In an event entitled "Tales of Two Cities," Dyson and Singley spoke last night to a crowd of 350 students and community members in the Jon M. Huntsman Hall auditorium.
Co-sponsored by Philadelphia Magazine and the Wharton School, the talk on race relations in Philadelphia was aimed at exploring racial tension.
In spearheading the event, Philadelphia Magazine Editor in Chief Larry Platt placed importance on having the dialogue take place on campus.
"Hopefully, students will get the message that we are looking at you to change the world," Platt said.
Although the message of this series is being directed to the greater Philadelphia community, Platt thought the Penn setting was key "since anytime a change for the better has happened in our history, it has been the young people who have changed it."
This program was the first of a series of events and articles that Philadelphia Magazine has launched in its yearlong series. Entitled "Tales of Two Cities," the series will tell stories of race from both sides of the racial divide.
Kenneth Shropshire, head of the Legal Studies Department in Wharton, introduced the two featured speakers but emphasized that this should be a discussion, not a lecture.
Singley spoke about the "rules of race dialogue," saying that "racism has not disappeared from society -- it has gone underground. And we are hunting for it."
According to Singley, racism has become a battle about words that does not reveal the extent of the race problem in America.
Dyson continued the discussion, focusing on the context in which racism can occur.
As a writer at large for Philadelphia Magazine, Dyson will be a contributor to this series on race.
A key issue in American race relations today, he said, is the "functional equivalency that is made from each participant in the dialogue."
He said that there is an important distinction between the context of the words "racial" and "racism." While racism connotes malevolent intent, racial is "where the context of white supremacy is so persuasive in the minds of minorities that it is internalized."
He added that white America does not understand it because "the dominance is invisible."
The panel was warmly received by the standing room-only crowd.
Questions at the end covered a wide selection of topics ranging from prisons to race activism.
Although she questioned the lack of a female panelist, Anita Lewis, a spokeswoman for Senator Vincent Hughes (D-Pa.), complimented the event.
"Anytime there is a chance for people to be concerned with racial concerns and issues is great, especially in this crowd, which is so diverse," Lewis said.
Calling the discussion "very thought-provoking," Philadelphia resident Jackie Faton said, "It was a wonderful way to engage in an ongoing dialogue [on] a fundamental, under-spoken issue in a diverse forum."
