Conversations on Race and Policing - California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB)

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This series began in response to the police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. In this work, we hope to explore, enlighten, and engage ourselves and the campus community with ongoing panel discussions, lectures, presentations, and film screenings related to the history and current context of race, policing, and criminal justice. We invite leading scholars, journalists, lawyers, healthcare professionals, current and veteran members of law enforcement, faith-based leaders, the formerly incarcerated, artists, activists, students, and more to share their experience, expertise, and passion with our university community and beyond. Our aim is to have an ongoing conversation about the way criminal justice operates – especially in communities of color – in order to empower and inform our students, faculty, staff, and residents of the Inland Empire. We have hosted over 110 weekly events to date. Please see our Lecture Series Archive (https://www.csusb.edu/corp/lecture-series-archive) for past events and recordings, and plan to join us online for Upcoming Events (https://www.csusb.edu/corp). Recordings of most events will be posted on their event pages after editing. We recognize that these are long and sometimes difficult conversations, as we continue the series into 2024-25, our fifth year.

  1. Sep 23

    In Conversation with Dr. Julian Go (U. of Chicago, Sociology), author of "Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US" (Oxford, 2023)

    Dr. Julian Go is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago where he is also a Faculty Affiliate in the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture and The Committee on International Relation. He is also a Fellow of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory and former President of the Social Science History Association.    His recent book, Policing Empires Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US (Oxford U. Press, 2023), "offers the first sustained historical and comparative study of police militarization in the countries where civil policing was born: Britain and the United States."   From the publisher's website: "The police response to protests erupting on America's streets in recent years has made the militarization of policing painfully transparent. Yet, properly demilitarizing the police requires a deeper understanding of its historical development, causes, and social logics. Policing Empires offers a postcolonial historical sociology of police militarization in Britain and the United States to aid that effort. Julian Go tracks when, why, and how British and US police departments have adopted military tactics, tools, and technologies for domestic use. Go reveals that police militarization has occurred since the very founding of modern policing in the nineteenth century into the present, and that it is an effect of the "imperial boomerang." Policing Empires thereby unlocks the dirty secret of police militarization: Police have brought imperial practices home to militarize themselves in response to perceived racialized threats from minority and immigrant populations." Winner, 2024 Ida B. Wells-Barnett Distinguished Book Award for best book in Crime, Law and Deviance, American Sociological Association Section on Crime, Law and Deviance Co-Winner, Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Book) Award for the Political Sociology Section, American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2024 Best Book Prize, Global and Transnational Sociology, American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2024 Barrington Moore Best Book Prize, Comparative-Historical Sociology Section, American Sociological Association "Policing Empires painstakingly reveals the colonial roots of modern policing across the globe. Dismissing simple narratives of police militarization or individualized racism, Go shows how racialized fear of crime and the mobilization of counterinsurgency practices have been the organizing logics of the institution of policing." ― Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing "Policing Empires is an important contribution to the rapidly growing field of police history." ― Jonathon Booth , Criminal Law & Criminal Justice Books "Go provides invaluable depth and specificity to a field that is most commonly surveyed from the vantage-point of grand strategy and macroeconomics. Reading this book as militarized American police forces are mobilized to crack down on students protesting the mass slaughter of Palestinians on university campuses further heightens its clear and immediate relevance." ― Stuart Rollo, International Affairs Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible! Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound and the CSUSB Pfau Library for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!

  2. Sep 22

    In Conversation with Kristian Williams, author of "Policing the Progressive City: Portland, Oregon, From Settlement to Uprising" (AK Press, 2026)

    Join us for a conversation with Kristian Williams, author of Policing the Progressive City: Portland, Oregon, From Settlement to Uprising (AK Press, 2026), among many other books and articles. From the publisher's website: "This is a story of Portland, Oregon, from an outpost of the Hudson’s Bay Company, through its founding as a city and the long and lively twentieth century shaped by organized crime, labor unrest, and waves of migration. But more so, this is a story of how over the course of nearly 200 years, the city has pursued 'law and order' under the influence of business interests, political climbers, and social campaigners. By maintaining the Portland Police Bureau, a body that has time and again proved a law unto itself, the powers-that-be belie the city's reputation for liberal values and civic mindedness. "An expert chronicler of police abuse of power, Kristian Williams now turns his focus to law enforcement in his own backyard. It is the city’s progressive veneer, this book argues, that allows the repressive core of its policing machinery to function so effectively, weathering scandals, co-opting critics, and periodically renewing police legitimacy with well-timed and carefully limited reforms." "A searing and masterful case study of the history and politics of policing. An essential read for anyone who wants to understand the true nature and function of the police institution and why we should be doing everything we can to dismantle it." —Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible! Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound and the CSUSB Pfau Library for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!

