Cerritos College held a workshop discussing the issues of Racial Justice, Intersectionality, Reparations, Abolition and other felonious ideas on April 4 at the Performing Arts Center.

The Black/Africana studies department brought on special guest Robert Davis Gibran Kelly, American history Professor at UCLA, who spoke to attendees.

“Some people who are running the universities who are president … if you look at them in what they do. They don’t do a lot, you know, often very mediocre,” Kelley said.

“Where some of these people who clean these buildings know a lot more and have a lot more talent than people who run the ship.”

Kelly also discussed the median annual salary for black households.

“… The median wealth … where it’s for black and brown people, black people it’s about, depending what state you are in it’s really like, could be like 2,000, 5,000 or in case of black women it can be zero … so you have to think really hard and don’t be tricked by statistics.”

Kelly brought up Florida’s House Bill 999 which eliminates majors such as Queer Studies, Gender Studies, Critical Theory, Racial Gender Theory and so on.

He explains why those majors are important to society, not only Florida,

“… forgive me for saying this but I’m telling the truth, I never lie, ever … this is why I say leave that bill 999, buried in that bill is another agenda. And that is following to transform the entire state college system into inches market fundamentalism in privatization beholden to business.”

Kelly was asked what people could do with those particular majors when applying for jobs, as well as the pay rate being low due to other professors striking for raises and other majors earning more than others.

Kelly responded to the question by saying, “That is true but there’s a couple things in there. One has to do with higher hierarchy… we live in a country that does value our children …if you look again at bill 999 there’s a whole thing about stem.”

“About putting money into technology, science and enterprise. As opposed to taking money away from things that we are associated with humanities like critical studies, period …”

As Kelly finished his statement, a follow-up question arose regarding his answer.

Kelly was asked about the famous statement made by Obama on June 15, 2008, in which Obama states

“children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”

Kelly looked starstruck and said, “That is actually a very problematic statement by President Obama” in which he refused to answer the question by picking another question from the audience.