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February 3, 2025
Dear Aoki Community:
Happy Black History Month! Black communities have been profoundly disparately impacted by racist and oppressive institutions throughout world history. When we examine Black history in the United States, throughout every period their resistance and struggle for liberation has been characterized not by despair, but by power, strength, and revolutionary joy. May we remain committed to exposing injustices against Black communities in the United States and around the world, and fight for Black liberation always.
In Solidarity.
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|| Aoki Center Updates || | |
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The Aoki Center and UCD Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Present: "Testimony As Healing Praxis in History Classrooms" by Dr. Yianella Blanco
This speaker series explores topics related to the role of higher education in promoting equity at UC Davis, our neighboring communities, and the state of California.
This talk is drawn from a larger qualitative research study with Central American-
American educators, during which they shared their own testimonios and collectively read the testimonios written by Central American migrant youth to imagine how we might use testimonios in our teaching practice. Our research is grounded in LatCrit theory, and builds upon testimonio research that has uplifted the histories and experiences of Latinx youth. We add to this research by putting it in conversation with healing-centered pedagogy (Ginwright, 2015; 2018). Ultimately, we argue that testimonios can aid in dismantling oppressive narratives and build new ones focused on Latinx youths’ joy, strengths, and successes. In doing so, they provide opportunities for history classrooms to act as spaces of radical care and healing.
Tuesday, February 11 | 12:00 to 1:00 PM | Room 1301 | Livestream
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Professor Raquel Aldana supported Winter Park high school student journalists Victoria Chi Pham and Nathan-Melik Brown as a contributor for their short documentary on the border and the need for change, "Crossing the Divide: The Struggles of Immigrants." Watch it here. | |
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Bringing Immigrants Rights Advocacy Front and Center!
Aoki fellow Giselle is a project lead on NorCal Resist's Migra Watch Rapid Response Program which responds to community reports of suspected ICE activity and, if confirmed, alerts the community to avoid the area. Media interviews help recruit volunteers but also have a further outreach for educating our immigrant neighbors!
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Know Your Rights Canvassing
We must empower our immigrant community with knowledge that can help protect them and help them navigate our complex immigration system. In fact, in an interview with CNN Border Czar Tom Homan said that immigrants are becoming more educated on their rights and it's making I.C.E.'s job harder. Let's keep it up!
Join Giselle this Saturday, February 8 at 8:30 AM for NCR'S day laborer outreach canvassing day! We will be hitting the streets to pass out important information on what to do if ICE shows up, how to access free legal services, and more, to our day laborer neighbors. Please RSVP to norcalresist@gmail.com and we will send you our meetup information.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Aoki Legal Fellow Giselle Garcia: gigarcia@ucdavis.edu
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Lambda Law Students Association Presents: Bill Smith Memorial Lecture with Alejandra Caraballo
Create a great offer by adding words like "free," "personalized," "complimentary," or "customized." A sense of urgency often helps readers take action, so consider inserting phrases like "for a limited time only" or "only 7 remaining!"
Thursday, Feb 13 | 12:00 PM | Room 1001 | RSVP
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Seminar: “Unity in Light of Diversity: Explaining the Psychological Mechanisms Behind White Women’s (Lack of) Support for pro-Latina Feminist Policy”
Monday, Feb 3 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM | Zoom & 273 SS&H | Hosted by The Global Studies and Migration Center
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Friday: AAS Brown Bag Speaker Series Features Dr. Traci Parker, "Targeting Black Love: The FBI's War on Intimacy and the Civil Rights Movement"
Beginning with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the FBI, through its COINTELPRO initiative, targeted Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the broader Civil Rights Movement. Initially focused on alleged communist affiliations, the Bureau shifted its tactics to exploit King’s personal life, including his marital infidelity, to discredit him and undermine the movement. As the 1960s unfolded, the FBI’s fixation on King’s private life intensified, extending to other Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton. The Bureau scrutinized activists’ intimate lives, seeking compromising material and employing manipulative strategies such as embedding informants in activists’ social circles, orchestrating romantic relationships, and inciting personal conflicts. This talk explores how the FBI’s investigation into King’s marital and sexual life signaled a broader strategic shift: weaponizing attacks on Black love, intimacy, and marriage to destabilize the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. By targeting the personal bonds that sustained these movements, the FBI sought to erode their resilience, weaken their solidarity, and perpetuate systemic oppression.
