Professor Hakeem Jefferson will discuss his forthcoming paper, "Deconstructing Race," which takes seriously the idea that race is socially constructed by endeavoring to deconstruct it. In particular, this work focuses on deconstructing the category “Black”—a racial category that has been uniquely and stringently defined throughout American history. Using an innovative conjoint experimental design, the authors surveyed a diverse sample of Americans to examine several sociopolitical antecedents of Blackness and ask: how flexible is the category “Black” in American society...
We are in the midst of one of the most rancorous redistricting sessions in our country’s history. Partisan officials – mostly but not only in conservative legislatures – are using the drawing of new congressional, state and local election districts to amass disproportionate power for themselves. How successfully can this be resisted? Meanwhile, the many independent/nonpartisan commissions established in states in recent years were meant to help avoid this problem. Are they working to do...
This public discussion will highlight key challenges of racism, misogyny, and other discrimination faced by our Asian and Asian-American community from the perspective of Harvard alumni. The panel will share insights on their own experiences while here at Harvard, in the professional world, and relate what has changed over time – progress, regress – as well as highlight current work that remains to be done.
Featuring:
Kei Ashizawa (MC/MPA 2017) U.S – Japan Relations Community Organizer and Attorney at Law
Confronting racism directly and building a fully inclusive democracy are completely intertwined. Two authors with strong history in the democracy movement have recently written forcefully and personally on the subject. Heather McGhee served as President of Demos before writing the New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us, and Theodore Johnson, after serving twenty years in the military, is the Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and the author of the just-published When the Stars Begin to Fall. Harvard Law...
Driven by hyperpolarization and partisan media, Americans are demonizing and othering their neighbors and peers with different views—breaking down community bonds along the way. To rebuild the civic fabric of our society and strengthen democracy, how can we bring people together and build community trust?
Community civic infrastructures: places where people feel safe to explore their differences, aided by facilitative leaders, with access to trusted local media and supported by the necessary resource, are essential to enabling citizens to discover common ground and solve problems... Read more about Getting Past Partisanship and Polarization: Community Civic Infrastructure
How do perceptions of belonging or lack of belonging to American society influence political interest and political engagement? To date, there have been few inquiries that systematically investigate notions of perceived belonging to U.S. society and the political ramifications of these predispositions. This project addresses this puzzle and investigates how a sense of...
Don’t miss your chance to register and join the Ash Center and Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (Harvard Project) on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, to learn from and celebrate the 2021 Honoring Nations Awardees!
Six exceptional tribal programs have been selected by the Harvard Project’s Honoring Nations Program as finalists for the prestigious 2021 awards in American Indian governance. At the heart of Honoring Nations is the principle that...
What will Boston's historic mayoral election mean for Boston's Black and Brown communities? While the election of the first woman mayor is a watershed moment for Boston, will the next mayor deliver the equity and justice that Black and Brown communities have waited decades for?
Join the Ash Center, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Center for Public Leadership, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston for the second of two sessions focusing on the urgent issues - from education and housing to economic development and communal...
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee issued a major report last month claiming to show “the American people just how close we came to a constitutional crisis” during the events before and after the January 6 “capitol insurrection.” This crisis was prevented only by “a number of upstanding Americans in the Department of Justice.” “Donald Trump was unable to bend the department to his will. But it was not due to a lack of effort,” the report goes on. But, the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee responded that Trump “did not weaponize DOJ for his personal or campaign purposes” in their...
As part of the American Political Speakers Series, Professor Adriane Fresh of Duke University will present her recent scholarship examining how The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) sought to fundamentally change the distribution of electoral power in the U.S. South. She will examine the consequences of this mass enfranchisement of Black people for the use of the carceral state---police, the courts, and the...