Justice, equality, and race in America: understanding the BLM movement

Hello everyone, its been a year since we went on an unplanned hiatus (apologies). And what a year this was. From the HK protests, to COVID, to the HK national security laws, to the global movement of Black Lives Matter, it seems history is being made every month since we last met.

But in these divided, turbulent times, we need an honest exchange of ideas more than ever. We need to build bridges of understanding in order to find common ground and work together to solve the pressing issues that we face.

It is in this spirit that I am happy to announce that Politics, Philosophy, and Big Ideas is back for 2020!

For our next event, we will look at the American justice system, specifically on how it treats African Americans and other minorities. The Black Lives Matter movement has swept the western world over the past weeks. Massive protests have erupted not only all over the US, but in other western countries including Canada and the UK as well. This was the result of long standing anger and frustration about racial inequality, injustice, and systematic failures of society to address both historical and current wrongs.

While slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining, segregation and other outright racist policies have been struck down in the US, racial inequality still persists. It has become more hidden and nuanced, but nonetheless highly effective in systematically targeting African Americans and other minorities, often with deadly results. The justice system plays a huge part of this in particular. In this event, our guest host Vidette will examine the US justice system in detail, providing historical context, data, and evidence to critically examine the role that the US justice system plays in maintaining and perpetuating racial inequalities in America, particularly against African Americans.

Here's an introduction of our guest and her talk in her own words:

"Vidette is a Ghanaian British, raised in both London and Accra. Although her 4years of studying law came to an end in 2017 and she wandered away into the realms of banking, Vidette maintains her love for philosophy and law particularly the American Supreme Court.

In this session Vidette will seek to reason with us on America’s criminal justice system and it’s impact on African Americans, helping us reach a conclusion on whether the American Criminal justice system is a friend of minorities."

Hope to see you all there!