As part of Western Michigan University Cooley Law School’s monthly Community Conversations, a discussion on the past and present relationship between race and society was held on Friday, February 18. The guest speaker was University of South Florida professor David Ponton and was held in celebration of Black History Month.
“Black history is not the story of a people, but the analysis of a racial, anti-black structure and critical stance toward history itself as a tool that maintains that structure,” said Ponton.
Ponton used a historical lens to give context to systemic issues of the history of being Black in America. Ponton evaluated many examples, including Dred Scott v. Sanford, to ask what it meant to be Black in 1856.
“We want to thank Dr. Ponton for sharing all of the wonderful information,” said WMU-Cooley Professor Joseline Hardrick. “Addressing Dred Scott was particularly appropriate for law students and staff to hear.”
Additionally, Ponton discussed the limitations for Black people with housing, education, business financing, dating and marriage markets, health care and so on.
“We’re mourning the loss of Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor, said Ponton. “People in our country can point to material changes, but they can’t argue definitively that there hasn’t been a structural change that has redefined what it means to be black.”
The full presentation can be viewed at WMU-Cooley’s YouTube channel.
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