“I understand that part of the project of this Forum is to get us to think collectively, critically, carefully, robustly, collegially about a pressing matter of public concern, and it seems to me that race and policing fits the bill. I should be clear at the outset to also say though, that I think we can have a conversation about race and policing that does not have as an entailment the demonization of police officers. In fact, I think it’s a mistake when we frame the question of race and policing as a problem that derives from individual police officers engaging in individual acts of violence against individual African-Americans. I think the problem is more systemic than that.”

Presentation by Devon Carbado in the Rector’s Forum at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, January 20, 2019.

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