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Whitworth University to feature African American History Month presentation, “Beyond ‘The Color of Fear,’” Feb. 28

February 6, 2017
Victor Lewis and Hugh Vasquez, principal cast members of The Color of Fear, a breakthrough documentary film on race relations in the United States, will draw upon their decades of experience in multicultural education and activism for an African American History Month presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Weyerhaeuser Hall’s Robinson Teaching Theatre at Whitworth University. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (509) 777-4721.

Lewis and Vasquez will engage the audience through dialogue and by posing questions about issues intersecting race, inclusion, privilege and gender. They will also show clips from the groundbreaking film The Color of Fear to support their points.

The Color of Fear (1994) is a documentary about eight men – two African Americans, two Asian Americans, two Latino Americans and two European Americans – who discuss racism at a weekend retreat in Ukiah, Calif. While the film was created more than 20 years ago, The Color of Fear remains relevant to the current state of race relations in the U.S. The film won the National Education Media Network's Best Social Documentary Award in 1995, and it has been screened on hundreds of college and university campuses. To view a video about the upcoming presentation at Whitworth, please visit https://youtu.be/ZxKTwhnOzZE

Lewis and Vasquez also co-authored Lessons from “The Color of Fear,” a four-volume text used by educators, diversity trainers, and facilitators in conjunction with the film. Lewis is a nationally recognized social justice educator, trainer and activist who founded and directs the Radical Resilience Institute. Vasquez is one of the nation’s top diversity educators and national consultants to campuses and organizations. For more information on both speakers, please visit www.speakoutnow.org.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private, liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian church. The university, which has an enrollment of nearly 3,000 students, offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

David H. Garcia, assistant dean of student diversity, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4721 or sdei@whitworth.edu.

Lauren Clark Hughes, media relations manager, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or lclark@whitworth.edu.