Race

In October 2018, at a local state university, African American student organizations and student civil rights organizations alleged that the university failed to properly respond to perceived bias-based issues on campus, including white supremacist activity and racist incidents in classrooms. The groups also alleged disparate application of campus policies by university officials toward majority African American student organizations. The student organizations requested CRS’s assistance to address the allegations and identify possible remedies.

CRS provided consultation services to a student planning group that organized a student forum on bias and race at the university. During the planning process, CRS helped the students, and professors acting as the student’s advisors, prioritize their concerns and narrow the list of potential forum topics. Participants identified several priorities, including hiring a full-time Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; creating space for a Cultural Diversity Office; and requiring cultural sensitivity and diversity training for faculty and employees.

In November 2018, CRS facilitated a student forum. During the forum, students gave candid accounts of specific experiences of perceived race-motivated bias on campus, inequities in the application of campus policies toward black student organizations compared to white student organizations, and alleged police harassment. Black students also discussed the need for a university Office of Diversity and Equity to address complaints and concerns. During the forums, students prioritized issues and decided to form a committee which would present solutions to the university administration.

The fatal police shooting of a well-known musician in February 2019 caused sustained protests in the city of Vallejo, California. Police allegedly found the African American man asleep in his car with a gun on his lap in the drive-through of a fast food restaurant in Vallejo. Police body cameras captured the shooting; the footage shows police requesting him to put his hands up and then firing 55 rounds into the car.

In the weeks following the shooting, the community protested and expressed outrage at the city and police department. The city requested CRS services to ease the racial tension and strained law enforcement-community relations. In May 2019, CRS provided consultation services to city officials to begin discussing best practices in response to the fatal police shooting.

CRS formed a working group with representatives of the city’s diverse communities, including faith leaders, community organizations, educators, local business leaders and the arts community. The working group developed the “Unite Vallejo” initiative to address a range of community concerns, including race and policing, in a way that would bring the community together. As a part of the initiative, CRS facilitated seven dialogue sessions, including geographically distributed racial dialogues to gain feedback on community perceptions on policing. The city planned to use the feedback from the dialogues to inform the search for a new chief of police.

After the initiative launched, CRS provided additional consultation services to city and police officials to help ensure the sustained success of “Unite Vallejo” and to discuss the initiative’s next phase, which included hiring the new chief of police. As a part of the implementation of this next phase, CRS facilitated listening sessions with residents, during which they identified the skills and experience they believed necessary for a new chief. These skills included expertise with internal affairs, community policing, and diversifying law enforcement. CRS also facilitated dialogues with city leaders to identify their needs for the new chief of police, which included experience with news media.