Tag Archives: Racism

We interview the author of a new book CALIFORNIA, A SLAVE STATE (Yale University Press; June 27, 2023). Professor Jean Pfaelzer shows that, since the very first colonizers crossed the border, the Golden State was and still is powered by slavery – a piece of American history that many still try to bury.

Jean Pfaelzer is a public historian, commentator, and professor of American studies at the University of Delaware. Her books include Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, (Random House; University of California Press) as well Parlor Radical: Rebecca Harding Davis and the Origins of American Social Realism and The Utopian Novel in America. She lives in Washington, DC.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Book interview – Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment – June 4, 2023

June 4, 2023 host

What did James Madison mean when he wrote the Second Amendment? What was his motivation? In a new book, our guest says the Second Amendment was intended to protect the states against slave insurrection, not to protect individual liberties. We explore the “original intent” of this controversial amendment to the US Constitution. And look at the epic debate between James Madison of the Federalists and Patrick Henry of the Anti-federalists and how they framed the motivations behind the Second Amendment. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Carl T. Bogus is Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law. He is the author of the book we are discussing today Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment (Oxford University Press 2023). He is also the editor of The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms and the author of The Hard, Simple Truth about Gun Control and Gun Control and America’s Cities: Public Policy and Politics.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Comments from Latino LA city council members threaten years of Black-Latino Coalition ; Many ways Privatization is an attack on Civil Service roles in the Government – October 23, 2022

October 22, 2022 host

Los Angeles is embroiled in a city governance crisis, due to leaked audio highlighting the racism of elected city council members. It has demonstrated that race is still a fundamental problem in the city. We explore race in Los Angeles. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Claudia Sandoval is Assistant Professor at Loyola Maramount University. She is the author of “Black, Brown, Young and Together: Inter- and Intra-Group Affinity and Coalitions Between Black and Latino Youth” and with Chaya Crowder she has co-authored the opinion article Latino leaders can collaborate with Black communities. Why don’t they?

Privatization may undermine safeguards of our constitutional republic. How does privatization amount to what our guest calls a Constitutional Coup? Hosted by Maria Armoudian. [ dur: 24mins. ]

This interview was first broadcast July 2018.

Jon Michaels is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. He is the author of Constitutional Coup: Privatization’s Threat to the American Republic.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil – Part II; What is Race and Ethnicity – August 14, 2022

August 14, 2022 host

First, we continue our conversation with preeminent psychology scholar Ervin Staub. Last week we discussed how to build peaceful societies, particularly when some groups have been traumatized by violence, war or genocide. Erwin Staub’s latest book is The Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil. This is part two of our discussion. [ dur: 33mins. ]

Ervin Staub is a Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Founding Director of its Ph.D. concentration in the Psychology of Peace and Violence.

Then, what is race? How is it distinct from ethnicity? And what do they mean for politics and society? [ dur: 25mins. ]

David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why we Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others and The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War.
Garrett Albert Duncan is Associate Professor of Education in Arts & Sciences. He also teaches African & African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His publications are listed here.

This show was recorded on June 2015

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

March 26, 2022 host

In what ways is the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson historic? What impact will having a former criminal defense attorney on the Supreme Court have on future rulings or on dissents? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Danielle Holley-Walker is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. She is the author of “A New Era for Desegregation” and “After Unitary Status: Examining Voluntary Integration Strategies for Southern School Districts.”
Abbe Smith is Director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and Professor of Law at Georgetown University. She is the author of Guilty People and co-author of Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct In Minority Communities.
Olu Orange is the Director of the USC Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program and also the Director of the USC Dornsife Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative. A practicing attorney, he has won several important cases, including B.B. (Burley) v. County of Los Angeles — a knee-on-neck police death case which established that police officers who intentionally cause harm cannot offset their own liability with their victims’ negligence. The case has been referred to “George Floyd without video.” And in 2018, A.G. v. County of Los Angeles which established that non-biological children have standing in California to sue for the wrongful death of persons who raise them as parents.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Black Women Intellectuals how they empowered the civil rights struggle – March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022 host

What role have black women played in the civil rights era and black empowerment in addressing issues of white supremacy? We explore the importance of black women intellectuals, the way in which they have framed the scholarship, the analysis, and policies. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Ashley Farmer is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies & History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era and co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition. She is also the Co-Editor and Curator of the Black Power Series with Ibram X. Kendi.

