Justice and Race

Race, Politics & Policy Center Opens Nov. 1; Cornel West to headline inaugural spring lecture

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 18:50:00 +0000

Race, Politics & Policy Center Opens Nov. 1; Cornel West to headline inaugural spring lecture Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 10/25/2021 - 14:50

Michael Fauntroy. Photo by: Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/��AV

Since returning to ��AV earlier this year, Schar School Professor Michael Fauntroy has been ready to hit the ground running. He founded the new Race, Politics, and Policy Center that will officially launch on Nov. 1st—and said there’s a lot to be on the lookout for.

“I’m really looking forward to having a positive impact on the university and putting together a vehicle to position the university toward the forefront of our national conversation about race, politics, and public policy,” Fauntroy said.

Cornel West. Photo provided.

Fauntroy said the center will advance student learning, enlighten public discourse, and inspire civic engagement.

“We hope to be able to energize the university community,” he said, adding that students will have the chance to conduct research and work on center projects. “It’s going to be a dynamic place, one that’s working at this intersection of theory and practice.”

The center’s introductory webinar is Thursday, Nov. 4, and gives the Mason community the opportunity to hear from Fauntroy and learn more about the center, its mission, vision, and upcoming events.

A major highlight for the center will be its inaugural spring lecture on April 14 at Van Metre Hall Auditorium on the Arlington Campus with American philosopher, author, professor and political activist Cornel West.

Fauntroy said he and West will cover a variety of different topics that intersect with the Race, Politics, and Policy Center. In particular, West has often focused on the role of race, gender, and class in American society.

“He’s a profound man, and we want to give him an opportunity to share his wisdom with the audience,” Fauntroy said.

Keesha Middlemass. Photo provided.

The center isn’t just for Schar School students, Fauntroy said, but the whole university community and beyond—as the topics cut across disciplines from social justice to criminal justice policy, to health care and more.

One example of that is the center’s January event with Howard University Professor Keesha Middlemass who will speak on ex-offender reentry policies.

“[Middlemass] wrote what I consider to be one of the great books in recent years on the way in which public policy decisions can impact somebody throughout their lives,” Fauntroy said. “[Her book] ‘Convicted and Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry,’ looks at the public policies that are created that make it more difficult for people who have served their time to come out on the other side and reenter society.”

There’s a lot to unpack in that particular topic, but whether it’s food insecurity, homelessness, or any other number of potential barriers, Middlemass will address those from a public policy perspective, Fauntroy said.

Tony Affigne. Photo provided.

In April, the center will also welcome Providence College Professor Tony Affigne who will discuss Latino politics.

Fauntroy said he is motivated by wanting to make an impact for students and contribute to the national conversation on race with the center’s events and activities.

“I’m excited about what we have the potential to be, and to do, and the value we can bring to the university and the Northern Virginia community,” he said.

To learn more about the center, and sign up for email updates visit rppc.schar.gmu.edu.

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Schar School of Policy and Government

Race

Justice and Race

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Guest Speaker

Decreased support for Black Lives Matter will not stop progress for racial equity, Mason professor says

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 20:28:51 +0000

Decreased support for Black Lives Matter will not stop progress for racial equity, Mason professor says Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 06/22/2021 - 16:28

In This Story

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi

Though several public opinion polls have shown a decrease in support for the Black Lives Matter Movement year after the murder of George Floyd, the political victories gained by the movement’s earlier momentum will set the stage for what’s next, said Carter School professor Tehama Lopez Bunyasi.

“#BlackLivesMatter and the Movement for Black Lives have played critical roles in not only shaping our contemporary discourse on racism, but we have seen how those mobilized in concert with this movement have brought about important electoral victories,” Lopez Bunyasi said. “This racial justice movement endures and evolves alongside a countermovement that seeks to restrict who participates in our democracy and what stories get told about our country.”

The countermovement, Lopez Bunyasi said, has voting rights under attack in several states, and a renewed call against the instruction and use of critical race theory in schools and workplaces.

Also concerning, she added, is that most Senate Republicans failed to support an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which violently disrupted a joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory.

Many aspects of Black Lives Matter have brought positive influences in the year it saw heightened support.

