Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Hamid Khan

Coalition Coordinator | Stop LAPD Spying

In collaboration with a diverse cross-section of individuals and groups, Hamid Khan challenges LA Police Department surveillance and profiling practices that criminalize benign and legal activity, normalize racial profiling, and render people in certain communities as criminal suspects. Khan has a long-standing and deep commitment to social justice for marginalized communities in Southern California. As founder and executive director of the South Asian Network, Khan helped to create the first community-based organization dedicated to informing and empowering South Asians in Southern California. Today, Khan coordinates the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.


Presentations from Facing Race 2016

Digital Jim Crow: Hi-Tech Policing, Racism and Resistance in the 21st Century

In the 19th century, Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation at the state and local level. By the 20th century these laws were replaced with discriminatory drug and crime policies that created a new, racially biased system of mass incarceration. From the increasing use of fusion centers to police technologies and predictive policing practices, the Internet and related digital technologies facilitate the speed, scale, and secrecy of policing -- and exacerbate racial bias. Across the country, communities of color are fighting back. Learn about the ways high-tech policing threatens racial justice, hear stories of resistance, and learn how you can protect your city from racial bias in high-tech policing.

Speakers: Malkia Cyril, Hamid Khan, Joseph Torres

Presentations from Facing Race 2014

Enemies of the State: Surveillance of Communities of Color

The NSA scandal came as a shock to many people because it revealed the lengths our government has gone to spy on U.S. residents and citizens. It also revealed how the government worked closely with telecom and tech companies to violate our civil liberties.  Our government has a long and shameful history of using surveillance to disrupt and discredit movements for racial justice lead by people off color. And government surveillance of communities of color continues to this day through law enforcement operations that racially profile people of color. During this session, we will discuss the current debate about reigning in the federal government spying operations and we will expose the history of surveillance in activist communities.

Speakers: Steven Renderos, Matt Cagle, Seeta Gangadharan, Hamid Khan