Council for Racial & Social Justice - California Faculty Association

The Council for Racial & Social Justice promotes and supports anti-racism & social justice in the CSU and CFA. To this end:

The Council is committed to dismantling oppression based on Age, Ancestry, Caste, Color, Disability, Ethnicity, Gender, Gender Expression, Gender Identity, Genetic Information, Marital Status, Medical Condition, Military Status, Nationality, Race, Religion, Religious Creed, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Sex Stereotype, and Veteran Status.  (Consistent with Article 16.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement). The Council’s responsibilities include being vigilant, assuming leadership, organizing, and taking action to ensure CFA’s goals toward the promotion of racially and socially just practices.

The Council cultivates the ARSJ lens throughout our CFA work. The lens helps direct the creation of new initiatives within the organization. The Council also works diligently to promote Anti-Racism and Social Justice throughout the CSU.

Save the Date!
2026 Equity Conference

Thriving Through the Chaos: Resistance During Turbulent Times

Virtual Conference | Thursday, March 12 to Saturday March 14, 2026

This year’s virtual conference will explore the ways we thrive together, how we move purposefully through the chaos, and maintain our focus to resist as a collective. Together, we remember that we are the power, we are united in purpose, and we are enough!
Speakers and workshop presentations will wrestle with these concepts and prepare conference attendees for active resistance:
Thrive – We see a value in the word “thrive” to signal ways to move together united in purpose with care, courage, security, and joy. Making space for joy is not an afterthought: it is a core strategy for maintaining our solidarity.
Chaos – The “chaos” refers to rising fascism and the speed at which harmful attacks are being enacted with the intention of breaking our solidarity. The rising fascism is intensive and is also rooted ongoing systemic structures and histories of racism, classism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, and xenophobia, At the university, we know the chaos is about the university-level budget cuts and the lack of participatory budgeting; surveillance; and silencing. If the chaos is intersectional, so too is our resistance.
Resistance – Thus, we see value in understanding “resistance” as collective action. Fear is an important response, but we envision how to move from being afraid to inhabiting purposeful anger and unifying power. We will not comply in advance; we will imagine and rise together and build better structures, institutions, and systems.
Community – Without community, we fall. Community is understood here in both the global and local sense: how do we connect with community to support each other, build structures for resistance, and new systems.
Mark your calendars to save the dates. The registration is coming soon. In the meantime, Please contact your CFA Chapter Council for Racial and Social Justice Representative and Field Staff so that they can make sure you receive the registration link when it is available.

Join Our Work!

Looking for more ways to get involved? Start here!

Equity Conference

The Equity Conference connects CFA members for co-liberation. The now-annual event reflects the concerted efforts undertaken over the last several years to center Anti-Racism & Social Justice in all things CFA, beginning with the recognition that racism and white supremacy are institutionalized in our organization and a commitment to what we call our Anti-Racism & Social Justice Transformation. Equity Conference Album (Facebook)

Meet the Team

a woman in glasses with curly hair in a light floral shirt

Preeti Sharma

CFA Associate Vice President, Racial & Social Justice, South

Audrena Redmond

Director for Anti-Racism & Social Justice

A woman in a white shirt holding a laptop, smiles for a portrait

Cailey Bronny

Anti-Racism & Social Justice Administrative Assistant

Chris Cox

CFA Associate Vice President, Racial & Social Justice, North

woman in a blue dress and black hair poses for a photo

N'dea Johnson

Program Director of Anti-Racism & Social Justice

Adrian Parra

Anti-Racism & Social Justice Regional Organizer

Council Information (PDFs)

Mission & bylaws

CFA’s caucuses & membership

Council's Structure Chart

Representative job description

History & Progress Presenation

“Nothing about us without us is for us.”
South African Slogan

Host a workshop

The CFA workshops are designed to explore the complexities of white supremacy, racism, and privilege in the California State University workplace and to understand the theories that inform these complex topics. The workshops are an opportunity to build awareness by strengthening individual and institutional anti-racism practices, improving the university environment.

Workshop topics & inquiries

CFA 101 introduces participants to the founding of the largest higher education faculty union in the United States and its continuous transformation. This workshop is designed for all CFA leaders and activists but especially those who are new and newer CFA activists and leaders who want to understand our unionism, members curious to learn about CFA’s steady and conscientious shift to anti-racism and social justice transformation, and those that want to engage in collective bargaining for “terms and conditions of employment” while shaping public policies on and off campus.

