May 6, 2018 Human Rights Forum on Racism

It is now clear that the Trump administration refuses to submit its report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The deadline for the report was November 20, 2017, and the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (MCLI) has requested that the Trump administration and CERD provide us information on the status of the report. Thus far we have received no responses from our inquiries, and there has been no news of a report having been submitted. The only logical conclusion is that the Trump administration has no intention to submit a report.

MCLI continues to reach out to the community to ensure that all forms of racism by the federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. are included in a shadow report to be submitted by MCLI and allies working in communities experiencing racism at the hands of the government.

Our previous Human Rights Forums on Racism were held in North Oakland and West Oakland. Our next forum will be in East Oakland near The Village in Oakland encampment Two Three Hunid Ohlone Village (TTHOV). All of the residents at TTHOV are people of color, and by having this forum close to the encampment MCLI looks forward to exploring the intersections between racism, poverty, and homelessness.

According to the U.S. Census, Oakland is one of the most racially diverse cities in America. Because of this, holding these forums in different parts of Oakland enables MCLI to reach communities who have multifaceted experiences with systemic racism thus giving a broad spectrum of lived experiences related to numerous forms of racial oppression.