“The conviction of Derek Chauvin on all three charges for the murder of George Floyd is an important and rather exceptional event,” Lopez Bunyasi said. “That millions around the country waited anxiously and skeptically for the verdict says a lot about what we've come to expect of our judicial system.”

Despite enhanced expectations, Lopez Bunyasi said more people of color have been brutalized and unnecessarily killed by police since Chauvin’s conviction and that this is one of many indications that unequal systems of policing and courtroom justice endure in our country.

Lopez Bunyasi said comprehensive transformation at multiple levels of government is a necessity.

“Attaining racial equality will need to involve every sphere of American life: the courts, policing, health care, education, labor, housing, voting rights and so forth,” she said.

“One year out from the murder of George Floyd, which re-energized a multiracial movement for racial equality, this is a time to recommit to egalitarian action.”

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi is a political scientist whose scholarship is broadly concerned with matters of race, racism and antiracism in the United States, with specializations in structural inequality, racial attitudes and ideologies, racial marginalization, and the politics of whiteness. She can be reached at 703-993-9363 and tlopezbu@gmu.edu.

For more information, contact Mariam Aburdeineh at 703-993-9518 or maburdei@gmu.edu.

About George Mason

��AV is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 39,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. Learn more at www2.gmu.edu.

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Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Reconstructing their narratives: $300,000 DOJ grant elevates Mason’s lynching research

Mariam Aburdeineh — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:43:08 +0000

Reconstructing their narratives: $300,000 DOJ grant elevates Mason’s lynching research Mariam Aburdeineh Fri, 12/11/2020 - 12:43

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Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

John Mitchell Jr Program for History Justice and Race

Justice and Race

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Black African Heritage

Black Lives Matter

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In This Story

Charles Chavis

Of the more than 4,000 lynchings of Black Americans that took place in the United States between 1865 and 1950, at least 43 cases occurred in Maryland.

��AV’s John Mitchell Jr. Program (JMJP), housed within the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, has been helping research several of these cases since 2019 to support the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In October, they received news that they will be taking their research to the next level, thanks to a $300,000 Department of Justice grant they helped secure for the commission.

Charles Chavis speaks at a dialogue on memorialization in December 2019. Photo provided.

“States, in terms of their narratives, don’t shed light on these historic traumas,” said Carter School professor Charles Chavis, who is on the board of directors for the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project. “We wanted to give life to the relatives of victims whose loved ones had been forgotten.”

The grant, which is part of the Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations Program, will allow the commission and JMJP to supercharge their research.

“We work directly with the relatives in the sentence that we identify because we believe there is a direct line that can be drawn from the racial terror and lynchings of old to the existing racial terror and anti-blackness that we continue to see manifest in 2020,” Chavis said. “[With the grant] we’re now able to hire expert genealogists to help us track down the relatives [of lynching victims] so that they can be a part of the process.”

$100,000 is set aside for the communities and families of the victims for restorative justice reform, said Chavis, who founded JMJP to address narrative change and social transformation. The rest of the funds will go toward live reconciliation-style hearings.

“We work through each individual case in the various communities with key expert witnesses, relatives, descendants bearing witness to this history,” Chavis said.

Before that happens, Chavis said the Mason team helps with forensic reconstruction, which involves leaning on existing research and records to put together a mosaic of the case.

The Maryland State Archives have been key to their efforts.

“Students have been able to work directly with the research, documenting cases, doing census data, pulling death certificates, verifying biographical data and pulling together narratives of individuals,” Chavis said.

In the process, undergraduate and graduate students are gaining hands-on activist and research experience.

“What has been most important for me is being able to put some of what I learned about narrative approaches to racial and social justice into practice,” said master’s in conflict analysis and resolution student Audrey Williams, who is one of five students supporting the commission.

She said the project has also helped her better understand her role in creating change.

“You have to recommit to confronting anti-Black racism every day,” Williams said. “What that means for people who already benefit from the system is committing, with humility, to listening to and platforming the voices of colleagues, friends, and community members who have been harmed, and to becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. The best place for this entire process to start is in our own hallways, classrooms and relationships.”

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

John Mitchell Jr Program for History Justice and Race

Justice and Race

Conflict Resolution

Narrative

Black African Heritage

Black Lives Matter

undergraduate research opportunities

Undergraduate Education

Campus News