Conversations on Race and Policing - California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB)

In Conversation with Mac Muir, Author of "Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing"

A conversation with Mac Muir, co-author of "Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing" (2025). Mac Muir was raised in Oakland, California. From 2016 to 2022 he rose to become a Supervising Investigator at the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. From 2023 to 2025, Mac served as Executive Director of Oakland’s Community Police Review  Agency. Book Description for Cop Cop, from the publisher's website:  When you think about the police, who do you think of: Do you think of one officer, or the police as an institution? From movies and TV to the real world, a police presence looms over most conflict. But if there was a defining feature of the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, it was the collective confusion about how America got to this point. Despite fragmented media coverage about police unions, militarization, and systemic racism, the average citizen’s knowledge remained hazy on what exactly police officers had been doing all along. It’s probably different than you would expect. There is indeed a “Blue Wall of Silence”, but for the first time, it is possible to get behind it without being the police. The authors were senior investigators at the largest police oversight agency in America, tasked with policing the police in New York City. They are our eyes on the inside, and this book takes us into their world. Cop Cop lays bare the web of real cases investigated by the authors over nearly a decade working for the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). As the authors combine their unique perspectives as police misconduct investigators, they provide a new way of framing the history of policing, tethering a story that begins in the fields of Ireland and the plantations of Barbados, courses along the cobblestone paths of Charleston, South Carolina, and London, England, flows through the heart of New York City, and bleeds into the present day. As they unravel cases ranging from stops and frisks to chokeholds and shootings, they illuminate the overwhelming challenges faced by victims of police misconduct and officers alike, spurning both “Defund the Police” and “Blue Lives Matter” as they build a new argument for six concrete solutions to fix American policing. Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound for their support of this event!

Conversation w Father Gregory Boyle- Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times

A conversation with Father Gregory Boyle [https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Gregory-Boyle/63161318], author of Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cherished-Belonging/Gregory-Boyle/9781668061855] (Simon and Schuster, 2024) Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 [https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026] From the book's webpage:  In a world increasingly marked by division and discord, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle offers a transformative vision of community and compassion—a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed tens of thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all inherently good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions). Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing the world. Rather than the tribalism that excludes and punishes, this new narrative proposes a village that cherishes. Pooka, a former gang member, puts it plainly: “Here, love is our lens. It is how we see things.” In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community is a space for people to join together and heal one another in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. As one homie, Marcus, told a classroom filled with inner-city teenagers, “If love was a place, it would be Homeboy.” Cherished Belonging invites us to nurture the connections that are all around us and live with kindness. Boyle believes that “the answer to every question is, indeed, compassion.” Through colorful and profound stories brimming with wisdom, humor, and inspiration, we understand that love is the light inside everything. Gregory Boyle is an American Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles [https://homeboyindustries.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=831416594&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIveDS4dGAkwMV_Ae8AR2bGRDXEAAYASAAEgL5X_D_BwE], the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. In 2024, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honor. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. He is the acclaimed author of Tattoos on the Heart [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tattoos-on-the-Heart/Gregory-Boyle/9781439153154], Barking to the Choir [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Barking-to-the-Choir/Gregory-Boyle/9781476726168], and The Whole Language [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Whole-Language/Gregory-Boyle/9781982128333]. Cherished Belonging [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cherished-Belonging/Gregory-Boyle/9781668061855] is his fourth book, and he will be donating all net proceeds to Homeboy Industries. Visit the author at HomeboyIndustries.org. Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). [https://www.csusb.edu/corp] Thanks to Project Rebound [https://www.csusb.edu/project-rebound] for their support of this event!

