Joseph Richardson, professor of African-American Studies and Medical Anthropology at the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, tells Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas that it is high time for radical and revolutionary change, not only in policing but across all our institutions. He connects the layers of trauma experienced by black people through state-sanctioned and structural violence to the trauma inflicted across the globe by the same American systems and says our media does Americans a disservice by separating these two linked phenomena. He also stresses the very real physiological effects of existing in a constant state of fight or flight, the danger of ignoring economic inequality in the current conversation, and the need to see money in politics as a racial issue.
Gustavo Vargas, a member of the Bolivian immigrant community in the DC area and a member of the DMV Bolivia Solidarity Network explained the media blockade that has expanded in Bolivia since the coup and the proliferation of misinformation about the country, even as Western press reckon with their failure to accurately report the coup last year. He also draws parallels to over-policing, racism, and violence in Bolivia, perpetrated by the government supported by the US.
Margaret Kimberly, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of the book "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents" breaks down the difference between performative kente cloth on Democratic leaders and the real solidarity in the streets, and explains why she has hope ‒ and it ain’t Joe Biden. We need to be talking about real community control of the police, including hiring, firing and subpoenas, as well as prison abolition, the role of the federal government in escalating police violence and, once again, US imperial violence. Beware of incremental change or window dressings, even if they’re pushed by black politicians, and continue the grassroots organizing and demonstrating that’s actually making change. She also breaks down how economic and racial injustice were deliberately decoupled by dishonest leaders.
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