Hand up, Don’t Shoot: Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter, and How They Changed America
Recording not available.
Dr. Jennifer Cobbina, Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
Constitution Day Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Political Science.
Mobilizing Black Turnout with Celebrations of Community: The Party at the Mailbox Project
View lecture online.
Dr. Melissa Michelson, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science, Menlo College
An innovative program developed by Black Girls Vote to increase turnout in the Baltimore primary election of June 2020 called Party at the Mailbox was enormously successful; those efforts were replicated in the November 2020 election. Dr. Michelson will discuss how Party at the Mailbox worked, by cultivating a spirit of community celebration that capitalizes on Black group consciousness and Black attitudes about the power of the vote. Dr. Michelson is an award-winning author of multiple books about Latinx and LGBTQ politics and will also be available to answer questions about that research.
Sponsored by the Center for Social Science Scholarship. Co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the Department of Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies, the Community Leadership Graduate Program, the Office of Equity & Inclusion, the Latino and Hispanic Faculty Association, and Black Girls Vote.
Life After the Gunshot: Structural Violence, Interpersonal Violence and Trauma Among Young Black Men in Washington, D.C.
View lecture online.
Dr. Joseph Richardson, Joel and Kim Feller Professor of African-American Studies and Medical Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park
Gun violence is the leading cause of death and disability among Black boys and young Black men between the ages of 16-34. In 2020, over 19,000 people were killed in the US from firearm related incidents, the highest death toll from gun violence in 20 years. According to a recent research report on the economic cost of gun violence published by Everytown for Gun Safety, the cost of gun violence is approximately $280 billion dollars. The social determinants of health that contribute to gun violence as a public health crisis: structural racism, concentrated poverty, the effects of mass incarceration and hyper-surveillance, limited access to mental health resources, underfunded and under-resourced schools, and poor housing are all forms of structural violence that contribute to lower life expectancy rates among young Black men. For example, while gun violence is the leading cause of death among young Black men, the COVID pandemic reduced the life expectancy of Black men in the US by three years, the largest gap among all racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, undiagnosed and untreated trauma from exposure to structural and interpersonal violence also increases the likelihood of poor health outcomes among Black boys and young Black men. This talk will illuminate and interrogate the ways structural violence, interpersonal violence and trauma impact the lives of young Black male survivors of firearm injury in the nation’s capital.
43rd annual W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, the Center for Social Science Scholarship, and the Dresher Center for the Humanities.