In Conversation with Dr. Yelana Sims (History, University of South Carolina)

A conversation with Dr. Yelana Sims is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina [https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/history/our_people/directory/sims_yelana.php]. She earned her PhD from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in African American Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Public History; her B.A. is from Vanderbilt University in African American and Diaspora Studies.   From her faculty page [https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/history/our_people/directory/sims_yelana.php]: "A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Dr. Yelana Sims received her undergraduate degree in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University and both her Ph.D. in African American Studies and graduate certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Her research interests include histories of race, technology, and gender and sexuality in the U.S.. Dr. Sims is currently completing her first book manuscript, tentatively titled When the Flesh Knows It Is Flesh: Black Women, Sex Work, and Technology 1880-2000, which examines African American sex workers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their interactions with technology, focusing on how technological advancements were used to surveil and convict as well as advertise and enrich sex workers of this period. Dr. Sims argues that Black women have been historically utilized as machines of reproduction, physical labor, and meaning-making which has complicated their interactions with technological innovations. "Dr. Sims enjoys teaching courses on women’s history, African American history and culture, technology histories, and the links between all three. Her research has been supported by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Public History Program, the Harvard University Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, and others." Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). [https://www.csusb.edu/corp] Thanks to Project Rebound [https://www.csusb.edu/project-rebound] and the CSUSB Pfau Library [https://www.csusb.edu/library] for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!   Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible!

The Fear-Mongering & Racial Profiling of the "China Initiative" Conversation with Gisela P Kusakawa (Executive Director, Asian American Scholars Forum) and Mike German (former FBI special agent)

Join us in conversation with Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director of the Asian American Scholar Forum [https://www.aasforum.org/members/staff/], and Mike German, formerly of the Brennan Center [https://www.brennancenter.org/experts/mike-german] and the ACLU [https://www.aclu.org/bios/michael-german], and former FBI special agent. Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 [https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026] Our guests will discuss the so-called "China Initiative," launched in the first Trump administration. Of this effort, German wrote [https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/china-initiative-failed-us-research-and-national-security-dont-bring-it], "Ostensibly designed to combat economic espionage and intellectual property theft by Chinese government agents, the program quickly devolved into a campaign of racial profiling and fearmongering that targeted U.S.-based scientists and technologists who were not even suspected of spying or intellectual property theft. The chilling effect it created within the U.S. scientific community continues to threaten American primacy in science and technology." Find two more insightful pieces about this initiative here: * Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese–American Scientists (PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science) [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216248120] * The US Crackdown on Chinese Economic Espionage is a Mess. We Have the Data to Show It. (MIT Technology Review) [https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/02/1040656/china-initative-us-justice-department/] Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). [https://www.csusb.edu/corp] Thanks to Project Rebound [https://www.csusb.edu/project-rebound] for their support of this event!

Feb 25, 2026 - The Family Policing System, in Conversation with Professor Peggy Cooper Davis (NYU Law)

Peggy Cooper Davis is John S. R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics Emerita at New York University [https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.overview&personid=19866]. She joined NYU in September 1983 after having served for three years as a judge of the Family Court of the State of New York and having engaged in the practice and administration of law during the preceding 10 years. Her scholarly work has been influential in the areas of child welfare, constitutional rights of family liberty, and interdisciplinary analysis of legal pedagogy and process. Davis’s 1997 book, Neglected Stories: The Constitution and Family Values [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809016075/neglectedstories/], illuminates the importance of anti-slavery traditions as guides to the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Her recent book, Enacting Pleasure [https://seagullbooks.org/products/enacting-pleasure], is a collection of essays exploring the social, cultural, psychological, and political implications of Carol Gilligan’s relational psychology.  She has also published more than fifty articles and book chapters, most notably in the premier journals of Harvard, Yale, NYU and Michigan law schools. For more than 10 years, Davis directed the Lawyering Program, a widely acclaimed course of experiential learning that distinguishes NYU Law School’s first-year curriculum. She now directs the Experiential Learning Lab [https://www.law.nyu.edu/experientiallearninglab], through which she works to develop and test progressive learning strategies and to develop professional education courses that systematically address the interpretive, interactive, ethical, and social dimensions of practice. Davis has served as chair of the board of the Russell Sage Foundation and as a director of numerous not-for-profit, for-profit, and government entities. Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous  and upcoming panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). [https://www.csusb.edu/corp] Thanks to Project Rebound [https://www.csusb.edu/project-rebound] for their support of this event!