The Interrupting Racism: An Anti-Racism Workshop centers race for the disruption of racialized hierarchies and narratives. This is a three-part workshop series with each part being 2 hours. Parts 1 and 2 are often combined for one 4-hour workshop.

A Journey into Change: An Unconscious Bias Workshop is a four-hour experience exploring participants’ unconscious biases and preferences, and how they manifest in micro-aggressions that interfere with the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty.

In the Understanding Privilege workshop, participants explore their intersectional identities and ways to dismantle systems of privilege and oppression. This workshop is 2.5 hours long.

Critical Race Theory addresses the current myths surrounding this well established theory by exploring the rationale, tenets, and historical and present day application. This workshop is 2.5 hours long.

Allies, Co-Conspirators, and Accomplices focuses on what it means to make a positive difference. We examine the roles of allies, accomplices, and co-conspirators—how they differ, the risks and responsibilities they each carry, and how to move yourself and others to high-impact roles. Through reflective case-studies, participants will consider where solidarity requires stepping beyond their own experiences and comfort levels. This workshop is 1.5 hours long.

We See Us: Social Justice Unionism teaches how to communicate the purpose of unionism in the context of justice, reflecting on how your experiences of privilege and oppression inform your activism, clarifying what being part of a union means, and, at the same time, being part of societal change.

To inquire about scheduling for committee, department, college, or other groups, including university administrators please submit a request. Note: Requests made by those other than unit 3 faculty will incur a fee for the workshop as well as travel costs for facilitators.

For more information, email Audrena Redmond, Director of Programs for Anti-racism, and Social Justice at aredmond@calfac.org and Administrative Assistant, Cailey Bronny at cbronny@calfac.org.

Request a Workshop

Workshop Menu

Visit Council Caucus Pages

Learn more about CFA caucuses.

APIDA Caucus

Black Caucus

Chicanx/Latinx Caucus

Adrienne Maree Brown

“E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G — is connected. The soil needs rain, organic matter, air, worms and life in order to do what it needs to do to give and receive life. Each element is an essential component. “Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education. Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything, that we need each other—at our highest natural glory—in order to get free.”

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change,

“Every society needs educated people, but the primary responsibility of educated people is to bring wisdom back into the community and make it available to others so that the lives they are leading make sense.”
Vine Deloria Jr.

Useful Resources

Community Wellbeing Toolkit

The “Cultural Taxation” of Faculty of Color in the Academy

By Cecil Canton, CFA Associate VP – Affirmative Action
From California Faculty magazine, Fall 2013

Article 20, the Workload Article of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Board of Trustees of the CSU and the California Faculty Association speaks to the professional responsibility of instructional faculty:

“The primary professional responsibilities of instructional faculty members are: teaching, research, creative activity and service to the University and to the community.” (Workload, Article 20, Section 20.1)

This definition of faculty responsibility is generally accepted in almost any higher education venue across the United States. One must admit to a certain simple elegance with this definition.

The phrase “and service to the University and to the community” is so muted and subtle, that it is accepted without question or much discussion. It lulls us into a kind of intellectual somnambulence as we toil to make manifest its meaning in our professional lives.

Diversity Research in the CSU

Equity Report 2022

Connecting for Co-Liberation

Connecting for Co-Liberation
“If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” ― Australian Aboriginal Elder Lilla Watson
The CFA Council for Racial and Social Justice has played an integral part in the union’s concerted transformation toward Anti-racism and Social Justice efforts in all things CFA, beginning with the recognition that racism and white supremacy are institutionalized in our organization and a commitment to Anti-Racism Social Justice Transformation.

The books, articles, videos and podcast listed here are a reflection of the intersectional framework that informed the development of the anti-racist and social justice lens we presently apply to our work as a social justice union.

We seek to respond to the “resurgence of racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and White supremacist discourses in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election” and to build upon the resistance expressed by progressive activists across the country. The times have called for us to connect for co-liberation a merging of the notions of belonging and bridging (cf John Powell, Facing Race) and of redefining difference as a source of power (Audre Lorde). Our oppressions are linked in a matrix of domination, therefore, so too are our freedoms. This envisioning inspires us to call on CFA members to organize in a new, distinctive way. Instead of working within individual caucuses (e.g., Asian/Pacific Islander, Women’s, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender, Chicanx/Latinx, Indigenous Peoples, Disability, African American and Teacher Education) our caucuses are digging in for co-liberation.

The study hall tools listed here are organized first by three key intersectional themes that informed the CFA 2020 equity conference followed by links to our caucuses and resources they identified. We hope you will find these resources helpful as you too embark on the journey for co-liberation.

