Michael Brown in Ferguson. Eric Garner in New York. Tamir Rice in Cleveland. And more recently, Anthony Hill in Atlanta and Tony Robinson in Madison.

Recent incidents of unarmed black men killed by police officers have spurred protests and refueled the “race conversation.” Deep-seated prejudices and systemic discrimination have become topics of discussion, moving many to ask questions and draw lessons from events like those in Ferguson, Missouri.

Because the topic has been at the forefront of the country’s consciousness in recent months, the USC School of Social Work focused its annual All School Day event on the theme of “Race Relations in the 21st Century: Is It Just a Black and White Issue?” Guest speakers Aja Brown, mayor of the city of Compton, California; Manuel Pastor, the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; and Jody Armour, the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the USC Gould School of Law, discussed the state of race relations in the United States today, where they thought it would go, and how students could assist in that journey.

All School Day, an annual educational forum co-led by students and faculty, began in 1992 after racial tensions sparked the Los Angeles riots. Each year since, the School of Social Work has brought people together in an atmosphere of cooperation, respect and inclusion to raise awareness about diversity and to discuss how society can better communicate across differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, social class and disability.

Cherrie Short, associate dean of global and community initiatives, started the day’s conversation at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.

“Race and racism have a long and complicated history in America, from slavery, to the Jim Crow laws, to civil rights, to the mass incarceration of young black men, to the issues related to immigration status,” she said. “We now have a black president, and one of the wealthiest women in America is also black. Does this then mean that overall life chances have improved in society for people of color and their communities, or are we locked into a system that is very difficult to dismantle because of the past history?”

The new majority

Brown, who has a Master of Planning from USC, tackled this question by relating her experiences as mayor of an ethnically diverse city, including bringing rival gangs together in an effort for peace, eradicating human trafficking, and creating job development and training programs.

“Regardless of what their exterior looks like or what their heritage is, we all want the same things. We have the same issues and the same challenges because we live in the same neighborhoods,” said Brown, who is only the second African-American mayor of Compton and its youngest elected. “My voice for my community is one of unity. My personal family is very diverse, and I was taught to focus on things that make us beautifully similar but also different in a way that can be celebrated.”

She also brought up the rapidly increasing numbers of ethnic and racial minorities in the United States and urged an action plan for change.

“The new majority will have the same choice to make – whether or not to continue the cycle of exclusion and hate,” she said. “It’s going to be an all hands-on-deck approach, and the key caveat can’t be race again. We have to do better.”

Pastor, who studies demographic change and social justice, also referred to the United States as a majority minority nation and its implications for race relations.

“We have a persistent racial and ethnic divide in terms of poverty rates. It’s absolutely critical to address the challenges of inequality and of the changing demographics in the same mix,” he said. “The relationship between the Asian-American, African-American and Latino communities is fundamental to achieving social justice in the United States.

“Demography isn’t destiny at all. Whether we craft those new identities requires community organization, social movements and political will,” he said.

Pastor also reminded the social work audience that healthful communication is key.

“We need to create spaces where we can be honest with one another,” he said. “We always need to act as if ‘the other’ is there, even if ‘the other’ is not. We need to speak and act with integrity, honesty and courage, and move this needle forward on social justice and race relations.”

Come together

Armour mentioned that the tenets of his 1997 book, Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America, still hold true today – mainly that it is not reasonable to judge an entire group by the actions of a few.

“Ain’t nothing changed but the year,” he said.

Armour cited psychological research to help explain some of what has been happening around the country between African Americans and police officers.

“A well-learned set of associations can run automatically without any conscious awareness,” he said. “It’s like learning to ride a bicycle. Initially it takes intention, attention and effort to get the associations together. But once they’re well-learned, it takes no conscious awareness or effort at all for the automatic processes to take over, and that’s what’s explaining a lot of what’s going on in these profiling cases.”

He also implored the audience not to look for blame but to come together to combat discrimination.

“What do you do about indifference, apathy, insufficient care and concern for black folk that isn’t rooted in intentional bias against those folk but in unconscious indifference to their plight?” he asked. “We need to stop looking for culprits when it comes to discrimination and start approaching discrimination as a public health problem that we’re all subject to, we’re all collectively responsible for, and we collectively approach the solution to this problem.”

At the end of the discussion, the All School Day committee honored Ralph Fertig, clinical professor at the School of Social Work, for a lifetime dedicated to social justice. Fertig, who as a Freedom Rider in the 1960s forcibly integrated public buses in the South was jailed and beaten in Selma, Alabama, for his efforts, extolled USC for its commitment to diversity.

“We have a heritage at USC to stand up and fight for equality, for equity,” he said. “The articles of incorporation specified that all classes will be offered equally to women and to men in 1880, almost a century before Harvard University opened up to women. So USC has been at the forefront, and I’ve been proud to have been a part of USC.”

Continuing the conversation

In addition to the morning discussion on race, the school’s Student Organization held an open-mic Social Justice Jam, where students and faculty shared their thoughts on diversity through performance. Alumnus Jabari Evans flew in from Chicago to emcee the event, a fitting role for the professional hip hop artist known as Naledge of Kidz in the Hall. Fertig also took part, participating in a group performance of his famed “Social Work Rap.”

And to explore how social workers can assist in making race relations better in the large variety of areas in which they serve, the school started a social media conversation on the All School Day theme three weeks in advance of the event.

Marilyn Flynn, dean of the School of Social Work, urged students to keep the event’s dialogue going.

“As the school has grown and become national in scope, now when we take up this topic, we’re thinking of the nation as a whole,” she said. “It gives us not only a broader scope, but it also reminds us of the special responsibility we all have because we are so large. You are a voice of 3,000 for social justice. It’s your responsibility to keep this dialogue going in the nation as a whole and to reinvent for ourselves what Martin Luther King Jr. started.”