["post-16286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-cleveland-plain-dealer","tag-gregory-h-williams","tag-gregory-howard-williams","tag-gregory-williams","tag-karen-farkas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}