The new mural in the lobby of the McCarthy Center depicts the past, present, and future of San Francisco. It also reflects the ideas of Nico Bremond ’14.
When Bremond was invited to help plan the mural, he jumped. “A group of us did activities and exercises to get a consensus on the design and the message of the mural,” he said.
Their prompt: Imagine waking up to a just world. What does it look like?
In the mural, “people exit city hall and walk through a reimagined world,” said Bremond. “There’s a journey from left to right. On the left you see the tree of knowledge, books, fruit. You see the Ohlone. You see artists and activists — Audre Lord, Malcolm X, James Baldwin. You see musicians playing jazz in the Fillmore neighborhood, the Harlem of the West. You see the hills, the fog, the water, the coyote. This mural shows San Francisco as it was, as it is, and as we’d like it to be.”
Derick Brown, senior director of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, said the mural was a team effort. In June, McCarthy Center students, staff, faculty, and local community partners including Collective Impact, Bremond’s employer, gathered to design the mural.
Bremond worked at Collective Impact through service-learning classes while he was at USF. He was hired there full-time right after he graduated. At USF he majored in sociology and minored in African American Studies.
“At USF I struggled at first, but my professor, Stephanie Sears, and the Esther Madríz Diversity Scholars program helped me find my way and find my passion — critical race theory and grassroots community organizing,” he said. “I did my capstone thesis on how public schools can be dangerous for people of color. The schools feed the penal system.”
Bremond, who grew up in Oakland, said his professors helped him explore community organizations in San Francisco.
“There’s a reciprocal relationship between USF and these organizations,” he said. “Service learners in schools sometimes have a savior complex, but I learned at USF that the people in these communities are helping you just as much as you are helping them.”
Full story at usfca.edu.
This is beautiful. And it is a great exercise. “Imagine waking up to a just world. What does it look like?”
I think my vision would include more children and family.
Although I want also a kind world. And merciful.
Hip Hip Hooray-a sociology major.
The Catholic definition of Justice:
As a virtue, it is the constant and permanent determination to give everyone his or her rightful due. It is a habitual inclination of the will and therefore always recognizes each one’s rights, under any and all circumstances. The rights in question are whatever belongs to a person as an individual who is distinct from the one who practices justice. The essence of justice, then, as compared with charity, consists in the distinction between a person and his or her neighbor; whereas charity is based on the union existing between the one who loves and the person loved so that the practice of charity regards the neighbor as another self.
I suppose Mr. Bremond who helped plan that mural knows that Mission and Fillmore do not intersect and must be using it as a symbolic intersection of blacks and hispanics…at least I hope so…But he’d more likely find an example of the transcendent good he so desperately craves at an actual intersection in San Francisco just across from USF. At Parker and Fulton is the Carmelite monastery where all he seeks and aspires to is vibrantly alive and present. I fear that exchanging humility for the seductive feelings of pride in the progressive narratives might be just too much of a sacrifice to make though.
glad to know white Europeans
(do i repeat myself?) had so little
to do with the genesis & growth of
The City.
And where is the Christian vision of God’s true, authentic Divine Justice, in this Jesuit school mural? This highly dysfunctional, weird, so-called vision of “justice” does not include Christ and His followers. It does not depict the contributions of great Jesuits and Catholic religious leaders of long ago, to the Bay Area, either. Worthless.
That was not his assignment.
Let’s criticize people for not doing a job they were not given.
Worthless, for a Catholic school. And the mural certainly has nothing to do with historical truths of the past and present of SF, nor of a possible better future– nor of any Jesuit or Catholic contributions to the City. It is only about deviant CRT concepts.
No such thing as courses and majors in such subversive, anti-American, anti-Christian garbage as “critical race theory” and (subversive) “grassroots community organizing” at a good, authentic, Jesuit Catholic school. I suppose they also give out worthless “degrees” in “Marxism” and “Liberation Theology.” Garbage. Learn and follow Christ’s teachings instead!
Major is sociology with minor in African American Studies.
You should take your own advice on learning and following Christ’s teachings.
You are not Catholic or you would know, this garbage is totally insane for a Jesuit school! Subversive, anti-Christian, anti-American “hippie trash.”
Can we just skip to the worthless babble part?
How about a good Catholic mural to depict the tragedy of the horrific lack of rights and total injustice, to the Unborn Child?? The Unborn Child– created by God– has no rights at all, and is shamefully abandoned by our society, to live or to be killed, at the whim of the mother.
Whatever you are willing to fund
i think it was a misspelling
of Millard Fillmore
or Missin’ the Fillmore of
Bill Graham’s days.
where is Sanpaku when you need ’em?
He left out Doggie Diner
And where is the Catholic Faith in the Mural..oh that’s right its a Jesuit School so it is not a Catholic School.
USF is no longer a Catholic school. Bremond says he did his capstone thesis on “how public schools are dangerous to people of color,” and how “The schools feed the penal system.” Are Catholic schools likewise “feeding the penal system” with people of color? USF has become a Godless, immoral, anti-Christian, anti-American, radical political leftist indoctrination camp.
Ask the new, successful Black NYC Mayor, Eric Adams, if he thinks the public schools are “dangerous for people of color,” and “feed the penal system with Black people.”
High school counselors always encourage kids who are Black, and of other, non-white races, who may also come from troubled backgrounds– to stay in school, try hard to do well, stay away from all bad influences of crime, gangs, drugs, etc. in the streets, and keep on persevering, and do well. There are also many good scholarships available for Black and other non-white kids, who also may be underprivileged, to go to college! And Catholic schools also provide tuition scholarships to students of color who may be in need, for all grades, K-12, and for a Catholic college.
