Black Lives Matter Speaker Series

This workshop is aimed at assisting students, staff and faculty in identifying, assessing and treating racial trauma; providing cultural and racially competent coping mechanisms to regulate emotions and manage trauma responses due to race based stress and explore the historical and current impact of system induced trauma on the minds and bodies of people of color.

Most historically and predominantly white institutions (HPWIs) now desire some number of Black students on their campuses. However, theoretical scholarship suggests that HPWIs’ desire for and willingness to embrace Black students is predicated on their racial palatability. Professor Thornhill will discuss his recent study which found that white admissions counselors are more responsive to deracialized and racially apolitical Black students than they are to those who reveal a commitment to antiracism and racial justice (e.g., the Black Lives Matter movement). He will conclude by considering what his findings mean for not only college admissions and higher education, but the practices of white-administered organizations more broadly.

Bakari Sellers made history in 2006 when, at just 22 years old, he defeated a 26-year incumbent State Representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation.

Sellers earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, where he served as student body president, and his law degree from the University of South Carolina. Sellers has followed in the footsteps of his father, civil rights leader Cleveland Sellers, in his tireless commitment to championing progressive policies to address issues ranging from education and poverty to preventing domestic violence and childhood obesity. 

Sellers practices law with the Strom Law Firm, LLC in Columbia, SC and is a Political Commentator at CNN.

Sellers will address the present situation facing our black and African American communities and the systemic racism and injustice that plague our society. He will share his vision for our nation’s future and ways to continue to dismantle these oppressive systems. He will educate, inform and inspire us to work for change.

For more information, please contact the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Email: oma@uidaho.edu
Phone: 208-885-7716

Shaakirrah R. Sanders became the first African-American and second person of color to achieve the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho College of Law in 2018. Professor Sanders teaches courses related to U.S. constitutional law and criminal procedure.

Professor Sanders has published scholarship on felony sentencing reform; civil and criminal jury trial rights; religious freedom; and agriculture security or “ag-gag” legislation.

Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Sanders served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Honorable Lavenski R. Smith, current Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Sanders will walk us through the legal analysis of George Floyd's arrest and murder through a criminal Procedural perspective. She will demonstrate the importance of equal protection and equal exercise of our rights and share her experience as a Black Woman in the state of Idaho. Sanders will also address the differential treatment communities face while exercising their first amendment right.

For more information, please contact the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Email: oma@uidaho.edu
Phone: 208-885-7716

Samuel Newton has worked for both prosecuting and public defender organizations in Utah and Montana. He is a licensed attorney in Colorado, Montana and Utah. He has represented several people who have been charged with and sentenced to death, which have been the most challenging cases of his career. He is a former professor of criminal justice at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah and the author of a book on criminal evidence and several articles on criminal law-related topics. His research areas of interest include civil disobedience, peace studies and the death penalty.

Newton will address the importance of acknowledging  the reality of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. He will give us a look into the Criminal Justice System from the perspective of a former Defense attorney. Newton will also share his own experiences and provide statistical evidence of the problem and use his own anecdotes that support the data.

Newton will share how important it is for the White community to confront the realities of racial injustice and how ignorance can equal complicity.

For more information, please contact the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Email: oma@uidaho.edu
Phone: 208-885-7716

CeCe McDonald is a transgender activist and revered icon of the LGBTQ community. She captured international recognition in 2011 after surviving a white supremacist and transphobic attack, later receiving a second-degree manslaughter conviction and serving 19 months in prison for defending herself.

Rolling Stone has praised her as “an LGBT folk hero for her story of survival – and for the price she paid for fighting back.” In 2014, The Advocate included her among its annual "40 Under 40” list of “young LGBT people fighting intersectional battles in our greater community.” Since her release, she has graced stages across the country where she uses storytelling to articulate the personal and political implications of being both black and trans.

Dr. Pellow will discuss environmental justice movements in U.S. prisons. His talk will include conversation about why prisons are a key site to fight environmental racism. He will also explore new opportunities to amplify environmental justice in light of recent events in support of Black Lives Matter, defunding police and COVID-19.

Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and Founder of the Los Angeles-based grassroots organization Dignity and Power Now. Patrisse will address the ways in which the systemic racism built into our society disproportionately continues to negatively impact our Black communities. In addition to explaining the history and importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, she will elaborate on the national conversation about defunding the police and share her experience with using art and other forms of activism to achieve an equitable society.

To ask, “What time is it?” is to orient one to time and space. Rather than using an adjective (i.e. “what”), it may be more productive to use a determiner (e.g. “whose”). “Whose time is it?” exposes the possibility that some may own time, while others can only owe it. In his talk, Dr. Rahsaan Mahadeo illustrates how racialized youth, particularly black youth in urbanized space reckon with time. He will show how time is racialized, how race is temporalized and how racism takes time.