UW-Madison students and faculty gathered for the first lecture in the 2008-'09 Distinguished Lecture Series at the Wisconsin Union Theater Monday.
Rebecca Walker, daughter of the African-American writer Alice Walker, was this series's first guest this year. UW-Madison professor Suzette Spencer introduced Walker as one of the most influential leaders of feminism - o - oas named in Time Magazine.
During her lecture, Walker emphasized the role of race in a globalized society and the toxicity of the discussions about race in society.
Walker cited one of the passages from her book entitled Black, White and Jewish.""
""Race represents something beyond words,"" she said.
According to Walker, the response of the issue of race is addressed in institutions like college campuses through diversity movements for a more inclusive society.
She said these programs fail because people cannot talk about race in an open way.
""There has been a movement of bringing people from different backgrounds together and creating a representative, inclusive community,"" Walker said. ""But when I talk to people on college campuses about diversity movements they are offended by the idea '¦ even when you talk about something that is supposed to heal the injury, we are retracted into a web.""
She advised the public to take a higher level of accountability and to look at race not from the past but from the future.
Eric Schmidt, president of the DLS committee, said he was happy with the outcome of the lecture.
""I thought it was a brilliant lecture '¦ she could speak to topics that we strive to understand,"" he said. ""Race is a topic that everyone is talking about but they do not know how talk about it.""
The next lecture in the series will take place Oct. 20 with keynote speaker Shirin Ebadi. Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 - the first Iranian, the first Shia and the first Muslim woman to do so.