MINHAE SHIM ROTH
"While discrimination against BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities has existed in our country for centuries, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Elijah McClain and countless other Black people by police has increased the urgency for everyone to work together to address and dismantle racist systems. All of us can help by actively becoming anti-racist."
"In 1974, Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant in his early 20s, was accused and wrongfully convicted of a gangland murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown and sentenced to life in prison. After a series of investigative articles by journalist K.W. Lee of the Sacramento Union, a grassroots Free Chol Soo Lee movement led by Asian American activists mobilized to exonerate Chol Soo Lee, who was released from death row at the San Quentin State Prison in 1983."
THE DEBT TRAP: HOW COURT DEBT WIDENS THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP
SHELTERFORCE
(NATIONAL HOUSING INSTITUTE)
"Even though imprisonment for nonpayment of court debt was outlawed in a 1983 Supreme Court ruling, the practice persists due to legal loopholes...Organizations working to change the system of fees and fines, like the ACLU of Northern California, believe a major shift is needed to help Black Americans and other people of color out of the debt spiral that comes from legal financial obligations."
ABOUT ME
I'm a writer, journalist, and researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I write for national outlets like History, Good Housekeeping, and Glamour, along with local publications like The Oaklandside and Miami New Times. I’ve interviewed notable people like Patti Smith, Ed Asner, Michelle Buteau, and Aly Raisman.
I hold a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. My scholarship examines the intersections among the histories of law, psychiatry, architecture, and technology.
