2025 Anti-Racism Day

2025 Anti-Racism Day: Toward a More Just Future

Date

Friday, February 21, 2025

Program

Welcome and Introduction

10 a.m. | Belson Moot Court Room

• Dean & Rose DiMartino and Karen Sue Smith Professor of Law Jelani Jefferson Exum
• Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Vernadette Horne

Keynote Address

10:20 a.m. | Belson Moot Court Room 

Anu Gupta, Founder & CEO, BE MORE with Anu

Concurrent Sessions I

11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. 

Choose One:
Expanding Access in Investing and Capital Formation (Room 1-13)
This panel will examine the 5th Circuit’s recent decision in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC, which struck down the Nasdaq board diversity rules issued by the SEC. We will also discuss how the investor landscape is changing and the challenges founders of color face when raising capital.

Moderator:
Professor Christine Lazaro

Panelists:

• Professor Catherine Baylin Duryea
• Cindy Chen Delano ‘04, President, Titan Peony

Criminalizing Migration: Racialized Policies and New York’s Response in a Shifting Political Landscape (Room 1-15)
This panel will explore the criminalization of migrants in the context of anticipated political changes over the next four years. Panelists will discuss the racialized dimensions of these policies, the changes already underway, and the implications for immigrants living in New York. The conversation will focus on how migration control tactics have evolved, the broader systemic issues driving these shifts, and what lies ahead for advocacy and legal responses in the state.  

Moderator: 
Professor Ashley B. Armstrong

Panelists: 

• Shabel Castro, Foderaro Post-Conviction Litigation Fellow, The Innocence Project
• Anjelica Mantikas ‘18, Senior Staff Attorney, Safe Passage Project
• Zayda Torres ’26, Student, St. John’s Law

13th Forward Campaign to End Forced Labor in Prisons (Room LL-01)
The use of incarcerated people to produce goods and services for little or no wages has existed in New York for over 200 years. Although slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827, New York has an insidious exception in our state constitution that continues to require all who are “physically capable” to work for the state under a system that is akin to modern-day slavery. Today, over 31,000 incarcerated New Yorkers are forced to work under the threat of punishment for as little as $0.10 per hour – before their wages are garnished to pay fines and fees – wages that can only be called “slave wages”. Come hear from formerly incarcerated people who are leading the 13th Forward, a campaign to abolish enslaved labor in New York State prisons. They will discuss their experience in prison, the urgent need to abolish enslaved labor, and their campaign for doing so.

Moderators: 

• Professor Martin J. LaFalce
• Professor Evelyn Malavé

Panelists: 

• Bryant Bell, Paralegal Casehandler, Decarceration Project, The Legal Aid Society; Wrongful Conviction Survivor 
• Curtis Bell, Civil Rights Advocate and Lecturer 
• Donna Hylton, President & CEO, A Little Piece of Light

Lunch 

1 to 2 p.m. | Ground Floor Solarium

Concurrent Sessions II

2:15 to 3:30 p.m. 

Choose One:
What Does an Anti-Racism Day Mean in the Nation’s New Political Climate? (Room 1-13) 
Can we become a colorblind nation when we have never been one? Can we base success on merit rather than on identity politics when it has never been done before in our nation? What do we do about the way that race has been socially engineered into every aspect of public and private life?

Panelists:

• Professor Tyler Rose Clemons
• Professor Philip Lee
• Professor Abel Rodríguez
• Professor Cheryl L. Wade

A Conversation on Reparations for Black Americans with Professor Mark Niles and Columbia Professor and New York Times columnist John McWhorter (Room 1-15) 
For this panel, Professor Mark C. Niles (St. John’s Law) and Professor John McWhorter (Columbia University) will discuss—and maybe debate a little—various ideas regarding provision of reparations for Black Americans based on institutional racism suffered by them and their families. The discussion will include the pros and cons of some specific proposals for what such reparations would look like.

Panelists:

• Professor Mark C. Niles 
• John McWhorter, Associate Professor, Columbia University; Columnist, The New York Times

Executive DisOrder: The Impact of Changing Federal Policies on New York’s Immigrant Children and Families (Room LL-01)
With sweeping law and policy changes rolling out daily, the need to understand the racial implications of such measures is urgent. This panel will examine the legal, social, moral, and practical implications of the new changes to federal immigration law on New York’s most vulnerable population: immigrant children and families.

Moderators: 

• Professor Anna Arons
• Professor Jennifer Baum

Panelists:

• Hon. Connie Gonzalez, Judge, Queens County Family Court 
• Dr. Edward Fernandez, Psy.D., Principal, Five Borough Forensics
• Javeria Ahmad, Training & Technical Assistance Managing Attorney, East Coast Staff, Immigrant Justice Corps

More Information

For more information about the 2025 Anti-Racism Day at St. John's Law, please contact Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Vernadette Horne at hornev@stjohns.edu