Several states have passed legislation barring teaching critical race theory in public schools. Today we explore critical race theory and how race is taught. How should academics proceed in light of the political backlash to teaching about race? [ dur: 22mins. ] This was originally recorded July 21, 2021. This is an excerpt, the complete version can be heard here.

Utz McKnight is Chair of the Department of Gender and Race Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Race and the Politics of the Exception: Equality, Sovereignty, and American Democracy and Everyday Practice of Race in America: Ambiguous Privilege.
Laura E. Gómez is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She has taught the Critical Race Studies Program in the law school’s upper-year curriculum. Professor Gómez has co-founded and served as the first co-director of UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program. She is the author of Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism and Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. 2nd ed.
David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at New England University. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, and the forthcoming Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Algorithms, how do they make biased decisions? – November 14, 2021

November 13, 2021 host

Algorithms reflect the biases of the society in which they exist and the programmers who create them. There has been a social and political reaction against their use. How do algorithms govern social and political interactions? What is the most proper use of algorithms? And what are the biases that persist in their use? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Tina Eliassi-Rad is a Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University. She is also a core faculty member at Northeastern’s Network Science Institute and the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Measuring Algorithmically Infused Societies and What Science Can Do for Democracy: A Complexity Science Approach.
Damien Patrick Williams is PhD candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. He is the author of Why AI Research Needs Disabled and Marginalized Perspectives, Fitting the description: historical and sociotechnical elements of facial recognition and anti-black surveillance, and Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological Design.
Henning Schulzrinne is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colombia University. He is the co-author of Mobility Protocols and Handover Optimization: Design, Evaluation and Application, Bridging communications and the physical world and Future internets escape the simulator. He was nominated as Internet Hall of Fame Innovator in 2013. He was Chief Technology Officer for the FCC under the Obama Administration.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – How Haiti became an impoverished nation due to External and Internal Forces – September 5, 2021

September 6, 2021 host

Haiti has yet again suffered through a major political crises and an earthquake. Is the humanitarian and economic aid coming from abroad helping or harming the nation?
A parallel government of NGO’s may have removed sovereignty from the Haitian people. What does this mean for the county, its people and their future. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Mark Schuller is Professor of Anthropology and Nonprofit and NGO Studies at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti and Killing with Kindness: Haiti, International Aid, and NGOs.
Jean-Eddy Saint Paul is Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Founding Director of the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute. He is the author of the article Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil and Understanding Haiti through the power of the social force in interaction.
Barrymore A. Bogues is Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory, Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center of the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. He is the author of Empire of Liberty: Power, Freedom and Desire, The George Lamming Reader: The Aesthetics of Decolonization and Haiti: A saga of democracy, sovereignty and state rule.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Addressing Institutional Racism and Genocide – March 7, 2021

March 6, 2021 host

With the world facing multiple crises, we speak with three preeminent scholars from psychology, anthropology and philosophy about the crossroads before us and ways that we can navigate them for the betterment of humanity. [ dur: 58mins. ]

David Livingstone Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, and his latest On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist it.
Ervin Staub is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His numerous publications include Overcoming evil: Genocide, violent conflict and terrorism, The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence, and The roots of goodness: Inclusive caring, moral courage, altruism born of suffering, active bystandership and heroism.
Doug Fry is Professor & Chairperson in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. With Riane Eisler he has co-authored, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Minds, Lives, and Future. He is also the author of ,Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace and the editor of War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Racism

Scholars’ Circle – History of California as a Slave State – July 16, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Book interview – Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment – June 4, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Comments from Latino LA city council members threaten years of Black-Latino Coalition ; Many ways Privatization is an attack on Civil Service roles in the Government – October 23, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil – Part II; What is Race and Ethnicity – August 14, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Algorithms, how do they make biased decisions? – November 14, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – How Haiti became an impoverished nation due to External and Internal Forces – September 5, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Addressing Institutional Racism and Genocide – March 7, 2021

By Maria Armoudian