Nationally renowned alumnus Dinesh D'Souza '83 and Government Professor Roger Masters will face off in their much-anticipated debate Sunday at 7 p.m. in 105 Dartmouth Hall, debating the controversial question, "Is Racism a Problem in America?."
The event, sponsored by the Conservative Union At Dartmouth, was formalized this week. Last Monday, Masters sent a letter to The Dartmouth challenging D'Souza to a public debate.
In the letter, Masters said D'Souza backed out of a debate last spring because of a lack of available funding to pay for his visit.
But D'Souza told The Dartmouth last week that he has "been trying to debate [Masters] for years but [Masters] has always ducked out."
CUAD Vice President Mark Cicirelli '96 said, "D'Souza was originally going to come to Dartmouth to give a speech on his new book, but when Masters challenged him, D'Souza accepted."
Roger Masters
Masters, a professor at the College since 1973, is a well-known intellectual. The courses he teach focus on the political philosophies of such classic thinkers as Socrates, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill, but his intellectual specialties also extend to many other areas of political science.
His areas of expertise are many, encompassing topics such as the integration of biological and natural science with the study of human behavior in the social sciences. Masters is also an expert in the legal implications of recent work in the biological sciences.
Masters has also studied the applications of cognitive neuroscience to human social behavior, the cross-cultural analysis of nonverbal behavior and the influence of the media in politics.
In addition, Masters has written a multitude of books, including "The Nature of Politics" and "Beyond Relativism: Science, Philosophy, and Human Nature."
As an undergraduate, Masters studied at Harvard University. He received his masters degree and his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.
From 1961 to 67, Masters taught both at Dartmouth and at Yale University. In 1973, he became part of the regular faculty at Dartmouth and has been teaching at the College ever since.
Masters has also spent time as visiting lecturer at Yale Law School and at Vermont Law School. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship both at home and abroad.
Dinesh D'Souza
D'Souza is the author of the recent controversial, bestselling book "The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society," which has been sharply criticized in many circles.
He has also authored another controversial book, "Illiberal Education," which he wrote in 1991. The book is about skewed political correctness on college campuses
D'Souza now lives in Washington, D.C., where he is a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.
According to Cicirelli , D'Souza will receive a $7,500 honorarium for his appearance Sunday.
Born in Bombay, India, D'Souza immigrated to the United States in 1978. At the College, he was known as an outspoken conservative, and he served as the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, the off-campus conservative weekly, his senior year.
In "The End of Racism," D'Souza downplays the existence of racism, writing, "Racism is hardly the most serious problem facing African-Americans in the United States today. Their main challenge is civilizational breakdown."
In his book, D'Souza says the chief problems faced by African-Americans "involves destructive and pathological cultural patterns of behavior: excessive reliance on government, conspiratorial paranoia about racism, a resistance to academic achievement as 'acting white,' a celebration of the criminal and outlaw as authentically black and the normalization of illegitimacy and dependency."
D'Souza also writes that "black cultural pathology has contributed to a new form of discrimination: rational discrimination." He gives the example of a taxi driver who refuses to pick up young black men, not because he is a bigot but because he is frightened by the high crime rates of young black men.
He calls on African-Americans to cut back their search for an ethnic identity, saying, "There is no self-esteem to be found in Africa or even in dubious ideologies of blackness."
D'Souza also calls for a "color blind" society in his book, where affirmative action is ruled out and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is repealed. D'Souza wants to discontinue the practice of solving racial inequalities by such practices as lowering admission standards and preferential hiring.
In the end, D'Souza writes "the solution to the race problem is a public policy that is strictly indifferent to race. The black problem can be solved only through a program of cultural reconstruction in which society plays a supporting role but which is carried out primarily by African Americans themselves."
