Last Updated on July 2, 2024 by BVN
RIVERSIDE—Zócalo Public Square, a unit of ASU Media Enterprise, whose mission is to create a welcoming intellectual space and engage a new generation in the public square, announces Riverside as the site of its program in partnership with California Humanities.
The event, titled “How Does the Inland Empire Strike Back Against Hate?”, will be held on Tuesday, July 16, at 6:30 pm at UCR ARTS, 3824 Main St, Riverside, CA 92501, and will be moderated by Professor Emeritus of Cal State San Bernardino’s School of Criminal Justice Brian Levin. Panelists are: California State Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson, Project Director of Mapping Black California Candice Mays, and Senior Policy Advocate and Organizer for ACLU’s Southern California Inland Empire Office Luis Nolasco. They will discuss the region’s history of discrimination and violence and examine current efforts that bring justice to the Inland Empire.
In the 1920s, Southern California’s Inland Empire was a bucolic place, dotted with small towns set amid orange groves. It was also a growing outpost for the Ku Klux Klan, whose members subjected the region’s minority residents to exclusion, harassment, and violence in following decades. Today, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Latino, anti-Asian, and anti-LGBTQ movements persist, with hate crimes again on the rise alongside a new generation of domestic extremist groups.
“In a civil, democratic society, we have to build spaces that actively support strategies to diffuse the underlying elements that give rise to violence and hate crimes,” says Moira Shourie, executive director of Zócalo Public Square. “Our goal with this program is to examine the past, present, and bright future of the Inland Empire’s fight against injustice that local policymakers and advocates in the region are spearheading.”
Topics will include: anti-hate, anti-racism, anti-LGBTQ movements, antisemitism, discrimination, justice, demographics of Riverside, community safety
Following the event, Zócalo invites the in-person audience to continue the conversation at a post-event reception featuring complimentary drinks and small bites. Panelists will be available for interviews during the reception period between 7:30-8:30pm.
The event is free and open to the public. Registration to the event is available on Eventbrite. The panel discussion will also be streaming live online on Zócalo Public Square’s YouTube channel.