Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
carmen.chandler@csun.edu,
(818) 677-2130

CSUN Hosts Forum on Racial Profiling

The forum will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center of the University Student Union on the west side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge.

"The reason we're doing this is because many young people of color, primarily African Americans and Latinos, but also Asians and others, are being stopped by police it seems because of their skin color. Skin color has become a substitute for evidence of criminal activity," said Carolyn Okazaki, a university counselor and organizer of the forum. "But we also realize that the police have their own issues. We saw this as an opportunity for dialogue and developing solutions to the problem."

The panelists will include Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU; the Rev. Zedar Broadous, director of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the NAACP; Officer Robert Burks with the California Highway Patrol, an advocate for reform in law enforcement; Daniel Tsang, a founding member of The Alliance Working for Asian Rights and Empowerment; Lt. John Smither with CSUN's Public Safety Department; Richard Corona, a professor in CSUN's Chicano/a Studies Department; Jason Frierson, a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law school; and a representative of the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division.

Jim Hasenhauer, a professor in CSUN's Communications Studies Department, will moderate the event.

For more information, call (818) 677-2366 or (818) 634-1778.