Campus Community Book Project hosts “The Talk”

Zach Norris wrote this year’s UC Davis Campus Community Book Project selection, “Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment.” The book was initially released under the title, “We Keep Us Safe: Building Safe, Just, and Inclusive Communities.” In addition to the dozens of lectures, art exhibits, and movie screenings around transformative justice and police reform that have already occurred, there are still sessions to come featuring the topics raised in Norris’ important work.

Forum to talk

One such session, “The Talk,” takes place Monday, Feb. 27 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Zoom. The event is jointly sponsored by the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project and the African American Faculty and Staff Association (AAFSA). A panel of UC Davis colleagues will discuss the extra developmental skill parents of Black children need to instill in them to avoid and keep them safe during encounters with law enforcement officers.

“This is not a session to demonize law enforcement officers. To be highly honored is the work and the risk of those who serve in this career with integrity and at great personal risk,” said Jann Murray-García, an associate professor in the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing who leads the sessions. “But the data are clear and Black parents’ worries are well-founded in racially unequal statistics and anguishing videos shared nationally. Black parents need to impart this skill to their children is not imaginary.”

Black parents’ dilemma

Murray-García serves as director of social justice and immersive learning in the UC Davis Health Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She points out that the federal government has a term for the phenomenon of Black, Latino and Native American youth as young as 10 years old being detained, searched and arrested more than white youth of the same age: Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC). She says to receive certain federal funds for their juvenile justice systems, every state must submit data, plans to reduce DMC and provide evidence for success or failure of these plans.

Murray-García will begin the session with a 10–15-minute presentation on the dilemma Black parents find themselves in from the perspective of healthy child development. Data on the health consequences of DMC will also be presented. James Aboagye, AAFSA chair, and Khalima Bolden, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, will then share their perspectives. Both have lived experiences with this parental task and skill development.

• What do they say to their children?
• How do they say it?
• How do they teach it without frightening or disillusioning their children?
• Can one teach it without frightening and disillusioning their children?
• What does it cost Black parents and children?
• When will they not need to do this anymore?

There will be time for questions and dialogue. Attendees can register here.

For more information, visit the Book Project events page and subscribe to an online calendar for up-to-date event information and registration links. You can also follow the Book Project on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.