The turmoil of recent weeks and months has exposed inequalities in health care and the need for racial justice at a time when the population is growing more diverse, said Manuel Pastor in keynote comments during the annual Diversify Summit hosted Friday by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
“There are decades in which nothing happens, and there are weeks in which decades happen,” said Pastor, who is professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. “It’s impossible to go back from what we’ve seen.”
The coronavirus pandemic and the killing of George Floyd brought to the forefront problems that younger, more diverse generations are pushing to solve, Pastor said during the summit.
“Young people, they’re not putting up with it anymore, and those are young people of every racial group,” Pastor said.
This is the seventh year the Chamber has hosted the Diversify summit. Though the event has always been in person in the past, organizers moved the summit online in response to the pandemic.