The Conversations on Race and Policing series at Cal State San Bernardino kicks off its spring 2026 programing with author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eric Lichtblau, who will discuss his latest book, “American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate.”

The program, free and open to the public, will take place beginning at noon Wednesday, Jan. 28, on Zoom.

“American Reich” explores the resurgence of violence, hatred and white supremacy against the backdrop of the 2018 murder of Blaze Bernstein in Orange County. Bernstein, who was 19, gay and Jewish, was home for winter break in January 2018 when he met with a former high school classmate, Samuel Woodward. When he failed to show up for a dental appointment, authorities launched a search. Bernstein’s body was found after several days, buried in a shallow grave in an Orange County park.

Woodward was charged with Bernstein’s murder; prosecutors said he killed Bernstein because he was gay, and later linked him to Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi terrorist group. A jury on July 3, 2024, found Woodward guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of the hate crime, and he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Lichtblau, according to his book publisher, “uses the story of Blaze’s life and death to shine a light on the epidemic of hate in Southern California and, increasingly, the nation as a whole.” Once the bastion of conservative politics, the birthplace of the far-right’s John Birch Society and a haven for neo-Nazis, Orange County, like the nation, was rapidly changing, becoming far more diverse. And that was “to the outrage of many of its white residents,” the publisher says. “No one was more opposed to the changes than America’s resurgent neo-Nazi groups, one of which had recently gained a new member: Sam Woodward.”

Lichtblau was a Washington, D.C., reporter for The New York Times from 2002-2017, and the Los Angeles Times for 15 years before that. He was a member of The New York Times team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into President Donald Trump’s ties with Russia, and winner of a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles that revealed the existence of a secret National Security Agency surveillance program approved by President George W. Bush.

He is also the author of “The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men,” “Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice,” and “Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee's Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis.”

Web flyer, Lichtblau Jan 28 presentation

The Conversations on Race and Policing program began after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and its aftermath. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, triggering extensive protests, demands for systemic reform in policing, and profound dialogues on race and racism. This also led to the inception of Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing, abbreviated 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.

Since then June 2020, more than 132 forums have taken place since, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive.

Also scheduled this spring:

  • Feb. 4 at noon, Justin Randolph, author of "Mississippi Law: Policing and Reform in America's Jim Crow Countryside"
  • Feb. 11 at noon, Bocar A. Ba, assistant professor of economics, Duke University and Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research
  • Feb. 18 at noon, Philip V. McHarris, author of “Beyond Policing”
  • Feb. 25 at noon, Peggy Cooper Davis, John S. R. Shad, professor of lawyering and ethics emerita at New York University

The series organizers are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, psychology), Stan Futch (president, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Jeremy Murray (CSUSB professor of history), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College adjunct faculty) and Mary Texeira (CSUSB professor of sociology, emeritus), with support from the John M. Pfau Library and Project Rebound at CSUSB.

For more information, contact Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage for updates and other information.