MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR |
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April 26, 2021
Dear CCSRE Community,
Last week, we saw some accountability. But, as Katie Dieter and Allyson Hobbs of AAAS and I noted in a letter of support to students last week, “We know real justice would mean that George Floyd would still be alive today.” And we know the verdict did not close a chapter in the legacy of police brutality within Black, Indigenous, and communities of color who live within a landscape of racial discrimination and state-sanctioned violence.
To be sure, it was a trial to await the verdict. I kept thinking, “What kind of day will this someday be?” The following excerpt from James Baldwin’s poem reverberated in my mind:
Some Days
Some days leave
Some days grieve
Some days you almost don’t believe.
…
Some days worry and some days mad
Some days more than make you
glad.
Some days, some days,
more than shine,
witnesses,
coming on down the line!
-James Baldwin
I asked myself: What does it mean that we have collective hope and…fear? That we were putting our trust in a system that we wished did not exist? I agree with my colleague, C. Riley Snorton who invokes the pluperfect tense to advocate for “a conceptual framework to understand the ongoing struggle in the present by way of a future...in which black lives will have mattered to everyone.”
As Allyson, Katie, and I also noted last week, “We are still grieving; a life was lost. But we do understand this to be a form of accountability within a deeply flawed and racist system. We must continue to do the arduous and crucial work to dismantle the institutions, like the police and the carceral state, which oppress and take the lives Black people all too often without consequences.”
We noted that, “From its inception, Black Studies have been rooted in our communities. The work we do is for our people, our families, friends, colleagues—the communities that mean so much to us.” The same is true for CCSRE and we know that this trial and verdict trigger angst and grief among many BIPOC whose loved ones have met with similar fates as that of George Floyd's, at the hands of law enforcement.
This verdict, as so many have said, must spur us to continue fighting, as we have for very long, for structural change. It must spur us to continue reaching for each other for support and collaborating when and however possible. As always, we have much work to do. May we continue to work toward racial justice, together.
With love and strength in solidarity,
Jennifer DeVere Brody
CCSRE Faculty Director
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CENTERING RACE CONSORTIUM CONFERENCE
RACIAL RECKONINGS & THE FUTURE OF THE HUMANITIES
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RACIAL RECKONINGS AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMANITIES
APRIL 28 & 29, 2021 | 12-3:30p PDT
The term “reckoning” denotes acts of calculation, estimation and debts paid. It can carry a sense of a future settlements. It also refers to “ideas, opinions and judgments” as in the phrase, “I reckon.” To what extent, and how, might we imagine a racial reckoning via new work in arts and humanities?
Speaker line-up includes: Stephen Pitti (Yale); Jennifer DeVere Brody (Stanford); C. Riley Snorton (UChicago); Tricia Rose (Brown); and American Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts.
The recently formed Centering Race Consortium brings together researchers at four institutions: Brown, Stanford, the University of Chicago and Yale to “center” racial justice in the pursuit of humanistic inquiry. Our work is supported by the Mellon Foundation.
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Chauvin guilty verdict is important, but more work needs to be done to advance racial justice,
Stanford scholars & CCSRE Faculty Affiliates say
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Stanford scholars Hakeem Jefferson, Robert Weisberg and Matthew Clair weigh in on the Derek Chauvin verdict, emphasizing that while the outcome is important, much work remains to be done to bring about long-lasting justice.
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BY MELISSA DE WITTE AND SHARON DRISCOLL
April 20, 2021
While the guilty verdict against former police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd on Tuesday is an important moment for Floyd’s family and Black communities nationwide, it is only a first step, Stanford scholars say. Much work remains to advance a long-lasting kind of racial justice that this decision inspires.
Here, Stanford scholars discuss what the verdict represents. They point out that the facts and evidence presented make the case rare, including a video that left little room for interpretation. The verdict should be viewed as the exception rather than the rule, they say, and there is more work left to do to address the role of police in the communities they serve and the criminal legal system more broadly.
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Matthew Clair is an assistant professor of sociology and CCSRE Faculty Affiliate whose research interests include law and society, race and ethnicity, social inequality, cultural sociology, criminal justice and qualitative methods.
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Hakeem Jefferson is an assistant professor of political science and CCSRE Faculty Affiliate whose scholarship looks at how stigma shapes the politics of Black Americans, particularly as it relates to group members’ support for racialized punitive social policies.
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Robert Weisberg is the Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and faculty co-director of Stanford Criminal Justice Center. Weisburg works primarily in the field of criminal justice, writing and teaching in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, white-collar crime and sentencing policy. His complete answers can be read on the Stanford Law website.
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Artist fellows explore the intersections between race, history, the environment and community through visual activism |
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Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity supports the artists’ research-based practice that involves local, national and transnational issues. |
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BY PERLITA DICOCHEA | April 21, 2021
Asked about the significance of being among a cohort of artists with CCSRE, thomas reflected, “I’ve always been interested in work that speaks to me and folks that look like me. I create work that affirms my identity because as a child I never saw holistic representations of who I was to become. I want to create work that affirms my existence as a young Black Lesbian woman. I think we are all striving o make work for the past and future versions of ourselves. We are creating work with intention and care.”
