Claytee White sits in a chair and gestures toward a woman sitting to her right

UNLV Newsmakers 2020: Social Justice

A sampling of university experts who sounded off on the year’s monumental movements surrounding race, ethnicity, and gender.

Claytee White, director of UNLV's Oral History Research Center, hosts "We Need to Talk: Conversations on Racism for a More Resilient Las Vegas," a virtual panel discussion series organized by UNLV University Libraries and the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. (Lonnie Timmons III/ UNLV Creative Services)

The coronavirus pandemic wasn’t the only topic troubling the nation in 2020. 

Headlines about social unrest rivaled social distancing, as mass quarantines — and the resulting spotlight on social media — turned Americans’ attention to videos and other news capturing racism, police brutality, and other social disparities.

UNLV experts helped lend context to news reports on subjects including the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the health of minority populations, social media campaigns calling for support of civil rights advocates and Black-owned businesses, America’s history of slavery and segregation, federal legislation attempting to bar immigrants from the country, and more.

Here are just a few UNLV experts in that realm who made the news in 2020:

Black Lives Matter Movement

The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis prompted several weeks of Black Lives Matter protests around the world, during which demonstrators called for an end to  systemic racism and police brutality. UNLV faculty broke down multiple facets of the movement, as well as the history of the Civil Rights Movement, calls to defund the police, and ways to actively practice anti-racism.

Tyler D. Parry, professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Frank Rudy Cooper, director of the Program on Race, Gender & Policing at UNLV

Tamara D. Herold, associate director of UNLV’s Center for Crime and Justice Policy

Claytee D. White, director of UNLV’s Oral History Research Center

Kenneth J. Varner, professor of literacy education

Javon Johnson, director, African American and African Diaspora Studies

William Sousa, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy

Addie Rolnick, professor of law

Robert Futrell, sociology professor and extremist group expert

Health

Question: What do you get when you combine protests, police brutality, a history of racism in health care, and the COVID-19 pandemic? Answer: Conditions that, experts say, disproportionately impact the physical health and mental well-being of people of color. UNLV professors across multiple disciplines helped journalists parse the various nuances.

  • Melva Thompson-Robinson, a School of Public Health professor and executive director of UNLV’s Center for Health Disparities Research, and African American and African Diaspora Studies professor Tyler D. Parry explained how race plays a part in medicine on KTNV-TV: ABC 13.

    Thompson-Robinson also was featured in: 
  • Angela Amar, dean of the School of Nursing, sat down with PHLV Radio for a discussion about racism and nursing.
  • UNLV Medicine professor Dr. Rajany Dy told KLAS-TV: 8 News Now that coronavirus patients in Southern Nevada intensive care units are predominantly Hispanic.
  • UNLV Immigration Clinic fellow Paloma Guerrero talked to KNPR about COVID-19’s impact on members of the Latinx community who are essential workers.
  • Public health professor Francisco Sy described his personal experiences with racialization of the coronavirus, and resulting increases in anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment, with the Las Vegas Sun.

Business

When protests took center stage this summer, so did social media traffic, television commercials, and other media that encouraged consumers to put their money where their mouth is and spend their dollars at Black-owned businesses. Other media reports highlighted how the U.S.’s history of race relations and sex discrimination impacted business operations elsewhere. Faculty experts across multiple disciplines weighed in.

  • UNLV political scientist and former Congressional Black Caucus Foundation small business research fellow Tiffiany Howard explained to The Nevada Independent, KCBS Radio, Authority Magazine, Forbes, and Axios how Black entrepreneurship can help bridge the racial wealth gap. She also discussed whether summer support for Black businesses would survive through the holiday season with The Hill.
  • Fashion historian Deirdre Clemente talked to Business Insider and Yahoo! News about the racist history of dress codes.
  • KSNV-TV: News 3 interviewed law professor Stewart Chang about a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring workplace discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
  • Tax attorney Francine Lipman discussed how federal, state, and local tax policies uphold the racial wealth gap, preventing African Americans from accumulating the money needed to thrive, with The Podvocate. She explained to Bloomberg and the Las Vegas Sun how IRS tax code inequities and exclusion from COVID-19 stimulus payouts impacted undocumented Nevadans.
  • Gender and ethnic studies professor Erika Abad and immigration law expert Paloma Guerrero spoke to KNPR’s Latinos Who Lunch podcast about the impact of Nevada’s growing Latinx population on culture, business and politics.
  • Law professor Leslie C. Griffin wrote about a First Amendment rule that allows race discrimination cases against religious organizations to be dismissed for Verdict (twice), as well as about sexual orientation discrimination laws (Verdict).
  • Philosophy professor Amy Reed-Sandoval and anthropology professor Ivan Sandoval-Cervantes penned an essay for Salon about Americans’ celebration of immigrant cuisine while ignoring immigrant oppression. Reed-Sandoval also wrote about undocumented migrant farmworkers for The Nevada Independent, and Daily Nous covered her launch of a series of free online philosophy courses for Spanish-speaking youth.

Community

UNLV Libraries and the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs partnered this fall on “We Need to Talk: Conversations on Racism for a More Resilient Las Vegas,” a virtual educational series that featured university and community experts discussing race and seeking solutions for a more inclusive society. Topics include race-related media coverage, economics, health care, criminal justice, education, and how we move forward. The series was hosted by Claytee White, director of the UNLV Oral History Research Center, who was also instrumental this year in lending context to local happenings, such as the history of race relations in Southern Nevada, renewed interest in Juneteenth celebrations, historical voting behavior among local minority populations, and plans to display signage of and sell the site of the Moulin Rouge (Las Vegas’ first racially integrated casino).

Legal Affairs

The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law spent much of 2020 in the throes of legal battles to protect the rights of indigenous and immigrant populations. 

UNLV Changes 

UNLV, like many other institutions around the country, responded to calls for social and racial justice. In June, university leadership acted on longstanding conversations with campus and community stakeholder groups, and removed the Hey Reb! Statue in front of the Tam Alumni Center on the main campus. Weeks later, UNLV established the Anti-Black Racism Task Force to proactively address issues of racism and hate, promote inclusion and understanding, and support students, faculty, and staff of color.

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Topics:

diversity, equity, and inclusion, newsmakers, society and culture

Campus Units:

Department of Anthropology,  Department of Criminal Justice,  College of Education,  Department of History,  William F. Harrah College of Hospitality,  Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies,  William S. Boyd School of Law,  College of Liberal Arts,  University Libraries,  Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV,  School of Nursing,  Department of Philosophy,  Department of Political Science,  School of Public Health,  Department of Sociology,  Greenspun College of Urban Affairs,  Center for Health Disparities Research

Related News:

UNLV Newsmakers 2020: Research and Economic Development, UNLV Newsmakers 2020: Combatting COVID-19, UNLV Newsmakers 2020: Brian Labus Edition, UNLV Newsmakers 2020: People, UNLV Newsmakers 2020: Politics

Related Experts:

Stewart Chang ,  Deirdre Clemente ,  Frank Rudy Cooper ,  Robert Futrell ,  Tiffiany Howard ,  Javon Johnson ,  Michael Kagan ,  Francine J. Lipman ,  David Orentlicher ,  Tyler D. Parry ,  Amy Reed-Sandoval ,  Addie Rolnick ,  Iván Sandoval-Cervantes ,  William Sousa ,  Melva Thompson-Robinson ,  Kenneth J. Varner

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