Analyzing the Geography of Systemic Racism in an Introductory Geographic Information Systems Workshop

Abstract

Abstract Academic geospatial librarians have the potential to stimulate broader critical understanding and reflection about the racial inequities and injustices that remain inscribed in our social institutions. One way they might do so is by teaching introductory GIS workshops that explore these themes. This paper proposes one such workshop, and provides a link to a detailed sample lesson plan that other instructors can use as a template for their own teaching materials. In particular, the proposed workshop uses a publicly available dataset of traffic police stops, which has been collected and organized by the Stanford Open Policing Project, to explore and document geographic patterns in racially biased policing practices.