Harvard Journal of African American Policy
The Harvard Journal of African American Policy was created to promote, discuss and disseminate perspectives affecting communities of color. It sought to educate and empower in order to improve the quality of public policies affecting the African American community specifically and the African diaspora at-large.
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Race, Place and Police: The 2009 Shooting of Oscar Grant
04.27.15
Abstract Early on New Year’s Day in 2009, a police officer investigating a disturbance at the Fruitvale BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Station in Oakland, California, shot and killed Oscar Grant. The officer was White, and Grant was Black. At every stage of the process that followed, Bay Area residents responded with protests, some engaging […]
Interview with Justin Simien, Director of Dear White People
04.26.15
Justin Simien, one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch, is the writer/director of the critically acclaimed film Dear White People, which won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance 2014. In addition to producing and directing online companion pieces for The Help, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Middle of Nowhere campaigns, he has […]
Six Months Later: ArchCity Defenders’ Municipal Courts White Paper
04.26.15
Abstract This paper presents the findings of ArchCity Defenders’ study of municipal courts; documents challenges to that system following the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and proposes next steps for comprehensive reform. The paper shows how the poor and communities of color are disproportionately stopped, fined, and jailed for nonviolent traffic stops in […]
Accepting the Unacceptable: Judicial Backing of Racial Profiling in America
04.26.15
Background Recent events that have taken place in Florida, Missouri, New York, and Texas all have one common theme: an unnecessary killing due to racial profiling. The history of law enforcement in America is deeply embedded with a presence of racial profiling, often used to maintain the status quo through practices that were biased against […]
The Whole System is Guilty as Hell
04.26.15
The Protest I was thumbing through my Facebook timeline on my cell phone on a warm summer weekend afternoon when I first saw it. The picture of Mike Brown’s dead body, his blood on the concrete in a long red line. It made me sick to my stomach. My mind started playing the song “Strange […]