We look forward to working with you to create the world where we all thrive.

Decolonization, Liberation, Joy and Resistance

Articles

Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race in The Guardian
How we learned history in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Comeback as Re-Settlement: Detroit, Anti-Blackness, and Settler Colonialism from Social Science Research Council items
Andrew Yang is Wrong: Respectability Politics Won’t Save Asian Americans from Racist Violence
The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, Rodolfo Acuña
On Indian Ground: California: A Return to Indigenous Knowledge-Generating Hope, Leadership.., Joely Proudfit and Nicole Quinderro Myers-Lim.

Books & Publications

How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi
Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
Emergent Strategies and Pleasure Activism both by Adrienne Maree Brown
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement – Angela Davis
Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity – Daniel HoSang and Joseph Lowndes
Halal if You Hear Me: The Breakbeat Poets, Vols. 3 – Fatimah Asghar & Safia Elhillo
*Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars’ Resistance and Renewal in Academia, – co-edited by Wei Ming Dariotis
The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, Rodolfo Acuña
On Indian Ground: California: A Return to Indigenous Knowledge-Generating Hope, Leadership.., Joely Proudfit and Nicole Quinderro Myers-Lim
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming – Winona LaDuke
Come Together: The Years of Gay Liberation 1970-73 – Aubrey Walter
Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights, with 21 Activities (For Kids series) by Jerome Pohlen
Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children by Rachel Pepper
Trans Kids and Teens: Pride, Joy, and Families in Transition by Elijah C. Nealy
Call Me Max (Max and Friends Book 1)
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming – Winona LaDuke
Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left – Emily Hobson

Organization

SONG

Videos

Intersectional Continuums of Violence & Power

Podcasts

Intersectionality Matters with Kimberle Crenshaw
Under The Black Light with The African American Policy Forum

Books & Publications

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
White by Law by Ian Haney-Lopez
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
City of Inmates by Kelly Lytle Hernandez
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, Alana You-Ian Price
Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness Across the Disciplines by Daniel HoSang (with Kimberle Crenshaw, Luke Harris and George Lipsitz)
Justice Doesn’t Trickle Down: How Racialized and Gender Rules Are Holding Women Back by Andrea Flynn
Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity – Daniel HoSang and Joseph Lowndes
Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants
Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua
Capitalism and Disability by Marta Russell
Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People – Frances Ryan
There There by Tommy Orange
What Does God Think? Transgender People and The Bible by Cheryl B. Evans
Gender Shrapnel in the Academic Workplace by Ellen Cecilia Mayoc
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia

Articles

Letter from a Birmingham jail by the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute (Stanford)
The Coronavirus Pandemic Demonstrates the Failures of Capitalism
Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety
Racism in the Time of COVID-19
Anti-Asian Racism in the 1817 Cholera Pandemic

Organizations

Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center

(In)/(Hyper)Visibility

Articles

Videos

The Dangers of A Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Books & Publications

Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness Across the Disciplines by Daniel HoSang (with Kimberle Crenshaw, Luke Harris and George Lipsitz)
Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body – Lennard Davis
What Does God Think? Transgender People and The Bible by Cheryl B. Evans

Putting ARSJT into action

Podcasts

Radio Free CSU by CFA
Codeswitch with NPR
Under The Black Light with The African American Policy Forum

Videos

The Dangers of A Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Othering & Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
Deconstructing White Privilege by Robin DiAngelo
We Must Talk About Race to Fix Economic Inequality by Demos
Dismantling the Fulcrum of White Supremacy with Scot Nakagawa
Why race matters and how to talk about it with Alex Kajitani
The Event: How Racist Are You? with Jane Elliott
K-12 ethnic studies teacher preparation webinar series w/ Theresa Montano

Books & Publications

How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi
Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
How to Be Less Stupid About Race by Crystal Fleming
Race and Equity Toolkit by Madison YWCA
How We Get Free edited by Keeanga -Yamahtta Taylor
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement – Angela Davis
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective – Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader, Jean Yu-Wen Shen Wu and Thomas Chen (Editors)
The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, Rodolfo Acuña (As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock , Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming – Winona LaDuke
Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left – Emily Hobson
A Guide to Gender: The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook by Sam Killerman
A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill & Rachel Pepper
Gender Politics: Citizenship, Activism, and Sexual Diversity – Surya Monro.

Articles

Letter from a Birmingham jail by the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute (Stanford)
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race in The Guardian
Othering and Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
Comeback as Re-Settlement: Detroit, Anti-Blackness, and Settler Colonialism from Social Science Research Council items.

