Prof Emeritus Barkan Article in Kennebec Journal

Professor Emeritus Steven Barkan has written an OpEd for Maine’s Kennebec Journal:

Scholars Strategy Network: Why Maine needs L.D. 2

BY STEVEN E. BARKAN

This bill would require the Legislature to assess the potential racial impact, however unintended, of any act the legislature passes.

“Systemic racism” refers to the complex interaction of societal institutions and embedded normative practices that produce racial inequality by disadvantaging Black Americans, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous peoples.

We hear this term often these days, and rightly so. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people of color across the nation have been contracting and dying from the virus at higher rates than white people. The killing of George Floyd last summer reminded Americans everywhere that Black people, and others of color, are also more likely to be killed or maimed by police and arrested for a wide range of offenses.

Read more…