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Influential feminist author Rebecca Walker declared the “world is on fire” Monday at the Distinguished Lecture Series and said historical animosity is a leading factor in the inability to solve racial disparities.

Walker read a selection from her book, “Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self,” which focused on her travels from her youth and the reactions of different nationalities to her skin color and hair. She also drew from her experiences to talk to audience members about race and its negative effects.

“How can we create an open environment… as we move to the future?” Walker said. “The bad news is that we have this incredible level of attachment to the past. The good news is we have the subtlety of mind and we have the capacity as human beings to let go of these negative ideas.”

Rebecca Walker is the daughter of Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Alice Walker and civil rights attorney Mel Leventhal.

Walker said to remedy the modern racial disparities in the evolving world, it is necessary to move from the past and focus on the future, but that could be an extremely difficult task to accomplish.

“Even as I’m standing here talking about a potential exit strategy, you are already undoing the words that I’m saying with your disbelief,” Walker said. “I’m showing you an exit sign, the house is on fire, and you’re saying ‘Is that really an exit sign? I don’t see how that exit sign could possibly exist.'”

DLS Director Eric Schmidt said Walker’s visit is coming at an opportune time because the University of Wisconsin campus is in the process of reviewing its campus diversity initiative, Plan 2008.

“It is a very poignant time for someone to come to Madison to speak about the new models of race,” Schmidt added. “We’re very proud to have her, and we’d be proud to have her any year.”

UW freshman Leslie Thomas said she heard about the lecture from flyers in the dormitories.

“I’m interested in hearing what she has to say and I’m planning on reading her book,” Thomas said.

Other students had similar reactions before the talk. Several had not heard of Walker but knew of her mother, Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple.”

“I’m here for a speech class requirement. I wanted to see Rebecca Walker because I’ve heard great things about her,” UW sophomore Daniel Cleland said. “I’ve heard she is an eloquent speaker and that she’s biracial and Jewish.”

UW senior Valyncia Raphael said Walker’s perspective that historical issues can lead to racial barriers is a new angle she had never considered before.

“I thought it was really interesting that she brought up this idea of race, in the past being injurious and it being toxic and I never really thought about it that way,” Raphael said. “I never heard of using the past as something that can hold you back because it no longer exists.”

— Jacquelyn Ryberg contributed to this report.