Redesign America with Mustafa Ali-Smith

On this month's episode of Redesign America, Mustafa Ali-Smith is joined by Taylor Bauldwin, who works at the intersection of food, tech, and the environment, to discuss environmental racism and injustice and its disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities. How did we get here? How have communities around the country been impacted by environmental racism and injustice? And what can we do to address it? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit redesignamerica.substack.com

On today's relaunch episode, host Mustafa Ali-Smith is joined by Katy Otto, Director of Communications at Juvenile Law Center, to discuss how the idea of Redesign America came to be, its focus, and why the podcast is more critical and urgent now than ever. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit redesignamerica.substack.com

2020 showed us many things: change, struggle, uncertainty, and so much more. For Redesign America, it was a moment of reflection on what this podcast can be and how it can help us make the world a better place. Listen to hear the updates for the podcast and what is in store for the podcast. Get on the email list at redesignamerica.substack.com

As more people are emerging into conversations of defunding, divesting, and dismantling from police departments and the institutions they represent, we need to understand how these conversations fit into the framework of abolition. On this episode, we are joined by Jeneisha Harris, organizer and activist, to discuss the history of policing, the differences between reform and abolition, and how abolition helps us to solve systemic problems. This episode reinforces the need for abolition in the fight for social justice, from policing to racial capitalism, and how each of us has a part to play in this movement.Resources:Jeneishaharris.comgideonsarmyunited.org/8 to abolitionThe Equity AllianceCritical Resistance Survived and punishedMovement for Black lives

Language conveys information about our attitudes, biases, and is a huge part of how we orient around issues of identity. Today, we are joined by Christopher Mendoza (@linguistpapi), a graduate student in Linguistics at Florida International University to talk about how to unpack the pervasive discourses of anti-Blackness within our communities. This episode interrogates the role of allies, most specifically non-Black Latinxs, in talking the language of intersectional movement building while centering the most marginalized as our political moment necessitates.

The Black Lives Matter Movement is an important one, but we do ourselves an injustice by suppressing some of its voices. In this episode, we are joined by Stephon Bradberry (@stephon_jb), Founder of We, Too, are America (@w2aa_org), to talk about the importance of critically acknowledging and uplifting all Black lives, not just some. This conversation looks at how our history has left queer, trans, and non-binary people out of our history despite their many contributions to it, the lack of attention they have received in the Black Lives Matter Movement, and how Black communities must address the violence against queer and trans people within their own community.