Community

USC Price student-led forum focuses on issues of identity, resistance

by Bedrosian Center

“In order for us to be inclusive, we need to really highlight that representation matters and include as many people, organizations, thought processes and concerns that people may have,” said Malaika Merid, a second-year Master of Public Policy Student at USC Price who was one of the event organizers. “This is a gathering space of real diverse thought, and I think that the best way for us to move forward with that is to keep creating ways to find more diversity of thought to be included within the forum.”

Ender’s Game

by Bedrosian Center

When you’ve grown up thinking everything is a zero sum game … what happens when you learn it isn’t?

New episode features host Jeffery Jenkins with guests Aubrey Hicks, Matt Schauer, and Ehsan Zaffar.

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club discussion of the “Ender’s Game” episode click the arrow in the player on this post. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, Google Play, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting app!

USC program aims to help LAPD officers build trust, de-escalate encounters with homeless, mentally ill

by Bedrosian Center

Los Angeles Daily News highlighted a partnership between the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School, USC Price School and Los Angeles Police Department on a project to educate officers on how to handle interactions with residents who may be experiencing homelessness, mental illness and addiction. “We think we’re engaged in the single most unique experiment in the…

Sports and Racial Justice in America

by Anthony W. Orlando

To some, it represents the highest ideals of our society. To others, it is a symbol of unfulfilled potential at best, outright oppression at worst. Are we referring to the American flag? Or to American sports? This debate is about more than one athlete or one gesture. It is about an institution, a system of competition, dominance, and deeply ingrained beliefs. In this episode, we examine this balance of power—and the protestors who are trying to change it. In front of a live audience at the USC Gould School of Law, Prof. Jody David Armour interviews ESPN writer Jason Reid about Colin Kaepernick, political activism, and being black in America.

Special thanks to the USC Gould School of Law for sponsoring this event and allowing us to record as part of this ongoing series of conversations bringing you the smartest minds from the University of Southern California and beyond, wrestling with the defining challenges of our time.

To listen to this episode of Our American Discourse, click the arrow in the player here. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, or Google Play.

Location, Location, Location! Mobility and Opportunity in East King County

by Bedrosian Center

Emily Lieb brings us another research update from Seattle from the Access to Opportunity Project:

What’s in a neighborhood? Scholars (and realtors) agree: Where a person lives determines how much access to opportunity she has. Good schools, safe streets, high-quality housing that appreciates in value, accessible jobs and services, clean air and water—all of these things make it possible for people to do the best they can for themselves and their families. Poor schools, high crime rates, bad housing, an unhealthy environment, and relative inaccessibility do the opposite. Each one of these things is an obstacle standing between a family and its potential.

Community Engagement Post #3: On informing and educating the public, and innovation

by Patricia Quintero Estades

One of the barriers discouraging civic involvement identified in our LA Civics Initiative kick-off workshop last year was “baseline knowledge”—the idea that people need to be informed and educated in certain issues and processes in order for them to fully engage and participate. It is no surprise that Sherry Arnstein writing on citizen participation in…

Community Engagement Post #2: On being genuine and building trust

by Patricia Quintero Estades

Building trust is paramount for genuine community engagement

As I mentioned in our first community engagement post, Arnstein’s article on citizen participation (1969) shows us that there are wrong and illegitimate ways to do community or stakeholder engagement. In my research and my classes at Price, I’ve found that the first step to a legitimate process seems to be a legitimate desire by the engager to listen to the stakeholders and take their input into account when making decisions.

“There goes the neighborhood” short documentary

by Bedrosian Center

USC student, Angelique Molina, interviewed Jody Armour, USC law professor, for her short documentary film which puts a light on a family living in View Park, California, as they experience the demographic changes occurring in their community.  “There goes the neighborhood” is featured in the Pan American Film Festival happening February 9 through 20, 2017, at Baldwin…

Letter to a Trump Supporter #6: Black Homicides

by Anthony W. Orlando

Why are so many homicides committed by black Americans? There are really only two logical possibilities: Either they are innately more homicidal, or something has happened to them to put them in such a position.

The first possibility is, by definition, racism. It assumes that blacks are biologically different. Of course, any decent scientist can tell you that that’s not true, as can anyone who spends any time with black people.