Today’s lecture takes a look ahead at the leading challenges and opportunities facing American democracy in this moment. We begin with a discussion of Trump’s refusal to admit defeat in the presidential election and the conspiracy theories and rising white male violence that are emerging out of the realignment of the defeated white power wing of the Republican party. Here we are confronted with the role played by conspiracy theories in the politics of the right and the threat to multiracial democracy posed by Trump’s defeated authoritarianism. This discussion is followed by a focus on the Black women who won Georgia for the Democrats. We consider how they achieved this remarkable goal through organizing and what this model of direct voter engagement portends for the future of democracy in America. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36293]

Race in America (Audio)

Democracy in America Now - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

The race equity movement has left us with greater awareness of the urgent need for changes in the way we interact and run our businesses and institutions. This discussion features a frank discussion on what one psychiatry department has done to address interpersonal and systemic racism, as well as insight from an expert on a compassion-based approach for insightfully seeing and discussing race, and being actively anti-racist. Panelists: Rhonda Magee, JD, Professor of Law, University of San Francisco; Michelle Porche, EdD, Associate Adjunct Professor, UCSF Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Matthew State, MD, PhD, Oberndorf Family Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCSF Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Moderated by Elissa Epel, PhD, Vice Chair for Adult Psychology, UCSF. Series: "Emotional Well-Being in Times of Crisis" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 37477]

Anti-Racism and Building an Inclusive Culture

Reflecting on the devastating, disparate impacts of the COVID pandemic on communities of color, this panel examines the role of structural racism in health outcomes and the systemic changes necessary to ensure health equity. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 36860]

Structural Racism and Environmental Justice in a World of Pandemics

Economist Hilary Hoynes explores her research on the COVID-19 crisis. She discusses the effects on low wage workers and the tripling of food insecurity in children. She also looks at the consequences of the delays and lack of inclusion in relief packages. Hoynes is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics and Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities at the UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36540]

COVID-19 Crisis the Social Safety Net and Who is Being Left Behind - Hilary Hoynes

Ian Haney López is is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes on race and racism in the law. His focus for the last decade has been on the use of racism in electoral politics, and how to respond. Ian develops and promotes a race-class praxis which argues that powerful elites exploit social divisions for private gain, so no matter what our race, color, or ethnicity, our best future requires building cross-racial solidarity. Ian is the author of three books, White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race (2006), Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class (2014), and most recently, Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections and Saving America (2019) Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36290]

Ian Haney López on Race-Class Praxis - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

This lecture begins with a discussion of California’s ballot measure Prop 16 which seeks to overturn Prop 209, the 1996 ban on affirmative action in the state. This discussion considers both the history of California ballot measures and looks closely at how ballot measures have remade racial liberalism in postwar California. From there we turn to our primary topic which is that of political messaging and political strategy. We begin with the ideas promoted by Ian Haney Lopez and several other prominent Democratic party strategists for how to confront challenging questions of race and class in building electoral majorities and social movements. Remember the words of Stuart Hall: “Race is a modality in which class is lived.” Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36289]

Political Messaging and Strategy - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

Chrissie Castro, Diné and Chicana, is the Chairperson of the Los Angeles City County Native American Indian Commission, and co-led the change to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in the City and County of Los Angeles. She was a co-founder of Indigenous Women Rise, which organized the Indigenous women’s contingent of 1,000 Indigenous Women at the Women’s March in DC. She is the Network Weaver of the Native Voice Network, a national network of 35+ Native-led organizations that mobilize through indigenous cultural values; and recently launched two projects to build community and political power of Native communities – locally, the California Native Vote Project and nationally, Advance Native Political Leadership. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36286]

Chrissie Castro Chairperson of the Los Angeles City and County Native American Indian Commission - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

This lecture looks at social movements and culture in history through three theoretical models of social, political and historical change: Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism as expressed in the “base-superstructure” model, Antonio Gramsci’s theories of intellectuals and of consent and coercion in the shaping of hegemony, and Black feminism as expressed by Combahee River Collective. Marx’s theory influenced the formation of the movements of the19th century; the labor movement, the women’s suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement. Gramsci’s context of Italian fascism is discussed as is the question of historical fascism as a backlash against the gains made by the social movements that preceded it. Through the Combahee River Collective we come to see how Black feminism represents a revolutionary force not only against the systems of state and economic oppression, but against the narrowly constructed identities that shaped the previous history of social movements. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 36285]

