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Global Cry for Racial Justice

An America and the World Conversation 
February 11, 2021 - Free and Online
Featuring Todd Shaw, author and professor, along with
Chris Richardson, former U.S. diplomat and immigration attorney.

Around the world people stood in solidarity this past summer with anti-racism protesters who brought attention to the U.S. legacy of systemic racism and police brutality after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. “Black Lives Matter” ricocheted around the world and shone light on institutionalized racism in other parts of the globe. Many countries have had to reflect on their own shortcomings in dealing with race issues and the obstacles their own citizens of color face. Could George Floyd’s death result in a global call to action? Be part of the important discussion of how this summer’s protests became a global rallying cry.

Todd Shaw has been on faculty since 2003 and has appointments both in UofSC's Department of Political Science and the African American Studies Program. He was appointed the College of Arts & Science Distinguished Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies by Dean Mary Ann Fitzpatrick in August of 2012. He served as the Interim Chair and then Chair of the Department of Political Science from 2017 to 2020. He researches and teaches broadly in the areas of African American politics, urban politics, and public policy, as well as citizen activism and social movements. Shaw's current research agenda explores the political, sociological, and ideological ramifications of changes in the late 20^th century and early 21^st century African American community. Specifically, he is very interested in how class, gender, age and other social factors create differing definitions of what constitutes African American group interests and how groups of African Americans and their allies have acted upon these perceived interests. Toward these ends, his book Now Is the Time! Detroit Black Politics and Grassroots Activism (Duke University Press, 2009) explores the dynamics between black grassroots housing activism and the responsiveness of black elected officials in Detroit, MI and other sister cities.  This book received the W.E.B. DuBois Best Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.  He also co-authored a textbook with Louis DeSipio, Dianne Pinderhughes, and Toni-Michelle Travis entitled Uneven Roads:  An Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics (CQ Press, 2012). And he is the lead editor with Robert Brown and Joseph McCormick on the edited volume After Obama:  African American Politics in a Post-Obama Era (New York University Press, 2020.) Shaw has also published in a number of scholarly journals. He currently is working on a fourth book project that explores how differing social or community spaces – neighborhoods, civic and social groups, as well as social media – provide different incentives for African Americans to foment group solidarity and social ties and in turn to civically and politically participate in local democracy in the city of Atlanta, Georgia and across the U.S.  He is the recipient of a number of awards.

Chris Richardson is a former U.S. Diplomat, prominent immigration attorney, and Co-Founder of the world’s leading remote video immigration consulting technology company, Argo Visa LLC. Richardson served in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Spain as a Consular Officer. He was an American Citizens Services Chief, a visa officer, Deputy Nonimmigrant Visas Chief, Acting Nonimmigrant Visas Chief for the largest visa post in Africa (Lagos, Nigeria), Immigrant Visas Chief, and a Deputy Consular Section Chief. Throughout his time in the Foreign Service, Richardson managed hundreds of officers and local staff in some of the most dangerous postings in the world. He also investigated several high-profile fraud rings including at least two that involved members of the U.S. missions abroad. More critically, Richardson managed Post responses to crisis situations including terrorist attacks, plane crashes, violent national unrest, bombings, rapes, murders, kidnappings, and hundreds of death cases involving Americans who died abroad. For his service, Richardson won several awards including Meritorious Honors Awards and a Superior Honors Award.

Richardson has been featured in Mother Jones, Slate Magazine, Reuters, NPR, Embedded, All Things Considered, SCOTUS Blog, BBC, Georgia Public Radio, Intercept, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has also been interviewed by the New York Times, CNN and CBS.  Richardson has written several well-received opinion columns for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, SlateMagazine, Chicago Sun-Times, The Hill, and the Nation regarding immigration policy and the issue of diversity at the State Department and has advised U.S. Senators and House members on a wide range of immigration and State Department issues. Richardson resigned in protest due to President Trump’s Muslim Ban and the President’s derogatory statements about African countries. Immediately upon resigning, he drafted an affidavit against the Muslim Ban which was cited by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in Trump v. Hawaii. After his resignation, he started a technology company that focused on remote video technology and immigration consulting.  

A native of South Carolina, Richardson serves on the Board of Directors for Upstate Forever (an environmental group), Upstate International, and the Hispanic Alliance. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University in 2003. He is also the co-author of the Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement (2014) and lectured on the American Civil Rights Movement at universities and colleges across the globe.

Richardson is currently the General Counsel and COO of BDV Soultions, LLC, an immigration consulting firm.

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