Dr. David Stovall presented a view of the marginalizing race-relations between people of color and the State, in areas such as education, the law and the workforce to a crowded room of over 100 students and faculty members at Diablo Valley College on Feb. 26.

Stovall, an African-American studies and educational policy studies professor at the University of Illinois, prompted one-on-one conversations with individuals in the audience and opened up the room to a public conversation challenging “American ideals.” Stovall described flaws he noticed in many aspects of the current American political sphere, specifically focusing on those found in the United States’ current education system, in which he has been active figure.

Stovall referenced many unique facts in his presentation, from how the word “capitalism” was banned in the Texas school system to how “it costs an average of $80,000 to imprison an individual, but $25,000 to provide a high quality education.” 

By keeping the mostly young audience laughing with his anecdotes on the use of Twitter, the banned access of YouTube at the high school he taught at in Chicago (and how his students were able to access it anyway), as well as his trouble finding parking that morning at the notoriously overcrowded DVC parking lot, Stovall was able to balance the conversation in the room and keep everyone engaged while bringing their attention to the deeper areas of the discussion by relating to the audience on a human level.

Stovall highlighted the many areas of American demographics and societal distribution in the economic and political sphere that are frequently overlooked. When bringing the room’s focus on the Eric Garner case, Stovall cited how Ferguson, Missouri’s population is 65% Black, 20% White and 15% other ethnicities, yet every council member in the school district’s board is White and 85% of the teachers in Ferguson are White.

Many students participated in the discussion as well as in the question and answer session when the speech was over. Political science major, Steve Staton, 55, shared his sentiments about his upbringing in the racially segregated South.

“I grew up in the south and saw race riots as well as desegregation and we have come a long way as people, yet we still have a long way to go,” he said.

Political science major Tarek Elgendi, 19, was thankful for the guest speaker’s powerful insights and was glad that fellow students were able to see the guest speaker at DVC.

“I’m interested in the subjects he touched on,” he said. “I think its cool that we discussed these things because these aren’t topics we would normally talk about without having someone like David Stovall facilitating the conversation.”