We thank the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mike Luckovich for creating the provocative cartoon above, and are equally indebted to the spoken word artists Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley for the profound performance below:

We hope these pieces will support your classroom and living-room efforts to spark high-quality dialogue on race in America. As our friends at Imagining America remind us, art can help us advance conversations where hearts meet minds in civic life.

Editor’s Note: As frequently mentioned here, global learning does not require crossing a national border. Indeed, engaging thoughtfully across cultures is sometimes even more challenging at home, where biases and assumptions are entrenched over lifetimes and generations. The 2014-15 academic year began with Ferguson and ended with Baltimore; now we have Charleston. At globalsl, we find it more important than ever to include a focus on domestic cross-cultural cooperation, learning, and community-driven development.