Pitzer College Launches Racial Justice Initiative Inaugural Panel

CLAREMONT, Calif., Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pitzer College President Melvin L. Oliver's Racial Justice Initiative, will launch its inaugural panel on Thursday, September 10, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. PDT, with a virtual conversation among activist scholars on police violence and racial justice in the 21st century.

To join the webinar, go to: https://pitzer.zoom.us/s/98352582604.

Panelists include Melvin L. Oliver, president of Pitzer College, co-author of the seminal book Black Wealth/White Wealth and noted expert on racial and urban inequality; Andrea Ritchie, activist, author and currently a researcher-in-residence on race, gender, sexuality and criminalization at the Barnard Center for Research on Women; john a. powell, professor of law, African American studies and ethnic studies and director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley; and Phillip Atiba Goff, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, and a professor of African-American studies and psychology at Yale University. 

In announcing the initiative in spring 2020, Oliver said: "What we do best at Pitzer College is take scholarship and community engagement and direct it at the most intractable of problems. Let us focus on this one, for it is truly a roadblock upon our road to social justice."

The inaugural panel brings together an impressive set of activist scholars who have combined scholarship with engagement in advocacy that advances racial justice. They will address a range of topics, including the distinctiveness of this moment for transformational change; police brutality and the limits and possibilities of police reform/abolition; the nature of systemic racism; and the political uses of racial violence. The panelists will reflect upon their work, providing a varied set of examples to emulate in the struggle for racial justice.

Pitzer College has a distinguished history of community engagement and an institutional commitment to social justice. Pitzer is a leader in justice-based work that combats systemic racism, discrimination and violence. The goal of the President's Racial Justice Initiative is to support productive discussion, analysis and activism around racial justice.

The inaugural panel discussion is just one of several events to take place throughout the academic year as part of the initiative.

The current national context calls for bold leadership and ideas; Pitzer College aspires to be at the forefront in the fight for racial equality and justice. The President's Racial Justice Initiative invites members of the community to envision themselves as part of the solution and to work together to fight for justice on our own campus, in our nation, and in the world at large.   

About Pitzer College

Pitzer College is a nationally top-ranked undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution. A member of The Claremont Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal arts education by linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, social responsibility and community involvement. For more information, please visit www.pitzer.edu.

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