At this year's Aspen Ideas Festival, we asked a group of professors, activists, and authors to weigh in on misconceptions about race and racism. "Racism is deeply rooted in America," says the student activist Clifton Kinnie in response to claims that America has moved past discrimination. The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates echoes this sentiment: "Race is about delineating who gets the top privileges of being American and who does not." Other panelists include Ray Kelly, Tracey Meares, and Bruce Western.

The Big Question is a series inspired by The Atlantic's back-page feature.