Centre for Research in Race and Rights holds last in five-part debate series

Academics and activists debate race and criminal justice

On September 10, the Centre for Research in Race and Rights (C3R) and the Department of American and Canadian Studies (ACS) hosted speakers at the final dialogue accompanying the international civil rights exhibition Get Up Stand Up. The fifth in a five-part discussion series funded by the British Academy Rising Star Engagement project on Race and Rights, it featured Dr. Martin Glynn (Birmingham City University), Dr. Vivien Miller (C3R and ACS)), and Harminder Singh (local community activist). The debate asked: what is the impact of the criminal justice system on the identity/visibility of black men? How can we address the racial disparity of mass incarceration? How has race shaped responses to violence, crime and disorder in both the US and the UK? How has the development of urban policing in the US and the UK been affected by race and ethnicity? How do we move the agenda of race and crime to a more visible presence on the wider social justice landscape?  It included speaker presentations, group conversations and public debate with the 50 attendees. We will be building on this five-part discussion series at our #BlackLivesMatter conference on October 28!