  3. Sep 11

    In Conversation with Dr. Caroline Parker (University College London), author of "Carceral Citizens: Labour and Confinement in Puerto Rico" (U. Chicago Press, 2025)

    Dr. Caroline Parker (University College London) is a Lecturer of Anthropology of Professional Practice, Deputy Director of the Social Data Institute, and Founder of Learning in Prison.   Her recent book, Carceral Citizens: Labour and Confinement in Puerto Rico (U. Chicago Press, 2025), "offers an ethnographic portrait of therapeutic communities in Puerto Rico, the oldest colony in the Americas." Dr. Parker's book was short-listed and garnered an honorable mention in the Edie Turner First Book Prize, as recognized by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology.   From the publisher's website: "As nonprofits nested within the carceral state, therapeutic communities serve as reeducation and recovery centers for the mostly male drug offenders who serve out their sentences engaged in manual labor and prayer. The most surprising aspect of these centers, however, is that their 'graduates' often remain long after the completion of their term, working as self-appointed peer counselors in a mixture of volunteer and low-wage positions.   "Parker seeks to explain this dynamic by showing how, in these therapeutic communities, criminalized men find new and meaningful ways of living in the shadow of the prison. Through their participation in the day-to-day functioning of the centers, they discover and cultivate alternative forms of belonging, livelihood, and citizenship, despite living within the restrictions of the carceral state. Situating her study against the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s colonial history, and with findings that extend across Latin America, Parker challenges common assumptions about confinement, labor, and rehabilitation. By delving into lives shaped by the convergence of imperialism, the carceral state, and self-help, she offers a fresh understanding of the transformations of labor and social life brought about by mass incarceration."   “A deep ethnographic and empathetic dive into the boredom—but hypersociality—of drug treatment and the second-class citizenship imposed by ongoing US colonization of Puerto Rico. Wonderfully accessible and amazingly erudite.” ― Philippe Bourgois, author of In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio “Parker’s observations are insightful, her interpretations incisive, and her prose elegant and engaging, raising critical issues about the intersections among incarceration, confinement, belonging, and rehabilitation.” ― Jorge Duany, author of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know “Overall, Carceral Citizens is an intellectually generative and significant work that effectively argues for a more complete understanding of the afterlives of incarceration in colonial times and beyond.” ― Alberto Ortiz Diaz ― The Americas Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible! Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound and the CSUSB Pfau Library for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!

  4. Apr 17

    In Conversation with Mac Muir, Author of "Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing"

    A conversation with Mac Muir, co-author of "Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing" (2025). Mac Muir was raised in Oakland, California. From 2016 to 2022 he rose to become a Supervising Investigator at the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. From 2023 to 2025, Mac served as Executive Director of Oakland’s Community Police Review  Agency. Book Description for Cop Cop, from the publisher's website:  When you think about the police, who do you think of: Do you think of one officer, or the police as an institution? From movies and TV to the real world, a police presence looms over most conflict. But if there was a defining feature of the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, it was the collective confusion about how America got to this point. Despite fragmented media coverage about police unions, militarization, and systemic racism, the average citizen’s knowledge remained hazy on what exactly police officers had been doing all along. It’s probably different than you would expect. There is indeed a “Blue Wall of Silence”, but for the first time, it is possible to get behind it without being the police. The authors were senior investigators at the largest police oversight agency in America, tasked with policing the police in New York City. They are our eyes on the inside, and this book takes us into their world. Cop Cop lays bare the web of real cases investigated by the authors over nearly a decade working for the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). As the authors combine their unique perspectives as police misconduct investigators, they provide a new way of framing the history of policing, tethering a story that begins in the fields of Ireland and the plantations of Barbados, courses along the cobblestone paths of Charleston, South Carolina, and London, England, flows through the heart of New York City, and bleeds into the present day. As they unravel cases ranging from stops and frisks to chokeholds and shootings, they illuminate the overwhelming challenges faced by victims of police misconduct and officers alike, spurning both “Defund the Police” and “Blue Lives Matter” as they build a new argument for six concrete solutions to fix American policing. Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound for their support of this event!

  5. Apr 17

    Conversation w Father Gregory Boyle- Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times

    A conversation with Father Gregory Boyle, author of Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times (Simon and Schuster, 2024) Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 From the book's webpage:  In a world increasingly marked by division and discord, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle offers a transformative vision of community and compassion—a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed tens of thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all inherently good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions). Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing the world. Rather than the tribalism that excludes and punishes, this new narrative proposes a village that cherishes. Pooka, a former gang member, puts it plainly: “Here, love is our lens. It is how we see things.” In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community is a space for people to join together and heal one another in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. As one homie, Marcus, told a classroom filled with inner-city teenagers, “If love was a place, it would be Homeboy.” Cherished Belonging invites us to nurture the connections that are all around us and live with kindness. Boyle believes that “the answer to every question is, indeed, compassion.” Through colorful and profound stories brimming with wisdom, humor, and inspiration, we understand that love is the light inside everything. Gregory Boyle is an American Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. In 2024, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honor. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. He is the acclaimed author of Tattoos on the Heart, Barking to the Choir, and The Whole Language. Cherished Belonging is his fourth book, and he will be donating all net proceeds to Homeboy Industries. Visit the author at HomeboyIndustries.org. Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound for their support of this event!

  6. Apr 17

    In Conversation with Dr. Yelana Sims (History, University of South Carolina)

    A conversation with Dr. Yelana Sims is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. She earned her PhD from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in African American Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Public History; her B.A. is from Vanderbilt University in African American and Diaspora Studies.   From her faculty page: "A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Dr. Yelana Sims received her undergraduate degree in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University and both her Ph.D. in African American Studies and graduate certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Her research interests include histories of race, technology, and gender and sexuality in the U.S.. Dr. Sims is currently completing her first book manuscript, tentatively titled When the Flesh Knows It Is Flesh: Black Women, Sex Work, and Technology 1880-2000, which examines African American sex workers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their interactions with technology, focusing on how technological advancements were used to surveil and convict as well as advertise and enrich sex workers of this period. Dr. Sims argues that Black women have been historically utilized as machines of reproduction, physical labor, and meaning-making which has complicated their interactions with technological innovations. "Dr. Sims enjoys teaching courses on women’s history, African American history and culture, technology histories, and the links between all three. Her research has been supported by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Public History Program, the Harvard University Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, and others." Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound and the CSUSB Pfau Library for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!   Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible!

  7. Apr 17

    The Fear-Mongering & Racial Profiling of the "China Initiative" Conversation with Gisela P Kusakawa (Executive Director, Asian American Scholars Forum) and Mike German (former FBI special agent)

    Join us in conversation with Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, and Mike German, formerly of the Brennan Center and the ACLU, and former FBI special agent. Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 Our guests will discuss the so-called "China Initiative," launched in the first Trump administration. Of this effort, German wrote, "Ostensibly designed to combat economic espionage and intellectual property theft by Chinese government agents, the program quickly devolved into a campaign of racial profiling and fearmongering that targeted U.S.-based scientists and technologists who were not even suspected of spying or intellectual property theft. The chilling effect it created within the U.S. scientific community continues to threaten American primacy in science and technology." Find two more insightful pieces about this initiative here: Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese–American Scientists (PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science) The US Crackdown on Chinese Economic Espionage is a Mess. We Have the Data to Show It. (MIT Technology Review) Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound for their support of this event!

  8. Mar 2

    Feb 25, 2026 - The Family Policing System, in Conversation with Professor Peggy Cooper Davis (NYU Law)

    Peggy Cooper Davis is John S. R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics Emerita at New York University. She joined NYU in September 1983 after having served for three years as a judge of the Family Court of the State of New York and having engaged in the practice and administration of law during the preceding 10 years. Her scholarly work has been influential in the areas of child welfare, constitutional rights of family liberty, and interdisciplinary analysis of legal pedagogy and process. Davis’s 1997 book, Neglected Stories: The Constitution and Family Values, illuminates the importance of anti-slavery traditions as guides to the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Her recent book, Enacting Pleasure, is a collection of essays exploring the social, cultural, psychological, and political implications of Carol Gilligan’s relational psychology.  She has also published more than fifty articles and book chapters, most notably in the premier journals of Harvard, Yale, NYU and Michigan law schools. For more than 10 years, Davis directed the Lawyering Program, a widely acclaimed course of experiential learning that distinguishes NYU Law School’s first-year curriculum. She now directs the Experiential Learning Lab, through which she works to develop and test progressive learning strategies and to develop professional education courses that systematically address the interpretive, interactive, ethical, and social dimensions of practice. Davis has served as chair of the board of the Russell Sage Foundation and as a director of numerous not-for-profit, for-profit, and government entities. Series organizers (alphabetical) 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), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound for their support of this event!

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About

This series began in response to the police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. In this work, we hope to explore, enlighten, and engage ourselves and the campus community with ongoing panel discussions, lectures, presentations, and film screenings related to the history and current context of race, policing, and criminal justice. We invite leading scholars, journalists, lawyers, healthcare professionals, current and veteran members of law enforcement, faith-based leaders, the formerly incarcerated, artists, activists, students, and more to share their experience, expertise, and passion with our university community and beyond. Our aim is to have an ongoing conversation about the way criminal justice operates – especially in communities of color – in order to empower and inform our students, faculty, staff, and residents of the Inland Empire. We have hosted over 110 weekly events to date. Please see our Lecture Series Archive (https://www.csusb.edu/corp/lecture-series-archive) for past events and recordings, and plan to join us online for Upcoming Events (https://www.csusb.edu/corp). Recordings of most events will be posted on their event pages after editing. We recognize that these are long and sometimes difficult conversations, as we continue the series into 2024-25, our fifth year.

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