Restorative Justice: What's Race Got to Do with It?

Fania E. Davis

In this discussion, Fania E. Davis, Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, will focus on the contemporary U.S. restorative justice movement and race.  Are some of the historical roots of the restorative justice movement found in the civil rights movement or is it a thing apart? Why has so much been written about restorative justice yet virtually nothing having to do with race?  Does this new – but ancient – paradigm of justice that privileges healing over punitive responses to wrongdoing have the potential to push back the "New Jim Crow" and render mass incarceration (particularly of African American males) obsolete?  If not, why not?  If so, how so, and what are the challenges and potential pitfalls?