Racial Justice

Abstract image of red earth and blue water with words Climate Week at Penn

Climate Week offers something for ‘every member of the Penn community’

With participation from schools, centers, and groups across the University and a focus on the interplay of the climate emergency with social justice issues and the global pandemic, Climate Week at Penn will run September 21-25. The week’s dozens of events will help participants learn about the climate crisis—and then act.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・

Chaz Howard finds common ground in the face of division

The University chaplain, vice president for social equity and community, and head of the University’s recently announced Projects for Progress sees hope in the face of activism invigorated by nationwide racial justice protests.

The Pennsylvania Gazette ・

Illustration of a Black hand with shackle around the wrist and paper in the palm folded like a crane.

The Quattrone Center: Less argument, more truth-seeking

The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice is pioneering a systemic, data-driven approach to criminal justice reform. Its executive director, John Hollway, started with the idea that the law should function more like science.

The Pennsylvania Gazette ・

Forthcoming

Maps, pandemics, and reckoning with history

Geospatial data has long been an important tool for scientists and scholars, but now, as society grapples with both coronavirus and a history of systemic racism, can maps help chart a path toward a brighter future?

Erica K. Brockmeier ・



In the News


Philadelphia Inquirer

A law meant to bust blight puts Black and Asian American property owners at risk, report warns

A new analysis by the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic at Penn Carey Law concludes that Philadelphia property conservatorships have come at the expense of vulnerable property owners, particularly Black and Asian American owners. Cara McClellan says that such petitions are filed in communities already at risk for gentrification.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Pennridge School District has created hostile environment for Black and LGBTQ students, federal complaint says

A federal complaint filed by Penn Carey Law’s Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic asserts that the Pennridge School District has failed to protect children of color and LGBTQ students, with remarks from Cara McClellan.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

America’s blueprint for urban inequity was drawn in Philly. It failed Black Philadelphians

Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta of the Weitzman School of Design sees an opportunity for Philadelphia to reset with an antiracist foundation, using Sankofa urban planning to incorporate Black history as a guide toward the future.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Affirmative action’s future waits as SCOTUS hears arguments

Cara McClellan of Penn Carey Law calls the claims that race-conscious admissions are unconstitutional a direct attack on more than 40 years of legal precedent.

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Associated Press

‘We’re triaging’: Cops combat violent crime as ranks dwindle

Ben Struhl of the School of Arts & Sciences says that violent crime is rising for reasons separate from social justice protests.

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WITF.org

A councilman in Reading wants the city to implement reparations for slavery

Mary Frances Berry of the School of Arts & Sciences notes that nearly a dozen mayors in cities across the country have pledged to pilot reparations programs in their cities.

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