Culture and Social Movements - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

This lecture opens with the breaking news of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and the super spreader event that broke out in the White House last week. From there we turn to a detailed discussion of social movements, organizing and democracy. Professor Jayaraman discusses the question of power, the elements and goals of organizing, the dynamics of social movements, and the cycles of contention through which social movements grow. She argues that the more people engage in contentious action over a sustained period of time, the more transformative change becomes possible. The discussion concludes with an analysis of how social movements can map power relations and best run campaigns to change public policy. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36283]

Social Movements and Democracy - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

This lecture features Rashad Robinson, the President of Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. The organization helps people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, they move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America. Color Of Change uses an innovative combination of technology, research, media savvy and local community engagement to build powerful movements and change the industries that affect Black people’s lives: in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington, prosecutor offices, capitol hills and city halls around the country. This lecture ends with a brief discussion of the September 29 presidential “debate” between Trump and Biden, considering what was revealed in this event and how it will impact the ongoing campaigns.   Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36282]

Rashad Robinson Color Of Change - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

Today we take up the question of racial classification and the 2020 census with professor Michael Omi. Professor Omi is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, Asians American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. He is the author, along with Howard Winant, of the ground breaking work Racial Formations in the United States, now in its third edition. At Berkeley, Professor Omi serves as the Associate Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, and is an affiliated faculty member of Sociology and Gender & Women’s Studies. In today’s talk, Professor Omi uses racial formations theory to discuss his research into the United States census and its evolving system of classifying and categorizing race. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36278]

Racial Classification and the 2020 Census with Michael Omi - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

The principle question for this presentation is what is “race” and how does it shape our politics? We begin with an introduction looking at the ongoing western wildfires, its differential impact upon white versus communities of color and the prison workers who get paid pennies a day to fight wildfires in California. From there we turn to a consideration of race and racism as defined by sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant. Together, they define race as “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies.” Using this definition, we consider a range of examples of how racial categories and racial formations are “created, inhabited, transformed and destroyed.” We begin with the 1790 Naturalization act which reserved the rights of citizenship to “free white persons.” Then move on to consider how racial categories have both fixed our identities and shifted our history from Columbus to the 2020 Census. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36277]

Big Ideas: Election 2020: Race Space and Politics

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” As look at the history of American democracy, we begin with the nation’s founding contradiction: the dispossession of Natives, the enslavement of Africans and the exclusion of women in a new nation dedicated to the radical concept of universal human equality. Through a reading of the founding documents of the United States, ranging from the Declaration of Independence to the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Barack Obama, we consider how race, colonialism and slavery shaped the nation's founding, and how this legacy, this “original sin” of the American founding, continues to shape and distort our democracy. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 36276]

How Democratic is the US Constitution? - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

This conversation with leading scholars and bestselling authors Robin DiAngelo ("White Fragility") and Ibram X. Kendi ("How to Be An Anti-Racist") is facilitated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery. Together they address the question: ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿How do we talk about race in a way that unites and strengthens us as a community? [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36150]

A Path Forward: Empowering People Transforming Cultures

Aimee Allison is founder and president of She the People, a national network elevating the voice and power of women of color. She brings together voters, organizers, and elected leaders in a movement grounded in values of love, justice, belonging, and democracy. In 2018, Ms. Allison was one of the primary architects of the "year of women of color in politics." She is building a political home for a million women of color, nationally and in battleground states. In April 2019, she convened the first presidential forum for women of color, reaching a quarter of the American population. A democratic innovator and visionary, Ms. Allison leads national efforts to build inclusive, multiracial coalitions led by women of color. She leverages media, research and analysis to increase voter engagement and advocate for racial, economic and gender justice. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36275]

Aimee Allison from She The People - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Ideas

From the civil rights movement to the rise of American multiculturalism, race continues to play a role in shaping our society. Explore this collection from the University of California, which seeks to broaden our understanding of race issues in America from diverse perspectives.

Democracy in America Now - Election 2020: UC Berkeley Big Id...