By Sienna Bland-Abramson

In light of George Floyd, a (long overdue) reckoning of racial injustice has now gripped the nation. Hollywood, nevertheless, is still ripe with mixed signals. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given their penchant for sweet-talking as many people as possible, including a starkly divided population, where palpable discomfort and white guilt about our country’s racial history remain. This is particularly evident in Hollywood’s divided stance on the issue of police iniquities towards African-American citizens - and other marginalized groups, for that matter - by how it adopts both favorable portrayals of law enforcement, while also perpetuating racial stereotypes.

It is a truism to say that culture informs Hollywood, no less than Hollywood informs the culture. Up until recently, for instance, Hollywood’s message was largely that “Cops = Good and Criminals = Bad”, though of course there were notable exceptions, the movie Training Day, for example. That said, here’s the spoiler: due to the fundamental flaws in our judicial system and our heinous racial history, prisons in the United States are unduly populated with African-Americans, and other marginalized peoples, who have little hope of ever relieving their often faulty criminal records.

By James Quadra

A lifetime ago, I was a young lawyer representing law enforcement officers in civil rights litigation.  My work ranged from false arrests to wrongful death cases. While doing this work, I met many dedicated police officers committed to protecting and serving their communities. I also met officers who I believe should never have been given a badge, and most certainly, never handed a gun.  Decades later, it is still hard to believe that those officers were ever given permission to use force, including deadly force, under the guise of enforcing the law. 

Answering the question of how such officers were hired in the first place lies at the heart of police reform. Eliminating law enforcement immunities, and changing how law enforcement departments are funded, may help hold governments accountable, and thereby reduce officer misconduct, but it will certainly not end it. Based on my experience, real change lies in exploring the minds of officers who use excessive force and making sure others like them are disqualified from serving before they are ever handed a gun. 

By Amy Junus with Sai Kambampati

Unseen Reality, a Zine created in 2018 , was prompted by an assignment to respectfully attempt to share the horrific reality of slavery through artwork that imitated and drew inspiration from individuals with greater wisdom and experience.

Unseen Reality

it was happening
a pain unimaginable
it was happening
a future unpredictable

it is happening
do not be a fool
it is happening
people as tools

it shouldn’t be happening
“i am a man”
it shouldn’t be happening
not by our hands

By Zachary Brett Charles

On fame’s eternal camping ground, their silent tears are spread, and glory guards, with solemn round, the bivouac of the dead. / 1861. C.S.A. 1865. – Inscription on the southern face of the confederate memorial outside the Alamance County courthouse in Graham, NC.

Today, black and white

compensatory F-250s drove

through campus. Parading flags with words

like, again, implying a return,

added to the vocabulary of oppression.

The hooting and hollering of

ignorance and hate given throats

echoes off Piedmont oaks.

By Paul R. Abramson

I have no traction

no satisfaction

no girlie action

And why 

Why

Does death 

have to be

the surrender 

of a Resistant will

where hate 

Now chosen

and cultivated

Has become a way of life

By Jessica Mehta

In homage to Paula Gunn Allen’s “Sacagawea, Bird Woman,” I offer to you, in reverence to my Aniyunwiya ancestors, my own winged self.

Fire Bird, I’ve named me—

I am breath, mythology

shot to fruition. I am 

no critical race

theory, I am history. 

I’ve gone on half

a millennium, my footprints scar-

let, consumed like sacrament

by the pack. I am warrior-woman,

inversion, Amazon.[1] I bring