Valverde agreed stating, “These other artist fellows inspire me to consider a variety of ways in which the subject of race, ethnicity and indigeneity can be presented through different creative genres and be impactful. I look forward to learning more about their art practice and seeing our projects come to fruition.”
CCSRE is organizing programs to present the artists’ projects during this quarter as well as in the fall. A virtual showcase with all four Mellon Arts Fellows is scheduled for June 11 at 11a PDT. Details of the event will be forthcoming.
“Each of these brilliant artists attends to the transformation of the environment from an indigenous perspective, allowing us to engage the world anew and understand that racial matter imbues every space with meaning,” said Jennifer DeVere Brody, director of CCSRE. “We look forward to sharing the artists’ projects with the Stanford community in the coming months.”
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Tribal Law Scholar Joins Stanford Law School Faculty |
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“[Elizabeth Reese's] stellar academic record and demonstrated commitment to uplifting critical issues in tribal communities will enrich and deepen Indigenous scholarship and presence on campus. Her appointment truly distinguishes Stanford as a leader in Indigenous law and practice. We are excited to champion her appointment and her work,” said Karen Biestman, J.D., Associate Dean and Director, Native American Cultural Center, and Lecturer, Native American Studies/Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.
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Assistant Professor Elizabeth Reese |
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BY STEPHANIE ASHE | April 20, 2021
Stanford Law School (SLS) announced that Elizabeth A. Reese, Yunpoví, which means Willow Flower in the Tewa language, will join its faculty on June 1 as an assistant professor of law. With a focus on American Indian tribal law and constitutional law, Reese’s scholarship examines the way government structures, citizen identity, and the history that is taught in schools can impact the rights and powers of oppressed racial minorities within American law. Reese is the first Native
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American to become a member of the Stanford Law School faculty. Reese’s appointment is part of a Stanford University faculty cluster hire to add eminent scholars and researchers who are leaders in the study of the impact of race in America, an initiative under Stanford’s IDEAL initiative. Established in 2018, IDEAL is a larger cross-campus effort to create a more inclusive, accessible, diverse and equitable university for all Stanford community members. Read the full story here.
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IMAGINING JUSTICE
The Imperative of Repair:
Race, Crime, and Restorative Justice
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2021 Tech and Racial Equity Conference:
Anti-Racist Technologies for a Just Future
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MAY 19-20
Rapidly developing technologies can be an unprecedented force for good, but too often codify and amplify existing forms of racial inequality, discrimination, and bias. This free, online conference brings together researchers, policymakers, technologists, and advocates to address technology’s new threats to racial equity and new tools for a more just future.
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STRENGTH IN SOLIDARITY
25 Years of Education, Research, & Community
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Please join us for an evening of reflection, gratitude, and community building
on June 4, 2021, from 5-6:30p PDT as we celebrate CCSRE at 25.
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RACE IN MEDICINE
Speaker Series
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RACE IN MEDICINE SPEAKER SERIES
Spring '21
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May 5: Anti-Racism Workshop (no speaker)
May 26: TBD
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NEWS & EVENTS OF INTEREST |
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CCSRE in the News:
Gordon Chang featured in The New Yorker
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The Forgotten History of the Purging of Chinese from America
In “Ghosts of Gold Mountain” (2019), Gordon H. Chang, a history professor at Stanford University, writes that, at least initially, many were generally welcoming toward the Chinese. White workers, however, began to see the Chinese as competition–first for gold and, later, for scarce jobs.
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Illustration by Valerie Chiang; Source text from PBS; Library of Congress; Source photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of Congress / Corbis / Getty (children); Getty (other) |
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BY MICHAEL LUO | April 22, 2021
Gum Shan. Gold Mountain. That was what the people in Guangdong Province called the faraway land where the native population had red hair and blue eyes, and it was rumored that gold nuggets could be plucked from the ground. According to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle, a merchant visiting from Canton, the provincial capital—likely soon after the discovery of gold at Sutter Creek, in
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1848—wrote to a friend back home about the riches that he had found in the mountains of California. The friend told others and set off across the Pacific Ocean himself. Whether from the merchant's letter, or from ships arriving in Hong Kong, news of California’s gold rush swept through southern China. Men began scraping together funds, often using their family’s land as collateral for loans, and crowding aboard vessels that took as long as three months to reach America. They eventually arrived in the thousands. Some came in search of gold; others were attracted by the lucrative wages that they could earn working for the railroad companies laying down tracks to join the Eastern and Western halves of the United States...They were escaping a homeland beset by violent rebellions and economic privation. Read the full story HERE.
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SF BAY AREA PODCAST
Loving Our Rage | A Podcast by AF3IRM SF BAY AREA
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Loving Our Rage is a podcast brought to you by the SF Bay Area chapter of AF3IRM. AF3IRM is a grassroots organization of transnational feminist women of color who seek to end oppression in all of its forms.
AF3IRMs believe that understanding and correcting historical injustices toward women and people of color is an integral part of our genuine liberation.
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Have news or events to share? |
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We invite news and stories written by and about our CCSRE community—including from faculty, students, staff, alumni, and on and off campus partners—as well as race-centered events to feature in our newsletter and blog.
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