Dr. Traci Parker is a historian and author specializing in African American history, civil rights, and social justice. An Associate Professor of History at the University of California Davis, she is the author of Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement(2019), a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, and co-editor of The New Civil Rights Movement Reader (2023). Her forthcoming book, Revolutionary Love, examines the role of romantic love in the mid-twentieth-century Black Freedom Movement. Dr. Parker has received numerous prestigious fellowships, including the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago.
Friday, February 7 | 12:00 -1:30 PM | Hart Hall 3201 | RSVP
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Book Talk with Chicana/o/x Studies Professor Maurice Magaña:
The CHI Studies Department would like for you to join them on February 10th as they bring back their book talk! First up is Professor Maurice Magaña as he shares his book Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico.
Stop by Hart Hall and meet their new associate professor and learn about his research.
February 10 | 3:00 to 4:00 PM | Hart Hall 3201
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How can the CNRA’s Tribal Stewardship Strategy and investments in Tribal Nature Based solutions inform other institutions’ approaches to reckoning with a history of harm?
Learning from the CA Natural Resources Agency’s approach to Truth and Healing with Native Nations:
February 25 | 10:00 - 11:30 AM | 1220 Walker Hall, Gibeling Conference Room | Register
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Yolo County Black History Month Kick-Off Celebration
Yolo County is joining together with community members to celebrate the start of Black History Month. You are invited to an evening of cultural appreciation, education, and connection in Woodland. Enjoy appetizers and dinner while embracing the spirit of the occasion. The event program will include a storytelling performance, a quilt exhibit and presentation, featured speakers, and a keynote address. Participation is free, but space is limited, so please register to secure your spot.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Mari Gray, an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at California State University, East Bay. With thirty years of experience teaching and leading schools, departments, programs, and organizations across Northern California— including two California Distinguished Schools— Dr. Gray is an award-winning educator and researcher. Her scholarship focuses on the policies, practices, and systems that contribute to enduring educational inequities for minoritized students. Her latest project, The Great Migration Study, explores the experiences of African Americans who attended schools in Northern California.
Our guest speaker will be Khristel Johnson, master quilter. After 30+ years in public education, she now utilizes the medium of quilts to tell the story of African American history. Khristel has a 60+ quilt collection which she shares at schools and venues throughout the state. During Yolo County’s Black History Month, 15 quilts from her collection will be on display in locations across the county. During the kickoff celebration, three quilts will be on display.
Monday, February 3 | 5:30 - 7:30 PM | REGISTER |
YCOE Conference Center, 1280 Santa Anita Ct, Suite 120, Woodland, CA 95776
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Save-the-Date: Sacramento NLG's Ticket Defense Clinic Training
Volunteer with the Sacramento National Lawyers Guild Civil Rights Program for their ticket defense clinic! The Ticket Defense Clinic is a National Lawyers Guild project created to alleviate the oppressive and excessive criminalization of our city's most vulnerable unhoused members. Tickets pile up against them for simply sitting on the streets, trying to cook food, having an open container, having a dog, having no bathroom - the list goes on and on. In addition, tickets turn into "failures to appear" and warrants that may prevent access to social services, housing, and work opportunities. The clinic directly represents unhoused folx at no cost in criminal matters in which they are not entitled to an attorney from the Public Defender's Office.
Start by registering for their upcoming training on February 10th. All registration materials are reviewed and then you will be contacted directly with the link to the next scheduled virtual or in-person training. If you have any questions, please reach out to NLGSacramento@gmail.com
Feb 10 | 6:00 to 8:00 PM PST | Virtual | Register Here
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Immigrant Solidarity Rally
The city of Sacramento has an immigration court, I.C.E. office, and USCIS field office. We are marching to let them know this city will protect our immigrants neighbors!
Saturday, February 22 | 10:00 AM | Cesar Chavez Plaza, Sacramento
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|| Recommended Podcast || | |
Listen: Worker Organizing in the Time of Trump
The union movement is suffering from a conundrum. While the U.S public overwhelmingly supports unions, labor lacks the capacity to help workers organize and unionize. Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that there is a new and promising way of organizing from the bottom up, which emerged during Trump’s first term and flourished through Covid. He believes that with worker to worker organizing, unions could see explosive growth, even during Trump’s second term.
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Supporting the Aoki Center is an investment in a future where diversity and social justice are at the forefront of the legal profession. Contributions empower our initiatives that promote inclusivity, nurture underrepresented voices, and cultivate a legal community that reflects the rich tapestry of society. Your support matters now more than ever! | | |
Are you passionate about an issue and would love to express your thoughts and research through our Aoki Blog? We would love to collaborate with on a post!
Reach out to Giselle at gigarcia@ucdavis.edu to get started! Don't forget to check out our Aoki Blog for inspiration!
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