Racial Justice | Penn Today

A week’s worth of online events, aimed at engaging the entire Penn community, will examine the interplay of climate change, COVID, and social injustice.

Climate Week offers something for ‘every member of the Penn community’

With participation from schools, centers, and groups across the University and a focus on the interplay of the climate emergency with social justice issues and the global pandemic, Climate Week at Penn will run September 21-25. The week’s dozens of events will help participants learn about the climate crisis—and then act.

Members of the 49ers football team kneeling on the field before a game.

Rebranding the NFL: How the league shifted its message on racial justice

The new football season brings a change in how NFL management is responding to Black Lives Matter and protests on and off the field for racial justice.

Chaz Howard finds common ground in the face of division

The University chaplain, vice president for social equity and community, and head of the University’s recently announced Projects for Progress sees hope in the face of activism invigorated by nationwide racial justice protests.

the philadelphia energy solutions refinery with the philadelphia skyline in the background

At the intersection of the built environment, environmental health, and social justice

Junior Kingsley Song and sophomore Sage Basri worked with faculty mentor Franca Trubiano this summer to learn more about the wide-reaching impacts of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery.

Illustration of a Black hand with shackle around the wrist and paper in the palm folded like a crane.

The Quattrone Center: Less argument, more truth-seeking

The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice is pioneering a systemic, data-driven approach to criminal justice reform. Its executive director, John Hollway, started with the idea that the law should function more like science.

Historical photo of Raymond Pace Alexander wearing a judge robes seated at a table over an open book.

Raymond Pace Alexander: A history of righting the wrongs

The Wharton graduate of the Class of 1920 went on the become one of Philadelphia’s leading civil rights lawyers, and had a lasting impact on the city.

Maps, pandemics, and reckoning with history

Geospatial data has long been an important tool for scientists and scholars, but now, as society grapples with both coronavirus and a history of systemic racism, can maps help chart a path toward a brighter future?

Pregnant person looks out the window with a hand on their stomach.

Pregnant Black and Hispanic women more likely to be exposed to coronavirus

Penn researchers found the rate of virus exposure among pregnant Black and Hispanic women to be five times higher than among white and Asian women.

Gridded image with "flatten the hate" written across the front and the translation in various languages around the border

Anti-discrimination task force aims to ‘flatten the hate’

Launched in April, the new Task Force on Supporting Asian and Asian American students and scholars at Penn is offering events, seminars, and resources for countering and reporting stigma and anti-Asian behavior.

Professor in front of a bookshelf filled with books

Q&A

Cancel culture on the silver screen

Iconic films like the 1939 blockbuster “Gone With the Wind” are being scrutinized in light of the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice. Cinema studies’ Meta Mazaj says framing films within context is more valuable than erasure and disclaimers.

Filters