Derrick Darby is coming to RIT | April 2018

“Everyone has the right to education” according to Article 26 of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). An education “shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups.” However, this couldn’t be further from our glaring reality. Are American students getting the education that is their right?

Derrick Darby, Professor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan will be speaking at RIT on Thursday, April 19, 2018 from 2:00p.m. until 3:20p.m. at the Golisano Auditorium (1400). Darby will share how “Race and the Right to Education in America” has been established with alarming policies, learning theories, and systems truncating the achievements and rights of Black students.

“Darby’s work is timely and important. It’s essential for us to understand our rights as people, both our natural and legal rights,” said Professor John Capps, Department of Philosophy at RIT’s College of Liberal Arts. “We must bring attention to these rights, where they come from and what gives them legitimacy. We must show how they’ve evolved, how they can come under attack, and how they can be defended and secured. This is especially important for our right to education.”

Darby will be arguing that K-12 schools—contaminated with the poison of the nation's racist history—are rigged in ways that assail the dignity of Black students and undermine the realization of these human rights.

This event is in collaboration with the College of Liberal Arts Department of Philosophy, the Division of Diversity and Inclusion and the Division of Student Affairs. We encourage you to join us!

Requests for interpreters can be submitted at myaccess.rit.edu