Alan Llavore | Office of Strategic Communication | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
Guesnerth Josué Perea, executive director of the Afrolatin@ Forum will be the next speaker at CSUSB’s Conversations on Race and Policing, Wednesday, Sept. 27. The program is part of the university’s events celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.
The program, free and open to the public, will take place on Zoom beginning at 1 p.m. It can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://tinyurl.com/csusb-race-policing.
Perea is co-curator of the AfoLatine Theology Project, executive producer of the documentary “Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality,” and co-host of the podcast “Majestad Prieta.” His writings on AfroLatinidad have been part of various publications including “Let Spirit Speak! Cultural Journeys through the African Diaspora,” the “Revista de Estudios Colombianos,” and “Engaging Religion,” a digital journal by Indiana University. Perea was once named by the newspaper amNewYork as one of five Colombians “making a mark” in New York City.
Perea holds a master’s degree in theology from Alliance Theological Seminary, and bachelor of arts degree in Latin American History from the City College of New York.
Conversations on Race and Policing began after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and its aftermath. It was the death of Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, that sparked widespread protests, calls for reform and revamping of the nation’s policing system, difficult and hard conversations on race and racism – and gave birth to Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP.
In subsequent court cases, three other former Minneapolis police officers implicated in Floyd’s death were given prison sentences.
The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.
More than 90 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive.
The guest presenters in the upcoming programs of Conversations on Race and Policing, each at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, include:
- Oct. 4: Julia Yoo, civil rights attorney at Iredale and Yoo, and author of the Los Angeles Times article, “Opinion: California might have thousands of cops who are unfit to wear a badge. This is why”
- Oct. 18: Marisol LeBrón, associate professor, feminist studies, UC Santa Cruz, author of “Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico”
- Oct. 25: Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World”
- Nov. 1: U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), whose Congressional committee assignments include the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services. Last spring, he found himself in a dispute with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-Ga.), demanding that she apologize to him for making statements employing historically “racist tropes” after the two exchanged words outside the Capitol.
The series is organized by Matt Patino (CSUSB MA candidate); CSUSB faculty members Mary Texeira (sociology) and Jeremy Murray (history); Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; Michael German, fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.
For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.
Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage.