For this Clarion op-ed roundtable on racial justice and policing, PSC members approach the issues from different disciplines and from different sets of experience; we welcome letters to the editor in response.
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“The failure to issue indictments in Ferguson and Staten Island – the decision not even to take the cases to trial – suggests that black and brown lives in the United States continue to be devalued,” PSC President Barbara Bowen wrote in December. “The PSC has a strong tradition of opposing institutional racism and calling for an end to the overuse of police force.” From a moment of silence to public protests, she said, members were seeking ways “to share our sorrow and anger over another needless death.”
Later the same month, Bowen and the PSC spoke out against another loss of life. “The PSC condemns the murder of Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos,” Bowen said. “Though many classes are not in session,” she noted, “PSC colleagues have held moments of silence in their memory at several colleges,” as CUNY faculty and staff had done for Eric Garner two weeks before. “The PSC will continue to work peacefully for a justice system that is fair to all and for a world no longer deformed by racism,” she concluded. “Those are goals that can unite us all.”
The Current Crisis
By Wayne Moreland, Queens College
What Now?
By Steven Zeidman, CUNY School of Law
Don’t Delay Reform
By Nivedita Majumdar & John Pittman, John Jay College
From Clifford Glover to Eric Garner
By Paul Washington, Medgar Evers College
Listen to Community Voices
By Delores Jones-Brown, John Jay College
The Scope of the Problems
By Avram Bornstein, John Jay College
Post-Racial Open Season
By Roopali Mukherjee, Queens College
The Functioning of the System
By Ben Lerner, Brooklyn College
Changing the Role of Police
By Alex Vitale, Brooklyn College
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RELATED COVERAGE:
Teaching on Racial Injustice and Policing
Some Curriculum Resources for Teaching on Racial Injustice and Policing
