"Racially Charged: America's Misdemeanor Problem" Film Screening and Dialogue
February 27, 2023
5:00 p.m. (hybrid event)
MCALC 1107
Academic Learning Commons (1000 Floyd Ave)
Join the Humanities Research Center, School of Education and Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) for a film screening and discussion of Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem, a documentary film by Brave New Films. The screening will be followed by an audience discussion facilitated by Dr. Rachel Gómez, Assistant Professor, School of Education.
Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem exposes how our country’s history of racial injustice evolved into an enormous abuse of criminal justice power. 13 million people a year – most of them poor and people of color – are abused by this system.
Through first-person accounts of those charged under the Black Codes of the Reconstruction era paralleled with the outrageous stories of people trapped in the system today, the film brings to light the unfolding of a powerful engine of profits and racial inequality. With the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression.
About the Speaker
Rachel Gómez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foundations of Education, and faculty with the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation (iCubed). She studies the influence of race and ethnicity in urban education and human development. Her work investigates the significance of critical pedagogical practices (YPAR) on the sociopolitical development of Latino youth. Through a Chicana relational lens, her research draws from Critical Race Theory and the interrogation of Whiteness Ideology. Decolonial theory and ways of knowing inform Gómez’ epistemological approaches to pedagogy and research.