Videos

Woke Black Folk by Funmilola Fagbamila – https://youtu.be/GbAkBsCHY1U

Organizations

Black Caucus Resource

Podcasts

New York Times 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Under The Black Light with The African American Policy Forum

Videos

Othering & Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee

Books & Publications

How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi
White by Law by Ian Haney-Lopez
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
City of Inmates by Kelly Lytle Hernandez
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, Alana You-Ian Price
The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys by Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks
This Bridge Called My Back, Cherie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia.

Articles

Letter from a Birmingham jail by the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute (Stanford)
How we learned history in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Othering and Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
Comeback as Re-Settlement: Detroit, Anti-Blackness, and Settler Colonialism from Social Science Research Council items.

Organizations

APIDA Caucus Resources

Chicanx/Latinx Caucus Resources

Books & Publications

City of Inmates by Kelly Lytle Hernandez
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, Alana You-Ian
The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, Rodolfo Acuña
Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants
Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua
“All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Videos

K-12 ethnic studies teacher preparation webinar series w/ Theresa Montano
Lemon Grove incident
Soy Chicano

Disability Caucus Resources

Native American and Indigenous Peoples Caucus Caucus Resources

Articles

Comeback as Re-Settlement: Detroit, Anti-Blackness, and Settler Colonialism from Social Science Research Council items

Books & Publications

“All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker
“The Sage is Ready to Come with Us” – Quote by Sandy Dixon, Chair Ethnic Studies, Cal Poly Pomona and IPC Co-Chair
There There by Tommy Orange
An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock , Dina Gilio-Whitaker
On Indian Ground: California: A Return to Indigenous Knowledge-Generating Hope, Leadership.., Joely Proudfit and Nicole Quinderro Myers-Lim
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming – Winona LaDuke

Websites

www.ncai.org

www.ictnews.org

https://native-land.ca

LGBTQIA+ Caucus Resources

Books & Publication

Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left – Emily Hobson
A Guide to Gender: The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook by Sam Killerman
A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni
What Does God Think? Transgender People and The Bible by Cheryl B. Evans
Trans Children’s Books Kyle Lukoff
Call Me Max (Max and Friends Book
When Aidan Became a Brother
Explosion at the Poem Factory
Max and the Talent Show (Max and Friends Book
Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights, with 21 Activities (For Kids series) by Jerome Pohlen (1 & 11)
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill & Rachel Pepper
Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children by Rachel Pepper
Trans Kids and Teens: Pride, Joy, and Families in Transition by Elijah C. Nealy
Gender Politics: Citizenship, Activism, and Sexual Diversity – Surya Monro
Come Together: The Years of Gay Liberation 1970-73 – Aubrey Walter.

Organizations

SONG

Teacher Ed Caucus Resources

Books & Publications

The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys by Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks
Pushout by Monique Morris
The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys by Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks
Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader, Jean Yu-Wen Shen Wu and Thomas Chen (Editors)
The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe, Rodolfo Acuña
An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights, with 21 Activities (For Kids series) by Jerome Pohlen
A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni
On Indian Ground: California: A Return to Indigenous Knowledge-Generating Hope, Leadership.., Joely Proudfit and Nicole Quinderro Myers-Lim

Videos

Dr. Russell Jeung/ Lessons From 50 Years of Asian American Studies for Asian American Theology
K-12 ethnic studies teacher preparation webinar series w/ Theresa Montano
Lemon Grove incident
Soy Chicano

Womxn’s Caucus Resources

Articles

Letter from a Birmingham jail by the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute (Stanford)
Othering and Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee

Podcasts

Under The Black Light with The African American Policy Forum

Videos

Othering & Belonging by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee

Books & Publications

Emergent Strategies and Pleasure Activism both by Adrienne Maree Brown
White by Law by Ian Haney-Lopez
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys by Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks
Justice Doesn’t Trickle Down: How Racialized and Gender Rules Are Holding Women Back by Andrea Flynn
Race and Equity Toolkit by Madison YWCA
Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, Beverly Guy Sheftall
This Bridge Called My Back, Cherie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective – Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys by Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks
*Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars’ Resistance and Renewal in Academia, – co-edited by Wei Ming Dariotis
Gender Shrapnel in the Academic Workplace by Ellen Cecilia Mayoc
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia
Gender Politics: Citizenship, Activism, and Sexual Diversity – Surya Monro
Come Together: The Years of Gay Liberation 1970-73 – Aubrey Walter

Save the Date!
2026 Equity Conference

Join Our Work!

Equity Conference