I cannot imagine why anyone would launch an attack like this on someone for doing a thesis on the well-known school to prison pipeline.
As Catholics, we are supposed to be visiting the imprisoned, but it is good also to keep people out of prison. That does not make you Godless or immoral. It is not anti-American or anti-Catholic.
Trying to help people live better, more productive lives and to help them overcome poverty, learning disabilities, mental illness, PTSD from unstable home lives etc is very Christian, very Catholic. It is not radical, or leftist. Many religious orders do that.
St. John Bosco made it his life’s mission.
” the well-known school to prison pipeline.” Call me ignorant then; I thought it was the well-known drop-out to prison pipeline. Please enlighten, and thanks in advance.
There is a lot online about it.
Perhaps it could be named better, but it means students get pushed out of school and pushed into the justice system. Kids get suspended or expelled and get a charge against them for whatever behavior they are being disciplined for.
Suspension is the number one predictor of whether a student will drop out with all the resulting consequence.
More schools are trying alternative means of discipline.
“Schook to prison pipeline?” No way. Stay in school, do not drop out, seek to persevere and be a success, even if you come from a troubled background. As I said– there is lots of help available. School drop-outs who get into trouble with gangs, drugs and crime in the streets, is the big problem. How about some good, common sense?
The first word in my Nov. 11th comment, at 4:22pm, was misspelled. It should be “School…”
Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. James 2:18
The mural fails to depict all the “critical” fecal matter on the streets.
” “I did my capstone thesis on how public schools can be dangerous for people of color. The schools feed the penal system.”” I for one would like to read his thesis. Lots of things can be dangerous to people of color. Drugs, unwed motherhood, gangs, loss of faith in Christ etc. These same things are dangerous to white people as well. Without reading his thesis, I cannot tell where and when and what factors in public schools are dangerous to people of color that are not dangerous to all people. Also, if there are elements of public education that stifle (?) people of color, is it the education or the family/neighborhood environment the child comes from that is the true culprit? As I said, would like to read this thesis.
There are some Blacks, other students of color, “LGBT” students, and “special needs” students, who say that if a Black or other disadvantaged student misbehaves or commits a crime in school, that student will receive a worse punishment than a White student who is not disadvantaged. And if Black students get punished a lot, they can end up in the prison system. Today, there is plenty of help available for disadvantaged students, lots of counseling, scholarships, etc. And all students should learn good behavior and good manners, responsibility, and to stay out of situations of trouble. Do not blame others if you misbehave or commit a crime– blame yourself, and shape up. There are many success stories of disadvantaged people from troubled backgrounds. Jewish people also, for centuries, have likewise suffered– and many have become big successes.
Forget justice… what does good art look like? It ain’t that.
Christ made it clear, there is really no “justice” in this world! This world is ruled by the Prince of Darkness. We cannot always count on others to be fair with us! We can only count on ourselves, to do the best we can, to live according to His teachings, and pray for God’s help in unfair situations. Christ didn’t get any “justice” either, when He was wrongfully betrayed, arrested, falsely charged, and nailed to a Cross! There is only one kind of true “justice,” Divine Justice, which comes from God! God has His own “Divine Justice,” in ways we cannot always see or understand. We must live by Faith, do our best, be brave and strong, and persevere. Our true “Justice” will be given to us by God, in the next world.
No that is not Catholic teaching.
Justice is one of the 4 Cardinal Virtues.
Justice is one of the four cardinal virtues, and we all must learn and practice them, by the help of God. However, there is a much higher kind of justice – “Divine Justice,” and it is from God. Ever since the fall of man, life has been really tough for man, on earth. Life and conditions on earth are fickle, changeable, and unreliable – and whether conditions are good or bad – everyone dies, in the end. We must work hard to be virtuous, to alleviate sufferings and injustices of our fellow man, by the help of God. But It is only in heavenly, eternal Life, that true divine justice reigns eternally. So, above all else, we should seek God, sanctification of our souls, and prepare for eternal life in Heaven.
DIVINE JUSTICE
The constant and unchanging will of God to give everyone what is due him or her. Every possible form of justice is possessed by God. He practices legal justice in that through the natural and moral law he co-ordinates creatures to the common good; distributive justice because he gives to his creatures everything they need to fulfill the purpose of their existence; remunerative justice because he rewards the good; and vindictive justice because he punishes the wicked
From the Catholic Dictionary
1807 Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion.” Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” “Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Being mean is not clever.
“Perhaps it could be named better, but it means students get pushed out of school and pushed into the justice system. Kids get suspended or expelled and get a charge against them for whatever behavior they are being disciplined for.” There is no reply button for me November 11, 2021 at 7:06 pm so I will ask me a question. And that is, what are the root causes of bad discipline among black students that lands them in suspension? Background: In the summer of 1969 I worked with Upward Bound and saw all kinds of discipline problems among some black males which included acting out, drugs and theft. Among some black counselors, particularly female, I witnessed a deep resentment toward whites, in fact shockingly so. I saw attempts to impose discipline by white counselors met with retaliation by black counselors and students. It made for an ugly summer. Back to the question: what is it about public schools that warrant the characterization as a pipeline to prison? Students already predisposed to unlawful/immoral behavior come to school and inevitably receive suspension etc. That does not in any sense mean that it is the fault of the public schools, but the uncontrollable behavior of students in those schools. At least that is what my experience has taught me. Am I wrong-headed? Please advise, and thanks in advance.
You can google it. You could contact Mr. Bremond and ask for a copy of his capstone project.