Dangerous Truths: New Perspectives on America’s History

Submitted by the Event Organizer

The Human Rights Working Group and the Forum Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco will present a series of programs on new perspectives about the history of the United States. Join us on Sunday, February 27 at 1PM Pacific Time on Zoom for two hour-long discussions about The Doctrine of Discovery and Critical Race Theory that connect the dots on the history of laws perpetuating systemic racism and oppression.

Paul Magid will speak on The Doctrine of Discovery at 1pm PT
Judge Angela Robinson (Ret.) will speak on Critical Race Theory at 2pm PT

The Doctrine of Discovery was codified in 15th century Papal bulls, such as Dum Diversas (1452) and Romanus Pontifex (1455), that called for non-Christian peoples to be invaded, captured, vanquished, subdued, reduced to perpetual slavery, and to have their possessions and property seized by Christian monarchs. Such ideology led to practices that continue unabated in the form of modern day laws and policies of successor States.

Fox News has mentioned “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) over 1,300 times in the latter half of 2021. States are passing laws to ban its teaching. Why? Because focusing popular discourse on CRT has become a new strategy to incite fear in people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present. we want to open an honest discourse on what it is and what it is not. We defend the right to a critical investigation and discussion of our common history.

Mr. Magid is an author, thespian, playwright and historian. He has worked and collaborated with Native Nations throughout the Greater NorthWest. He graduated from the UC Santa Cruz where he studied theatre, literature, and medieval Islamic History. His special research focus is the 15th Century Papal Bull known as The Doctrine of Discovery: “The History of the Christian Legal Justification for Native American Land Seizure and Genocide, Commercial Slavery, and the Contemporary Legal Basis of Continued State Racism”.

Judge Robinson is a Visiting Professor and a Waring and Carmen Partridge Faculty Fellow at Quinnipiac University. She teaches Evidence, and Critical Race Theory. Prior to joining the Quinnipiac faculty, she was a Connecticut Superior Court Judge for twenty years. Robinson’s work focuses on civil litigation-related subjects, and social justice subjects implicated by racial equity issues, including critical race theory, race and the law and diversity, equity and inclusion within the legal profession.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.