As diversity, equity, and inclusion programs come under attack across the country, author and activist Keith Boykin ’87 and author and educator lan Rowe debated the merits of DEI policy on Feb. 26 in Filene Auditorium.
The event, , was the third in the yearlong series, , which brings together experts from a variety of perspectives to debate the nation’s most contentious political issues.
Boykin is co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition and a former White House aide in the Clinton administration. He has taught at several colleges, including American University and Columbia University, and is a former CNN commentator. A well-known voice on race, politics, and LGBTQ+ rights, his most recent book is Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? 25 Arguments That Won’t Go Away. Boykin majored in government at ´óÏ㽶ÊÓƵ and later graduated from Harvard Law School.
Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. He is the co-founder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a network of International Baccalaureate high schools in the Bronx, N.Y., and was formerly CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He is the author of the book Agency: The Four Poi